Latest / The Articulate Fly / S6, Ep 33: Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly

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S6, Ep 33: Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly · The Articulate Fly

• 0:03
  Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly,
• 0:06
  Marvin: and we're back with another Southwest
• 0:07
  Marvin: Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Riley. How are you doing, Matt?
• 0:11
  Matt: I'm doing great, Marvin. How are you?
• 0:13
  Marvin: As always, just trying to stay out of trouble and getting ready for the Easter Bunny.
• 0:18
  Matt: Yeah. Yeah, we, uh, the, uh, little guy got his picture taken with the Easter
• 0:24
  Matt: Bunny downtown last week. So, it's officially spring. Things are starting to happen.
• 0:30
  Marvin: Yeah, there you go. You didn't go to the hardware store and buy any chicks or ducklings, did you?
• 0:36
  Matt: I didn't. I can't speak for my wife, but I haven't gotten home yet.
• 0:41
  Marvin: Yeah, well, there you go. Well, you know, it's funny. We were talking before
• 0:43
  Marvin: we started recording, and, you know, weather kind of in our part of the world
• 0:47
  Marvin: has kind of been a little bit all over the place, but mercifully,
• 0:49
  Marvin: we've been getting a decent amount of rain.
• 0:53
  Matt: Yeah, I'm pretty happy. Of course, the last day I had on the river was kind of my springtime dream.
• 1:02
  Matt: You know, it's been, rivers have been full.
• 1:06
  Matt: You know, we've had fairly consistent rain, but nothing like, you know, crazy heavy.
• 1:11
  Matt: I wouldn't even call the rivers high. They're just real, real happy and a good place.
• 1:17
  Matt: We've had some, you know, every couple of days, some pretty cloudy,
• 1:21
  Matt: kind of drizzly weather.
• 1:23
  Matt: Weather uh yesterday we fished most of
• 1:25
  Matt: the day in the rain heavy overcast um
• 1:30
  Matt: filling some some bait fish flies that small mouth that have a great time um
• 1:38
  Matt: still be dry for the next couple of days with kind of temps and the like seasonable
• 1:44
  Matt: to slightly warm you know So 50 to 70 degree range.
• 1:50
  Matt: And then we got some more rain coming next week. So I think things are looking pretty good.
• 1:54
  Marvin: And so can you give us a little bit more detail on the pre-spawn Smalley front?
• 2:00
  Matt: Uh, yeah, we've, uh, you know, again, depending on where you are,
• 2:04
  Matt: um, water temps and, and, you know, day to day overnight lows and,
• 2:09
  Matt: and things like that are going to dictate where you start out water temp wise and where you end.
• 2:14
  Matt: And, you know, whether you have sun on the water or clouds, think to how much
• 2:21
  Matt: of a tail bump you get over the course of the day.
• 2:24
  Matt: But, you know, generally speaking in the high, high 40s to mid 50s range is
• 2:31
  Matt: where we've been at for the last week or so. And it's a really nice place to be.
• 2:37
  Matt: Fisher, real happy to chase flies, you know, certain days you need a little
• 2:41
  Matt: bit longer suspension, longer pause.
• 2:44
  Matt: Um, but you know, with a little bit of water in the river to, um,
• 2:49
  Matt: some pace to the, to the string flow, there's a kind of an incentive or a need
• 2:55
  Matt: for those fish to, to, uh, to eat and, and they're kind of pinned up and,
• 3:00
  Matt: and fairly predictable places too.
• 3:02
  Matt: So, like I said, I'm real happy on that front.
• 3:04
  Matt: We've mainly been able to avoid any kind of, you know, deep dredging at this point.
• 3:14
  Matt: Had a couple of days in the last week and a half, two weeks where we've had
• 3:19
  Matt: some, you know, cooler overnight temps.
• 3:22
  Matt: We're starting out fairly cold where we've had to drop down a little bit.
• 3:27
  Matt: But for the most part, um, swim flies, different streamers is,
• 3:32
  Matt: has kind of been where we've been, where we've been staying,
• 3:35
  Matt: which again is, is very happy place to be.
• 3:38
  Marvin: Uh, there you go. And got a question for you from Brenner. He wanted to get
• 3:42
  Marvin: your thoughts on your favorite, uh, crayfish pattern colors for small mouth.
• 3:47
  Matt: Yeah. Um, I, I keep it pretty simple. I guess this goes for most flies that I fish.
• 3:59
  Matt: I'm not a gotta-have-12-different-color-schemes-in-the-box kind of guy.
• 4:04
  Matt: I realistically fish maybe four or five different colors over the course of
• 4:11
  Matt: the whole year max for crayfish imitations.
• 4:15
  Matt: Um the the go-to is always going to be you know the crayfishy color kind of a tan brown um.
• 4:27
  Matt: Just kind of what people might call green pumpkin, a little bit of olive,
• 4:32
  Matt: you know, in the conventional world.
• 4:36
  Matt: Big fan of black, black and blue, black and purple is good.
• 4:41
  Matt: You've got a little bit of extra color staying in the water.
• 4:45
  Matt: And that's more or less just for some contrast and just showing up a little
• 4:50
  Matt: bit better, particularly in cooler water.
• 4:54
  Matt: I'm a believer in the fact that, you know, if the water's cold and you've got a little bit of stain,
• 5:03
  Matt: those fish, their reactive distance is a little bit lower or smaller when it's cold.
• 5:11
  Matt: Because then they're not going to like move a long distance to to take a fly and so it.
• 5:17
  Matt: Very basically kind of the sooner they can become aware
• 5:20
  Matt: of that prey item in
• 5:24
  Matt: their sphere of awareness um the easier it is for them to catch or or go grab
• 5:30
  Matt: if it's if it's real cold and they're not you know moving around real quickly
• 5:34
  Matt: um so black and blue black black and purple um you know Purple is always a good
• 5:41
  Matt: kind of accent color for smallmouth,
• 5:43
  Matt: particularly on crayfish flies, I think.
• 5:45
  Matt: So like kind of a brownish purple, again, what they call peanut butter and jelly
• 5:50
  Matt: in the conventional world with tube jigs and jigging pigs and stuff like that.
• 5:56
  Matt: That um and uh you know i guess maybe another color scheme i guess you could
• 6:04
  Matt: call it would be just that typical kind of tan brown with a little more detail
• 6:10
  Matt: um this is something that i do.
• 6:13
  Matt: Um just more or less to help me and i don't think it hurts um for the fish um
• 6:20
  Matt: as as the water drops Pops out later in the spring or into the summer,
• 6:24
  Matt: I'll start tying my crayfish flies a little bit lighter than my standard kind of springtime bugs.
• 6:33
  Matt: So if I put a large or an extra large dumbbell eye on a size two or one or one
• 6:41
  Matt: odd crayfish, I might put a medium on that size two.
• 6:47
  Matt: And just to help me keep track of them i'll uh i'll add like a little kind of light orange,
• 6:55
  Matt: nail polish to the tips of the claws on them
• 6:57
  Matt: just to help me keep track of which ones are which and you know the other way
• 7:02
  Matt: to think about that is uh you know as the water gets a little bit clearer a
• 7:07
  Matt: little bit of detail isn't isn't a bad thing so maybe that's another color scheme
• 7:12
  Matt: and then And the other one that's relevant would be,
• 7:18
  Matt: You know, late, late June or early July when we're having a crayfish molt and
• 7:25
  Matt: the fish can tend to key in on crayfish pretty heavily for a week or week and a half or two.
• 7:32
  Matt: Something a little bit lighter, like more of a peachy tan kind of color is a good one to have.
• 7:39
  Matt: I mean, a lot of times they'll eat the standard fare then too,
• 7:43
  Matt: but that just might be a little bit more realistic.
• 7:48
  Matt: But yeah, I would say don't, don't overcomplicate it too much.
• 7:51
  Matt: You know, look at the food that matches colors and, you know,
• 7:55
  Matt: to that end, you know, some creeks, some rivers do have fairly unique,
• 8:00
  Matt: uh, uniquely colored crayfish.
• 8:02
  Matt: So maybe, maybe check into that.
• 8:05
  Matt: Um, but otherwise it's just natural colors. And then, you know,
• 8:09
  Matt: maybe a little, uh, kind of a secondary color just for different water conditions,
• 8:13
  Matt: you know, like those dark contrasted colors.
• 8:17
  Marvin: Got it. And, you know, do you like, you know, you know, different platforms
• 8:22
  Marvin: in terms of presentation?
• 8:24
  Marvin: Like, is it for you mostly fishing a kind of a jig style presentation or do
• 8:28
  Marvin: you have some other kind of presentation flavors you like with your crayfish?
• 8:33
  Matt: Um, yeah, so, so there's a kind of two main ways that I, that I fish them.
• 8:41
  Matt: One would be just a, you know, a jig.
• 8:44
  Matt: Um, and I, I talk about conventional gear a lot because I do both,
• 8:47
  Matt: um, a lot, but you know, that typical, you know, my favorite platform,
• 8:53
  Matt: I guess is, is the claw dad trucks pattern.
• 8:56
  Matt: Um, and I, I tie a pile of different kind of variations on it.
• 9:01
  Matt: To hit um but that's a that's a jake
• 9:04
  Matt: style grudging um bug with
• 9:08
  Matt: dumbbell eyes and not a lot of buoyancy um
• 9:11
  Matt: that to get down fairly quickly you're gonna fish
• 9:14
  Matt: it with a leader that's fairly small in diameter
• 9:17
  Matt: in the in the lower half
• 9:20
  Matt: just to help it get down a little bit um and
• 9:24
  Matt: yeah your fish i fish those on floating lines um just
• 9:27
  Matt: so that you're you can really fish the
• 9:30
  Matt: fly as opposed to a sink
• 9:33
  Matt: tip or an intermediate or something where there's water tension
• 9:36
  Matt: on the line dragging the fly around and um the uh necessary you can use the
• 9:43
  Matt: tip of the fly line which should also be a fairly visible um fly line you know
• 9:53
  Matt: heavy-headed streamer line um Um,
• 9:56
  Matt: something that I have kind of come into my program lately is, um,
• 10:02
  Matt: I guess it was maybe two years ago, scientific anglers changed the color of
• 10:07
  Matt: the Titan long streamer line, which is the one I, I really like for floating line.
• 10:13
  Matt: And now they've got kind of a like camo dark brown olives tip.
• 10:20
  Matt: Which is not what you want if you're trying to use your fly line tip as an indicator.
• 10:25
  Matt: So lines like the older Titanese, the Bass Bug, which is a heavy-headed fly
• 10:33
  Matt: line that's a wider, more visible color, are good.
• 10:38
  Matt: You're just kind of bouncing them on the bottom, watching the fly line tip for
• 10:42
  Matt: any kind of stop or twitch.
• 10:45
  Matt: Or there's some timing involved there where you want to try to identify when that fly hits bottom.
• 10:54
  Matt: And just bump it either with a strip or a rod tip jig or a little mend,
• 10:59
  Matt: you know, as soon as you see that, just to hop it up off the bottom.
• 11:03
  Matt: That'll keep it from getting snagged. If you see kind of a sharper twit or pop,
• 11:09
  Matt: or if you go to mend it or jig it or whatever,
• 11:13
  Matt: when you see that line lines start to slow and you
• 11:15
  Matt: feel some resistance or or something fishy you
• 11:18
  Matt: know then you're just giving them the the bill bands with the
• 11:21
  Matt: rod after stripping the the slack in um
• 11:25
  Matt: that's that one way to go about it the other
• 11:28
  Matt: way um that that i
• 11:30
  Matt: like to do it is and and do it with the same
• 11:33
  Matt: fly more or less you just change things up a little bit a
• 11:36
  Matt: little bit lighter dumbbell eyes um you
• 11:40
  Matt: can go bigger um in diameter on the rubber
• 11:42
  Matt: leg size so instead of fishing like a medium rubber leg
• 11:45
  Matt: you fish a large rubber leg um which gives
• 11:48
  Matt: the fly a little more buoyancy in the water or a little more drag as it as it
• 11:53
  Matt: sinks and you can kind of swim those a little bit more um as as the water warms
• 11:59
  Matt: up it it but if it's you know if if for some reason you feel the need to fish a crayfish fish, um,
• 12:07
  Matt: and not be on the bottom, um, which, which again can come into play kind of
• 12:12
  Matt: like late spring at times, early summer.
• 12:16
  Matt: Um, you can fish those up a little bit larger diameter leader to again,
• 12:21
  Matt: just for some drag, keep it up off the bottom a little bit, suspended a little bit more.
• 12:27
  Matt: Um, the other fly that I do employ a fair bit in that situation,
• 12:32
  Matt: which I, uh, you know, kind of from,
• 12:38
  Matt: one perspective, I kind of,
• 12:44
  Matt: don't understand what it is about the fly but um those tequilis the the fully mill pattern um.
• 12:53
  Matt: Is a is a is a great one when fish
• 12:57
  Matt: are just being kind of lethargic um moody
• 13:00
  Matt: and it it really does not look
• 13:03
  Matt: much like a crayfish at all but i think they eat them as crayfish
• 13:06
  Matt: um and that that fly kind
• 13:09
  Matt: of again employs some of the same uh tying
• 13:13
  Matt: strategies as as i mentioned in kind
• 13:16
  Matt: of my more buoyant uh whim crayfish kind
• 13:20
  Matt: of style with the claw dad where it's got
• 13:22
  Matt: uh three pairs of two rubber legs that
• 13:25
  Matt: just kind of stick out perpendicular to the body kind of
• 13:29
  Matt: act as a parachute a little bit um some marabou um a really kind of like bushy
• 13:35
  Matt: body material material and not a ton of weight but enough to get it down in
• 13:39
  Matt: the water column and those you know you can you can dead drift you can fish
• 13:43
  Matt: them a lot slower but you can kind of fish them like.
• 13:46
  Matt: Like lower middle water column and uh that's that's a good one too um you can
• 13:53
  Matt: mess with those colors you know the standard that you buy is like a copper with
• 13:58
  Matt: yellow legs and yellow black tail You know,
• 14:02
  Matt: I, I, I'll fish some with the kind of more muted kind of root beer-y tan body with,
• 14:08
  Matt: with like peach or, or brown,
• 14:11
  Matt: uh, marabou and some different color, color rubber legs.
• 14:15
  Matt: Um, not a bad idea. Just kind of a, a buggy, you know, smaller,
• 14:21
  Matt: you know, more subtle crayfish, I guess.
• 14:24
  Matt: Um, yeah, that's, that's, that's kind of where I, I tend to live.
• 14:28
  Matt: I, I'm really not a guy that likes to spend a long time, uh,
• 14:33
  Matt: tying crayfish flies because you will leave a lot of them on the bottom and
• 14:38
  Matt: it just hurts too bad to spend an hour and, uh,
• 14:42
  Matt: you know, eight different materials on a crayfish and then snag them up on the second cast.
• 14:48
  Marvin: You don't do that. Only your clients, right?
• 14:51
  Matt: Yeah. I've never, I haven't lost a fly since I was 12.
• 14:55
  Marvin: Yeah, there you go. Well, you know, folks, we love questions on the Articulate
• 14:58
  Marvin: Fly. You can email them to us or DM us on social media, whatever is easiest for you.
• 15:03
  Marvin: And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag.
• 15:06
  Marvin: And we're going to draw in for some cool stuff from Matt at the end of the season.
• 15:09
  Marvin: And Matt, before I let you go, because I just saw your email,
• 15:11
  Marvin: I know you've got some last minute pre-spawn Somali openings,
• 15:14
  Marvin: but why don't you let folks know kind of what you have in your calendar,
• 15:17
  Marvin: how to reach out and all that kind of good stuff.
• 15:20
  Matt: Yeah good call man i guess we nailed the timing on that one um i had uh three days just pop open um,
• 15:29
  Matt: some folks had to move their their calendar around kind of prime pre-spawn streamer
• 15:35
  Matt: fishing small mouth days and those are april 3rd and the 8th and the 9th so
• 15:42
  Matt: not that far off but i mean right right in the sweet spot of,
• 15:46
  Matt: you know, central really starting to blow up right now.
• 15:50
  Matt: They're getting real fat because, um, you know, they're starting to chase it.
• 15:54
  Matt: He a lot water still fairly cold.
• 15:57
  Matt: Um, they're just going to get heavier. Um,
• 16:00
  Matt: and, uh, with the, the water we have in the river right now and the kind of
• 16:06
  Matt: consistent kind of rainy, wet, cloudy weather we're, we're having,
• 16:11
  Matt: um, things, things have been real nice.
• 16:14
  Matt: So, um, those are, those are there.
• 16:16
  Matt: I do have like two other dates that just opened up for the rest of the year.
• 16:22
  Matt: I think they're July 30th and September 29th or 30th.
• 16:28
  Matt: Um, but other than that, we're pretty much taken care of on the small mouth front.
• 16:33
  Matt: And, uh, we are starting to book some musky stuff for the fall winter.
• 16:38
  Matt: Um, always booking trout trips. We've had some really cool dry fly days.
• 16:43
  Matt: Days, um, the last week or so.
• 16:46
  Matt: And, uh, that's only going to get better through, you know, May, June.
• 16:51
  Matt: And then, uh, as the summer wears on, you know, terrestrial attractor dry fly
• 16:57
  Matt: kind of stuff is going to come into effect.
• 16:59
  Matt: So booking a lot of stuff, but the small mouth stuff's real limited.
• 17:03
  Matt: So if you want to get out and poke some small mouth this year, give me a shout.
• 17:07
  Matt: And I've got got a couple of things i can do with the calendar to to get you
• 17:11
  Matt: out but um yeah contact info is on the website that's matt riley fly fishing.com
• 17:17
  Matt: and just reach out however you feel best.
• 17:20
  Marvin: Yeah well there you go we'll listen folks show it to yourself to get out there
• 17:24
  Marvin: and catch a few tight lines everybody tight lines matt thanks marvis.