Latest / The Articulate Fly / S8, Ep 69: Navigating the Transition: Captain Brian Shumaker on Smallmouth Behavior and Fishing Techniques

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S8, Ep 69: Navigating the Transition: Captain Brian Shumaker on Smallmouth Behavior and Fishing Techniques · The Articulate Fly

• 0:04
  Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly.
• 0:06
  And we're back with another Pennsylvania Smallmouth Report with the man himself, Captain Brian Shumaker.
• 0:11
  Brian, how are you doing?
• 0:13
  I'm doing well, Marvin.
• 0:14
  How about yourself?
• 0:15
  Just trying to stay out of trouble.
• 0:16
  You know, it's kind of funny.
• 0:17
  We were talking before we started recording, and you're kind of.
• 0:20
  You have the weather that we want here in the south, but you're like three weeks ahead of us.
• 0:25
  Yeah, yeah.
• 0:26
  This, this, this week here starting out well.
• 0:30
  It started end of last week.
• 0:33
  We've got a rainy pattern coming in.
• 0:38
  It's coming in off the coast, so we've been having rain mist and we're actually cool temperatures are cold, if you want to call it that way.
• 0:49
  We've been in the 60s the last couple days.
• 0:53
  Tomorrow we're going to have rain and in the 50s.
• 0:57
  So I got to bundle up and dress up, throwing the water.
• 1:01
  Yeah, sounds like no bugs either.
• 1:03
  No, we're not getting the bugs.
• 1:06
  The water temperatures drop down.
• 1:08
  We're at 70 degrees as of today, surface temperature.
• 1:13
  And with the cold rain and the cold temperatures, we're probably going to drop down into the 60s.
• 1:20
  And so do you expect the bug fishing to come back if it warms up or you think you're probably pretty much done on that front?
• 1:26
  No, I think if we get, you know, we get the, what do they call it, Indian summer.
• 1:32
  If we get that Indian summer and we get the temperatures back up in the high 70s, low 80s, it'll warm back up and we'll be able to.
• 1:40
  We'll be able to throw some bugs and catch some fish.
• 1:45
  Gotcha.
• 1:45
  And you know, it's interesting too.
• 1:46
  We were also talking, you know, the days are noticeably shorter.
• 1:49
  You know, I suspect you're seeing the bass kind of moving around a little bit to different spots now, right?
• 1:55
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:56
  They're not, they're not really holding in the shallows much anymore.
• 2:01
  They're.
• 2:01
  They're kind of roaming around and moving into a little bit deeper water, into the pockets and stuff like that.
• 2:08
  Haven't really, it haven't really seen it yet as them schooling up like impacts that they do in the fall, but as the water temperature cools off some more, they'll start doing that.
• 2:22
  But yeah, they're.
• 2:24
  The majority of the fishing right now is pretty much is a streamer bite.
• 2:29
  Gotcha.
• 2:29
  So now you're not doing one guy on bugs and one guys on streamers.
• 2:32
  You're probably fishing two streamer rigs.
• 2:33
  Anything you kind of change up when you're kind of in this kind of funky shoulder season from kind of a tactics and approach.
• 2:41
  Yeah, it, right now it's kind of interesting.
• 2:44
  Instead of, I like throwing like size 2 streamers, clousers, what have you, but actually downsizing them to a size 4 right now has been very productive for us.
• 2:59
  And I like usually fishing an intermediate line, but we've been fishing them just straight on a floating line on a nine foot leader.
• 3:09
  Um, so it's like a slower descent.
• 3:13
  And you know, they want that pause.
• 3:15
  You gotta have that pause.
• 3:17
  And that's usually when they're getting bit real quick.
• 3:21
  The guy I had today is a single, single client.
• 3:26
  So I'm watching and I can see his line.
• 3:28
  When he gets a hit, it gets pulled.
• 3:30
  I said, you want to set the hook on that fish?
• 3:32
  He said, you see that?
• 3:33
  I said, buddy, I see everything.
• 3:36
  I said, I know when a fish hits that fly and then I know when your reaction's a little too slow.
• 3:42
  So I'll let you know when your reaction's a little too slow.
• 3:46
  He just laughs.
• 3:48
  Yeah, it's interesting.
• 3:49
  You know, I, you know, my experience with that is like watching white game changers disappear, right?
• 3:54
  And that's, you know, it's like, it's there, it's there, it's there and it's gone.
• 3:57
  You're like, what should I do?
• 3:57
  And you should, like, you should strip strike.
• 3:59
  Yeah, exactly.
• 4:01
  I had that, I had that on Friday.
• 4:04
  I had, I showed the guy how I fish a streamer and how I set the hook because he kept.
• 4:11
  And no offense to the trout fishermen, he's trout set on every one of them.
• 4:16
  I said, buddy, you got a strip strike and keep that rod rod low.
• 4:21
  And then once he started doing what I showed him, he says, man, this really works.
• 4:27
  I said, yeah, that's what I get paid for.
• 4:30
  Yeah, and so do you.
• 4:31
  You know what's the kind of.
• 4:32
  Cause one of the things I always seem to mess up when I'm streamer fishing is basically, you know, you got, you know, pretty heavy terminal tackle, right.
• 4:39
  So you can kind of pull them right on in.
• 4:40
  But I think I told you before we started recording, I was fishing in, in Tennessee, had a nice big brown on, and he jumped towards the boat and he was gone.
• 4:47
  You know, in terms of making that transition from the strip strike to basically getting the rod vertical and getting some tension on the, on the fish.
• 4:54
  Yeah, so what?
• 4:55
  Instead of once you do that strip strike?
• 4:59
  What I do is you strip strike at fly, but don't bring that Rod straight up.
• 5:04
  I come off to the side and kind of keep it, I don't know, be like a 45 degree angle and keep it between, like in the middle, between high and low.
• 5:16
  And just come up a little bit, but don't come up high with your rod.
• 5:22
  Just keep that and keep that pressure on them.
• 5:24
  And then if the fish decides he's going to turn or something, then you can take that rod and come over to the other side.
• 5:31
  But still try to keep that 45 degree angle and keep that pressure on the fish.
• 5:37
  Got it.
• 5:37
  So you're really trying to keep that rod bent pretty deeply.
• 5:40
  Let that thing do the work.
• 5:41
  Right, exactly.
• 5:43
  Let the rod do the work, you know, because I think the other.
• 5:49
  It's not really an issue, but I pinch all the barbs down on all my flies.
• 5:55
  Number one, it's for my safety, because I can't tell you how many times I've taken flies out of everywhere on my body.
• 6:03
  It's, it's for.
• 6:04
  And it also helps the fish to.
• 6:06
  Protects the fish.
• 6:07
  But if, if you give him a little bit of slack, you know, a little bit of give on that, they're down there shaking their head and eventually that fly is going to work loose.
• 6:19
  But if you can keep a little bit more pressure on that fish, it keeps that, you know, fly lodged in his mouth there.
• 6:27
  Even if he shakes.
• 6:29
  It's not that much like if you had a little bit of slack in your line where he gets more movement by, you know, shaking his head or swimming one way or the other.
• 6:39
  Because that fly, you know, will work loose with the barb pinched down.
• 6:45
  Got it.
• 6:45
  And so, you know, how long, you know, Brian, do you kind of expect, you know, the arc?
• 6:50
  I know you're done at the end of October, but, you know, what are you looking for?
• 6:53
  If we get Indian summer and the bugs come back, what do you think the next kind of two to three weeks on the water look like in Pennsylvania?
• 7:00
  You know, we're going to have real good water flows.
• 7:03
  And like I said, it'll be, it'll be a streamer bite.
• 7:07
  We get some warmer days and stuff, we'll be able to still throw some, some top water bugs there and just kind of work them slow.
• 7:15
  Um, don't give them a lot of movement.
• 7:17
  You know, give it a little pop and just let it dead drift.
• 7:20
  And give it a little pop and let it dead drift.
• 7:23
  Um, so if we get that Indian summer, we could have a combination of a little bit of top water.
• 7:28
  It's definitely going to be a streamer bite then too, as well.
• 7:33
  Got it.
• 7:33
  And so, you know, I know you're booked out for the rest of your smallmouth season and then you got a little bit of a break, you're gonna go do some redfishing.
• 7:40
  So that probably means, you know, if they're not in your boat and on your calendar, people won't see you till the 2027 show season.
• 7:47
  You want to let folks know where they can find you on the road during show season?
• 7:51
  Yeah, I'll be.
• 7:53
  I don't know.
• 7:54
  I can't give you the dates, but they can look it up.
• 7:58
  Be at the Virginia Fly and Wine festival.
• 8:01
  I'll be at the Edison Fly Fishing show.
• 8:04
  I'll be at the Lancaster Fly Fishing Show.
• 8:08
  And I'll be at the Maryland Fly Fishing Show.
• 8:12
  Well, there you go.
• 8:12
  Well, folks, as I always say, you owe it yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody.
• 8:17
  Tight lines, Brian.
• 8:19
  Tight lines.
• 8:19
  Marvin.