Transcript: Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly
S5, Ep 149: Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly
2023, 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 another Southwest Virginia fishing report with Matt Riley. How you doing, Matt?
Matt:
[0:12] I'm doing great, Marvin. How are you?
Marvin:
[0:14] As always, just trying to stay out of trouble, and you sounded slightly bummed out when we talked a little bit earlier that while the rain is super welcome in our neck of the woods, it's kind of boogered up the fishing a little bit.
Matt:
[0:28] It has probably, I would say, it's probably less the rain and more the big cold front we had come through Sunday night, evening to overnight, but we got a fair amount of rain locally.
I would guess maybe a half inch or so, but there was a lot of like Western North Carolina, you know, upper New River watershed rain.
I think there were a couple inches that fell up there.
So whole system is pretty much been impacted varying degrees of clarity as you move down the river.
There's a couple of pockets, places we've been able to find good conditions of fish, but yeah, big cold front I think has kind of tucked them in a little bit too.
It's been a little challenging the last couple of days, but like you said, the rain is very welcome and it's looking like we might get another little shot over the weekend.
And so hopefully we kind of stay at, uh, at a full, you know, average seasonal, the full level for, you know, at least a little while.
Marvin:
[1:51] Yeah. It's kind of funny. Cause I always believe it seems like I, um, this, you know, I sort of remember this from, you know, growing up in the area, but, uh, every time I come over to your side of the mountain to go fish and I was like, damn, it's got to be at least 10 degrees colder over there.
Matt:
[2:05] It is. That's, you know, unfortunately or fortunately, you know, sometimes the year, it's, it's, It's just something that that we deal with, you know, there are a lot of days where, you know, the high in in Blacksburg or somewhere on the news is 36 and I look at, you know, the cannon or Lynchburg and it's, you know, 46 and definitely, definitely adds a little little element of challenge to it, but, you know, that's a.
It's not always bad.
Marvin:
[2:47] Yeah, and I don't want to get in trouble for talking about covering water, but is the colder water going to help you fish fewer places with higher certainty in the future here?
Matt:
[3:03] Oh, certainly, yeah. I mean, we've been, I really, you can kind of count on, I tend to think about Thanksgiving, you know, three quarters of the way through the month of November to kind of get us in that realm, usually kind of low to, certainly low 40s, mid 40s water temps will certainly, start to concentrate on, but, you know, it's, it's usually some time in there, you know, late November and, and we've, we've been hanging in that range, you know, even with some 20 degree overnights, 25 degree overnights, we've been seeing, you know, still low to mid forties, It's been sunny the last couple of days since it got cold, but late last week, it was in the 50s and 60s and sunny.
So we're still so pretty warm. It's not like we're in winter yet.
But yeah, they certainly have started to condense.
Marvin:
[4:17] Yeah. And in terms of, you know, I know we're always looking for kind of that nice kind of murky, greenish water, you know, is this rain going to kind of help set that up with the temperatures, or do we need to wait just a little bit longer?
Matt:
[4:30] It'll probably be a little bit longer. I mean, we've got murky water, but it's just a little bit more brown than green at the moment.
[4:41] That's just tributaries here and there.
The upper new is pretty brown right now. That's just a product.
It doesn't have that buffer of 20-mile long reservoir or to keep it running relatively clear.
I've said it before, but one of the main differences between the upper new and the lower new, is just that when we get a lot of rain, none of the reservoirs on the upper new are big enough to not behave like it's part of the river.
You know, Claytor Lake behaves like part of the river if you get an absolute ton of water coming through.
But you know, a couple thousand cubic feet, inch or two of rain here and there, it'll start to push a lot of water and dirty water into the lake.
But still, you know, 90-95% of the volume of the Lower New is just water coming out of the, the, uh, lower end equator lake, and that's going to be pretty clear.
So that's a, you know, mechanism that we can use to our advantage, uh, when we have stuff like this happening.
Marvin:
[6:03] Yeah. And so as the, as things get colder and, you know, the fish are kind of moving to where they want to hang out for the winter, do you find them, you know, in general to be less chasey?
You know, I guess it's kind of my way of asking kind of, you know, is there any kind of transition and kind of tactics that you're using or is everyday difference.
So if you get a sunny day and they find shallow water and they want to warm up a little bit, that's great.
Um, or is it, you know, slow it down and just, you got to hang flies in their face, uh, to get them to eat.
Matt:
[6:33] Yeah, I mean, I think that's just a day to day thing. I mean the way, uh, I mean, for example, you know, again, late last week we still had pretty clear water.
Um, water temps really haven't changed that much. Um, maybe, maybe they changed a fair bit, um, overnight last night, but, um, you know, for the last week or so, they've been in that mid, mid forties range.
Um, you know, it was lowering clear and brighter.
They were certainly, you know, willing to chase a little bit, but, you know, move in a little quicker and, you know, we get that, that hammer, the cold front dropped and they're just not quite as excitable, or at least it won't be for a couple of days as that wears off.
[7:29] And we get, you know, we get warmer and the pressure comes down a little bit, but it's just kind of a day-to-day thing.
And the nice thing about knowing the river and knowing where the fish are concentrated, where you should be moving fish, is that it's, you're not getting much feedback, you know.
No feedback is not no feedback, you know. not moving a fish means that you're not, you're not doing something right.
Or, you know, sometimes they're just not going to follow and they're going to eat or not, you know, so it's just that, that helps to have the confidence and fish in areas where you know exactly where the fish are and being able to, you know, throw something in there and it doesn't work, you know, have the confidence to say, he, he should, he should have reacted to that.
Let's, let's change some up and do something different.
Marvin:
[8:27] Got it. And you know, it's interesting cause we talked about this with, uh, or I did, you didn't, uh, with Ellis, uh, last time about, uh, clear water tactics and musky.
And I mean, do you generally, yeah. When the water's clear, do you generally try tactics that are going to try to get them to, I guess, for lack of a better word, have more of a reaction bite and eat far away from the boat, so your cover doesn't get blown or is that really not an issue?
Matt:
[8:54] I mean, the classic fishing guide answer is it depends and it always does, but the, you know, it varies from fish to fish, attitude to attitude, you know, and pretty much, you know, the hotter the fish, the less they are aware of their surroundings, generally speaking.
And, you know, all the last month or two, I mean, I've had tons of fish eat within 10 feet of the boat, gin clear water, sun, you know, the best thing you can do.
And this, I think pretty much goes for all of the time.
And I can't remember if I said this or not before on here, but I almost always am having and people are trying to have people.
[9:50] Move, move their retrieve through some kind of speed progression, um, you know, throughout the retrieve.
So you make gas 70, 80 foot cast, you start, you know, whatever speed you feel like you need to start at some days, you know, we're burning them right out of the gate.
[10:14] Sometimes you're kind of starting off with that, you know, sort of average taste, single hand erratic retrieve and, um, just like with all streamer fishing there, there's a lot of imagination and make believe that goes into successful muskie fishing.
And that's just, you know, imagining and believing that there's a fish, that there's eyes on your fly all the time.
Um, particularly when it's low and clear, I like to have that thing speeding up substantially by the time it gets about halfway to the boat.
Boat and certainly, you know, hopefully moving pretty quick by the time it gets to the boat.
The idea being that if, uh, you know, you make an 80 foot cast, you get 10 strips in, fish picks it up, starts following it.
If it stays moving that same speed for the next 60 feet, chances are the fish will probably peel off before it gets to the boat or it'll follow to the boat and then spook off, you know, 10, 15 feet away from the boat, cause it's just kind of looking for an excuse to not eat it.
Um, and so if you can, if you can progressively speed that fly up, you're either.
[11:29] Either the fish is going to reciprocate that level of engagement, and you're going to have a hotter fish at the boat, they're either going to eat it because they get jacked up enough to chase down and eat it, or you're going to have a hotter fish that you would otherwise by the time that fly gets to the boat, you stand a better chance of converting them there.
If they're not going to reciprocate, then they're probably not going to eat anyway, way, and you'll probably just leave that fish in the dust. You're flying.
And that's it. But it's worth doing.
I really learned that lesson one day. I was fishing with a friend of mine from East Tennessee.
We had moved like 12, 13 fish in the morning, and he just couldn't get them to eat.
And I don't think I said anything, but I was just sitting there thinking like, man, we need to do something different.
And, um, The, uh, you know, minute he got frustrated and, uh, popped in the rower seat, um, I basically started bombing casts and, and doing that, you know, going from like relatively quick to like pretty much a burn by the time it got 50 feet, you know, halfway back to the boat and, uh, Yeah, I caught a fish on like the second cast.
So, that's kind of how I think about it.
[12:56] As things get colder, that changes a little bit.
I tell people you can never move a fly too fast for a musty.
They always have the capability of... I've caught fish on a two-hand burn in 34-degree water. It's clear.
[13:16] They have the capability. Sometimes they're just not in that booth though.
You know, real low queer and really cold water. Sometimes you do just kind of have to hang it in their face.
And you do stand very little chance at the boat. And that's where things change a little bit.
I mean, yeah, you just kind of have to think about all those things and have confidence in what you're doing. That is going to pay off at some point.
Marvin:
[13:44] Well, there you go. And I'll stop asking you questions because I don't want to completely shake you upside down before 2024 so I can come back and get a few more new muskie secrets.
But this is actually our last fishing report with you for the year, which is kind of amazing.
And so, So, I've collected all the people that send in questions, played the Google random number generator game.
But before I announce the winner, you want to let folks know kind of what you pulled together?
Matt:
[14:13] Yeah, I put together a fly box of some of my kind of throughout the smallmouth season kind of go-to problem-solving flies and you know then just some of the the Rod Company and God Service stickers and swag and stuff.
Marvin:
[14:37] Well, there you go. And I'm really excited. You know, the person who has won the award is probably the most frequent question asker across all of our fishing reports on the articulate fly.
And I would have to say he probably, other than me, has more articulate fly stickers than anybody else in North America.
Matt:
[14:56] Yeah.
Marvin:
[14:56] So, the winner is Brenner Johnson. Brenner, congratulations.
I would imagine within 10 to 15 minutes of this thing getting dropped later this week. Um, you will see the post.
I would encourage you to, to reach out to Matt probably on Instagram and, uh, he will get you hooked up and, you know, as we're winding down, I know you've got a really exciting, uh, first Christmas to celebrate.
Um, but I also know that, uh, you're always booking trips.
I imagine you're probably pretty well into your small mouth inventory at this, uh, at this point, but you want to let folks know where they can find you, what you got and all that kind of good stuff.
Matt:
[15:33] Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, Brenner, just reach out to me however you want to.
About time that number generator pulled that name out of the hat.
I think he'd make a good musty fisherman.
[15:53] My smallmouth seasons, definitely like summer is pretty much booked.
I started booking a lot of spring stuff, too.
But I always say, regardless of where we're going to fit it in, if there's something that you're interested in, learning, experiencing, getting better at, et cetera, just drop me a line and we can at least start talking about it, figure out where it fits into a calendar.
We've got some different things going on in 2024, so calendar might look a little different than it normally would.
But we've still got plenty of springtime and early summer availability.
So that stuff's going to start going though, because I'm going to start hitting my regular or folks, um, to get our, our days on the calendar.
So, um, just check the website, all my contact info is on there.
It's Matt Riley, flyfishing.com.
And like I said, reach out however you feel best. Look forward to talking to you.
Marvin:
[17:08] Yeah. And you know, it's not just small mouth and a muskie. You also do trout trips and I know you've got some folks that, uh, that did do those with you and for you. So that's another opportunity too. Right.
Matt:
[17:19] That is correct. Yeah. I mean, we, uh, I, I, I do less and less of it these days, but, um, I've got a couple of guys I work with pretty closely, um, because we live in, um, At least, I mean, certainly in terms of like raw resource volume, the best wild trout fishing in the state, and potentially in the southeast, this county, well, including tailwaters, because we got those two.
So that's something that I do year-round and I have a couple of folks that are in position to be able to cater to that year-round regardless of whether I've got 150 small-mouth trips on my docket or not.
So if you get my newsletters, it always pretty much says mountain stream dates to be determined, reach out.
Those are always available and we can pretty much always get you out there on that.
So if that's something that interests you, definitely reach out.
That's a very viable thing, no matter what day of the year it is.
Marvin:
[18:34] Yeah, got it. And since we won't talk probably until the middle of January, I think we should wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Matt.
Matt:
[18:47] Thanks, Barbara. You too.