Transcript: Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly
S6, Ep 5: Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly
2024, Marvin S. Cash
The Articulate Fly
http://www.thearticulatefly.com
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly, and we're back with the first Southwest Virginia Fisherman Reporter of the Year with Matt Riley. Matt, how you doing?
Matt:
[0:13] I'm doing good, Marvin. How are you?
Marvin:
[0:15] Just trying to stay out of trouble. Was Santa Claus good to you?
Matt:
[0:19] Santa Claus was good to us. I was actually laid up on Christmas, but collectively we had a good holiday and got to see all our family, and the little guy had a good first Christmas I think too so yeah, can't complain Yeah, that's good stuff and you know, we were talking before we started recording you will not be on the water fishing for a few days, Yeah, we got hammered yesterday Yesterday, probably two inches of rain.
We got some snow today and last night, and we're looking to get maybe another half inch of rain later this week and into the weekend.
Calling for some pretty brutal winter weather here, too.
Looks like about half the next week's going to be below freezing, and we've got some real heavy winds intermittently for the next week or so.
Um, as far as I can tell, so we're, uh, potentially knocking back for a little bit, um, kind of looking forward to seasons come and getting ready and, um, you know, all that stuff.
So not a bad, not a bad thing.
Marvin:
[1:38] Yeah. And so, you know, as that, you know, high water comes down and, you know, you're going to have this cold temperatures, which may have, I guess, maybe an added benefit of, uh, pushing those guys into their wintering holes if they're not already there for sure.
But, you know, what does that do kind of coming out on the other side of high water on the muskie front?
Matt:
[1:56] Yeah so i i i very much like high water um musky fishing it just particularly on the new river where we've got some big you know big wide stretches of river where fish can kind of spread out and low water it can be kind of tough especially if you're working with somebody somebody you know new new musky angler or something you don't can't get a 70 80 foot cast you know it's kind of nice to have uh higher water that'll you know quote unquote push fish to the banks make them a little more predictable um just make the river a little more full um but certainly you know i bet we see our coldest water temps here in the next week or two um of the year and that may may linger it depends sometimes we see that in the early February sometimes don't um winters have just been a lot less predictable here recently but um colder that water is and the higher it is the more um the more averse the fish tend to be to current you know you really have to to look for the, you know, well-protected areas, partially because of, you know, just the fish's, you know, need for survival, but also because, you know.
[3:26] It helps a lot of days to be able to fish pretty slow.
So if you can find very protected, kind of primo winter water and work flies real slow, lower in the water column, that's kind of the way to go, I tend to think.
Marvin:
[3:45] Yeah. And so from a fly front, that probably means what you're fishing slightly more buoyant flies with a lot of deer hair. So they kind of hang a little bit.
Matt:
[3:52] It um yeah there's i mean there's kind of two ways you can go about it so um in terms of.
[4:00] You know one thing don't talk a lot about this um a lot of you're talking about fly fishing for muskies a lot of the fly patterns fall into if you had to classify them like you do conventional lures they fall into the the glide bait um kind of category it's a little bit a little bit cliche to talk about glide flies is just you know most musky flies behave in a similar way bufords and t-bones and you know any any of those smaller kind of reverse hollow tide flies with a bulky head they tend to be designed to jackknife you know side to side walk the dog kind of show a profile um and so flies yeah you're right with with a lot of buoyancy maybe a denser um buford head or or uh you know just more more butt in your in your bucktail tied in um when you're hollow tying that that'll keep a fly you know from sinking quickly on a sinking line and allow you to have more hang time um but the other thing you can do you know you can also lighten up your lines I, um, use less dense fly lines like the, uh, you know, an I-3-5, um, scientific anglers line is something I use a lot in low water. Um.
[5:26] Or the next one up just to slow your sink rate.
And in the conventional world, a lot of guys in the dead of winter use what they call sucker baits or sucker-style lures that I call them pull baits too.
Basically, they're rubber or epoxy or hard-bodied with curly tails, you know, lures that you basically just reel steady close to the bottom.
So another thing you could do with the fly is go with a line that's not going to sink real fast, but it's definitely going to get a fly down there and then have one that's, you know, not super buoyant that will sink, you know, not on plane with the fly line, but faster than, say, a big Buford or something.
And then just kind of maintain a steady pull retrieve with a broadside shot here and there. That's another thing that you can play with.
But the name of the game when things are real cold is at least you're starting the day.
I tend to start the day a little slower. Or clearer water changes that a little bit.
[6:52] Muskies are...
Very, very comfortable in cold water. So even in real, real kind of basement cold water temps, if you have gin clear water, which we won't for a little while, you know, you don't necessarily have to fish really slow.
Clear it is kind of across the board, the faster I tend to go with the qualification that if it's the dead of winter and we're dealing with, you know, 30 some degree water temps.
If I'm not getting a lot of play with that, you know, I'm definitely going to slow down, you know, fairly quickly.
But that's something to keep in the back of your head, too.
Marvin:
[7:34] Yeah, and so, you know, obviously, cold water kind of slows metabolism down.
But, you know, when they're hunkered down for four or five days, kind of like they will be after this water works its way out of the system, are they a little bit hungrier and a little bit chasier, kind of to your point?
Maybe not, you know, clear water to the side?
Matt:
[7:52] Yeah, they definitely can be. Of course, they eat plenty during high water events, too, or particularly during the rise like yesterday.
We probably saw, we did see some higher water and some dirtier water.
Um and it it it got pretty high yesterday and last night um and they will likely hunker down for a couple of days as things kind of drop out um particularly since we're going to have some kind of post-funnel weather here with with high winds and sun and um but uh you know it's very very possible um to catch fish and they definitely eat in in in dirty very dirty water but when we do have these kind of flooding events they they definitely do kind of hunker down for a couple days and that first day where the water kind of getting you know it's not clear it's not like cloudy it's just still kind of dingy but but clearing up um that that can be really good and And that kind of transcends species, I think.
Marvin:
[9:10] Yeah, it kind of makes me think about trout fishing in that situation, like kind of right before a runoff in Montana.
It's like, if you can see your boots, you're pretty much good to go.
Matt:
[9:20] Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm thinking back a couple of years ago.
I want to say it was early February, pretty cold water.
We had less than probably six inches of visibility on the river.
It was rising and had just kind of peaked, not as high as it did yesterday, but probably around 12,000 or something like that.
One of my guys got a 47.5-inch fish on a Buford that we had tied because we knew it was going to be real dark, black fly with some contrasting flash.
And that, uh, in those situations, you know, the dirtier the water, the slower you generally want to finish, particularly if it's cold.
Um, they're just, they, they have no problem locating food, but, uh, but you do, I think, tend to want to slow it down a little bit for them.
Marvin:
[10:21] Got it. And, you know, folks, we love questions at the Articulate Fly.
You can email them to us or DM us on social media.
And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly Fly Swag.
And we're going to enter your drawing for some cool stuff from Matt at the end of 2024.
And Matt, before I let you go, I know you mentioned you were going to be at the Cincinnati Fly Fishing Show. You want to let folks know about that?
Matt:
[10:42] Yeah, it's the first Saturday in February.
It's a one-day show, but one I haven't done before.
I got an invitation to go several months ago, and it's looking like it's going to be a good one.
And a lot of, you know, kind of Midwestern vendors that I haven't necessarily met before and potentially a different market that I typically do shows with them. So, excited about that one.
No talks or anything going on at that one for me, but definitely one worth checking out if you're in that vicinity.
Marvin:
[11:25] Yeah, it's interesting. Interesting. I know a fair number of like Western North Carolina, East Tennessee folks go up to Cincinnati because, you know, us mid-Atlantic people have to understand that's actually not a horrible drive time from Cincinnati down to our part of the world.
Matt:
[11:38] No, I think it's going to take me a little under five hours to get there, which really isn't too bad.
I mean, it's five hours is about my drive to Richmond.
So I'm accustomed to doing that for shows, no doubt.
Marvin:
[11:56] Yeah. And it's funny, I'll actually be at the Bobbin in the Hood event in Michigan that weekend.
But yeah, before I let you go, Matt, you want to let folks know, and I would encourage people, if he's going to a show in Cincinnati and you want to fish with him, I would encourage you to reach out to him before then.
But you want to let folks know kind of what you've got available and how to get in touch and all that kind of good stuff?
Matt:
[12:19] Yeah, it has got a couple musky dates left before March or mid-March, I guess, probably when I'll cut it off.
Planned on cutting it off earlier, but the way this winter's going compared to last winter, it looks like it might be a little bit later of a season.
Um but i think i i've got a couple dozen smallmouth dates left between march and october um so most of those are um i'd say like march march and july um prime pre-spawn and and prime summer um so if any of that interests you definitely reach out um i still got some folks kicking some dates around so it probably won't take a whole lot longer to to fill them up but yeah definitely reach out and.
[13:21] Like always i always tell people um because things tend to go pretty quickly um always ask just because dates do come available kind of last minute or on a rolling rolling basis and if nothing else um it's good to get acquainted with people and talk to new folks and figure out um you know what cool adventures we can plan for the future so if if you're interested in anything just give me a holler and i'd love to talk to you yeah and trout fishing is always an option too right trout fishing is always an option i've got a couple of guys on deck that that are very dialed in on the mountain streams and the tailwaters that can get you taken care of there. And I'll do some of that, too.
I've just gotten real busy with other stuff, and I'm very wary of spreading myself too thin.
So, yeah, that's always good.
Marvin:
[14:20] Well, there you go. Well, listen, I want to wish everyone a happy 2024, happy new year, and I hope it's a little chilly right now, So go tie flies or go to a fly fishing show tight lines everybody tight lines Matt Thanks Marvin.
Matt:
[14:34] Happy New Year.