March 5, 2025 • 12 mins
In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash reconnects with Matt Reilly for an insightful Southwest Virginia Fishing Report. As the weather begins to shift, Matt shares his experiences battling the windy conditions and high-pressure systems that have characterized recent fishing trips. Despite the challenges, he reveals that anglers have still managed to land some impressive catches, although the musky bite has been a mental game of patience and strategy.
The conversation shifts as Matt prepares to transition from musky fishing to pre-spawn smallmouth, discussing the ideal water temperatures and conditions for targeting these feisty fish. He provides valuable insights on color recommendations for crayfish patterns, emphasizing the importance of adapting to water clarity and temperature to maximize success.
Listeners will appreciate Matt's practical advice on selecting the right colors and patterns for pre-spawn smallmouth, as well as his thoughts on the upcoming cicada hatch in the Southeast. Whether you're a seasoned angler or just getting started, this episode is packed with expert tips to enhance your fishing adventures.
Don't forget to submit your questions for a chance to win some Articulate Fly swag, and connect with Matt to learn more about his guiding services and upcoming fishing opportunities.
To learn more about Matt, check out our full length interview.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash,the host of the Articulate Fly. We're
back with another SouthwestVirginia fishing report with Matt
Riley. Matt, how are you?
Oh, I'm doing good, man.Fairly strung out and hoping for
the weather to change a little bit.
Yeah, it's interesting. We'regetting ready to record a little
(00:22):
bit earlier than normal todayand it's kind of funny I was thinking
about you because it's, youknow, as we get into March, you know,
it's just so windy inVirginia. But we've also had like
bluebird skies too, whichdoesn't make the angling great.
No, it's been pretty much highpressure, seems like for two weeks
(00:43):
now. I mean, I was telling myguys today, I don't think I've seen
a cloud or fished in less than10 miles an hour wind for a couple
of weeks. But we've managed toget, get it done. I mean, we've put
lots of fish in the boat thelast, last week or two, dealing with
some high, dirty, not, not somuch high anymore, but some dirty
(01:06):
water right now too, whichdoesn't help. So I would say from
a muskie fishing standpoint,man, I hate to, I hate to call it
boring, but like we have notbeen seeing a lot of movement, but
fish have been eaten. So it'skind of been an all or nothing bite
(01:27):
that you kind of just have tostick around for. It's a mental game,
you know, more than, more thanit usually is where you're not getting
a lot of, you know, feedbackmoving fish throughout the day. I've
had a lot of days the lastweek and a half where we, you know,
saw one fish and it was theone that landed in the net, you know,
(01:49):
so it makes it tough, butwe're getting through it.
Yeah. And so you were tellingme before we started recording that
you literally have only acouple more, you know, musky days
on your dance card and you'regoing to full blown shift to pre
spawn smallmouth, correct?
Yeah, I, I usually try to makethat jump early, early March just
(02:12):
because, you know, it. Itseems like our, our water temps this
time of year have beentrending warmer earlier and it's,
you know, you just don't wantto end up in a boat looking for muskies
when they're immediately prespawn and the water temps in the,
(02:32):
you know, upper, you know, 50to 52, 53 degree range. Because smallmouth
fishing can be fantastic. Andyou know, it's just, it's just hard
to justify. So I make that,that jump fairly early. I've, I've
strung it out a little bitlonger than I have the last couple
(02:53):
years this year just becausewe have had some cooler temps lately
that have knocked the watertemps back a bit. And, and I had
a pile of, you know, probablylike 15, 20 days get rescheduled
back through January andFebruary. So we had to put them,
had to put them somewhere. Andwe've still got, you know, water
(03:14):
temps today. We, we did have acouple, we had a, we had a air temperature
setback yesterday where wedropped into the, the twenties again
overnight, same thing lastnight. And we're going to start slowly
warming up again. But we're inthe, you know, low to mid-40s right
(03:35):
now, depending on where youare. And, but we've got some very
few lows in the 30s and acouple of highs near 70 in the next,
you know, five, six days. So Ithink we're going to stay in those
upper 40s here from here on out.
Yeah, for what it's worth,I've seen my first robin and daffodil,
(03:57):
so I think you're right.
Oh, yeah, yeah. We've been,we, we've had, we've had robins for
a while now. Um, but I'm surethat varies with, with location too.
Yeah, absolutely. And so, youknow, one of our favorite question
askers, Brenner, had a prespawn smallmouth question. So I think
his timing is perfect. And hewanted to get your thoughts on color
(04:18):
recommendations for crayfishand pre spawn smallmouth.
Sure. Yeah, I would say. Imean, I, I, I keep my crayfish color
choice is pretty basic. Ithink I've talked about this before,
but if we're going to relateit specifically to pre spawn, I'm
(04:39):
going to isolate the, youknow, stream flow and water clarity
variable. You know, not that Idon't deal with high water, dirty
water in the summertime, butin the spring, I'd say you probably
deal with a lot more, youknow, consistently, you know, colored
water because we're getting alot of rain at times. But, you know,
(05:04):
my standards are pretty muchjust variations on, you know, brown,
olive, natural color, and thenblack and blues and black purples,
something contrasty black andred, black, but, you know, copper,
something like that. And then,you know, like I said, variations
(05:25):
on natural browns. The what,what the gear guys call peanut butter
and jelly is a good color.Sort of tan, brown and purple, Purple
accents. That's, that's,that's pretty much, pretty much what
I do. I don't don't make itmuch more complicated than that.
(05:46):
You can get creative. I mean,in the New River, I'll see a fair
number of, of crayfish that,that have, you know, a lot of red
on them. They'll be dark blackwith red splotches. You know, so
that's kind of a fun differentcolor to have. And you know, black
and oranges and stuff likethat. Things that are natural. If,
(06:10):
if you want to play aroundwith color patterns, you know, just,
you know, variations on allthose natural colors are fine. And
I would say just, just in flytying in general, it's, it's a huge,
huge benefit to have thatskill where you can go home and tie
(06:31):
flies and kind of match whatyou're seeing, but also tying things
in different colors just tohave, you know, you have six different
colors that could beconsidered natural. And in my mind,
it's, it's not a bad thing to,to fish a bunch of different colors
that fit into those schemesbecause, you know, then you're not
(06:53):
showing the fish the same flyevery day. So, you know, definitely
have fun with it. But I, Iwouldn't overthink it. You know,
something that shows up indirty water and something that's
more natural and, and will.Will work well in clear water.
Yeah. And I would imaginethose color rules kind of, you know,
(07:13):
they work for everything, notjust crayfish. Right. Changers and
everything else. You want tofish for pre spawn.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I willsay too, to kind of broaden it a
little bit. I, I do thinkthere's also a bit. So, you know,
the, the. If you're going toisolate the, the water clarity variable,
(07:37):
you know, dark contrastycolors and dirty water, more natural,
lighter colors and clearwater. I also think there's something
to be said for fishing colorsthat can be seen from further away
in colder water, just becausethe fish are not moving quite as
much, their reactive distancesare, are smaller than they are in
(08:00):
warm, you know, sort oftemperate water. And I, I just, I
think if those fish can beaware of your fly for longer and
they can kind of take theirtime getting to it as opposed to,
you know, having a fly thatthey can't see very well moving past
them pretty quickly, I, Ithink that's sometimes a benefit.
(08:24):
So sometimes I'll considerthe, the water temperature too, and
just, you know, how visibleand how catchable that that color
is going to be.
Got it. And you know, folks,we love questions on the articulate
fly. You can email me or DM meon social media. Whatever is easiest
for you. And if we use yourquestion, I will send you some articulate
fly swag. Then you're goingfor a drawing for some cool stuff
(08:46):
from Matt at the end of theseason. And Matt, before I let you
go, you want to let folksknow, like, I'm sure you're super
booked up, probably into,like, August, but kind of let folks
know what you have available.I know you're running a striper program
and you might be chasing somecicadas as well.
Yeah, I think I'm pretty muchspoken for for, you know, spring
(09:07):
smallmouth stuff that there'salways, you know, there's always
a day or two popping up hereand there with cancellations and
things. So never be. Never bescared to ask. But, yeah, I probably
still have maybe seven striperslots and in early May and then.
(09:28):
Yeah, I haven't really talkedabout it much publicly, but we. We
are going to have anotherperiodical cicada hatch in the Southeast
this spring. So that'll be,you know, mid. Mid May to mid June
time frame. And then I've gota, you know, a dozen or so dates,
(09:50):
you know, just kind ofinterspersed throughout the summer
months. And then we're talkingabout the fall. So, you know, like
I always say, anything that Ido that you're interested in, just
shoot me a phone call orsomething. We'll at least start talking
about it. Because, you know,selecting the proper, proper season,
(10:14):
proper season within theseason to accomplish whatever. Whatever
goal you might have or kind ofmeet you where you are in terms of
targeting a certain speciesand learning potentially from square
one is pretty important to me.Try to match all of that really well.
(10:37):
So everybody has the bestexperience possible. And that's kind
of tough when you call inFebruary wanting to book a muskie
trip. So if there's somethingyou're interested in, reach out and
we'll try to find the perfecttime to get it done.
Yeah, absolutely. And just soI know, I mean, I know that the state
college boys are tyingcicadas. What's the footprint for
(10:59):
this cicada emergence this summer?
Yeah, middle Pennsylvania isdefinitely, definitely a hot zone.
But, you know, parts ofsouthwest Virginia, east Tennessee,
east central Kentucky, partsof West Virginia. I'm sure there's
(11:20):
more, but that is sort of my.In my immediate sphere, what I'm
aware of. And yeah, it's. Doyour homework. It's not a. Not an
easy thing. And if justbecause you hear about a cicada hatch
on the news doesn't mean it'sgoing to happen in your backyard.
So do your research and doyour footwork if. If you have plans
(11:45):
to capitalize on that or callme, because I obsess over that. And
I spend a lot of time doingthe research and doing the footwork.
Yeah, there you go. And youknow, folks, as I always say, if
it's warm enough where youare, you should get out and fish.
If it's not quite warm enoughyet, tie some flies. Or if you've
got a fly fishing show nearyou, drop by and check it out. Tight
(12:06):
lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.
Thanks, Marvin.
Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash,the host of the Articulate Fly. We're
back with another SouthwestVirginia fishing report with Matt
Riley. Matt, how are you?
Oh, I'm doing good, man.Fairly strung out and hoping for
the weather to change a little bit.
Yeah, it's interesting. We'regetting ready to record a little
(00:22):
bit earlier than normal todayand it's kind of funny I was thinking
about you because it's, youknow, as we get into March, you know,
it's just so windy inVirginia. But we've also had like
bluebird skies too, whichdoesn't make the angling great.
No, it's been pretty much highpressure, seems like for two weeks
(00:43):
now. I mean, I was telling myguys today, I don't think I've seen
a cloud or fished in less than10 miles an hour wind for a couple
of weeks. But we've managed toget, get it done. I mean, we've put
lots of fish in the boat thelast, last week or two, dealing with
some high, dirty, not, not somuch high anymore, but some dirty
(01:06):
water right now too, whichdoesn't help. So I would say from
a muskie fishing standpoint,man, I hate to, I hate to call it
boring, but like we have notbeen seeing a lot of movement, but
fish have been eaten. So it'skind of been an all or nothing bite
(01:27):
that you kind of just have tostick around for. It's a mental game,
you know, more than, more thanit usually is where you're not getting
a lot of, you know, feedbackmoving fish throughout the day. I've
had a lot of days the lastweek and a half where we, you know,
saw one fish and it was theone that landed in the net, you know,
(01:49):
so it makes it tough, butwe're getting through it.
Yeah. And so you were tellingme before we started recording that
you literally have only acouple more, you know, musky days
on your dance card and you'regoing to full blown shift to pre
spawn smallmouth, correct?
Yeah, I, I usually try to makethat jump early, early March just
(02:12):
because, you know, it. Itseems like our, our water temps this
time of year have beentrending warmer earlier and it's,
you know, you just don't wantto end up in a boat looking for muskies
when they're immediately prespawn and the water temps in the,
(02:32):
you know, upper, you know, 50to 52, 53 degree range. Because smallmouth
fishing can be fantastic. Andyou know, it's just, it's just hard
to justify. So I make that,that jump fairly early. I've, I've
strung it out a little bitlonger than I have the last couple
(02:53):
years this year just becausewe have had some cooler temps lately
that have knocked the watertemps back a bit. And, and I had
a pile of, you know, probablylike 15, 20 days get rescheduled
back through January andFebruary. So we had to put them,
had to put them somewhere. Andwe've still got, you know, water
(03:14):
temps today. We, we did have acouple, we had a, we had a air temperature
setback yesterday where wedropped into the, the twenties again
overnight, same thing lastnight. And we're going to start slowly
warming up again. But we're inthe, you know, low to mid-40s right
(03:35):
now, depending on where youare. And, but we've got some very
few lows in the 30s and acouple of highs near 70 in the next,
you know, five, six days. So Ithink we're going to stay in those
upper 40s here from here on out.
Yeah, for what it's worth,I've seen my first robin and daffodil,
(03:57):
so I think you're right.
Oh, yeah, yeah. We've been,we, we've had, we've had robins for
a while now. Um, but I'm surethat varies with, with location too.
Yeah, absolutely. And so, youknow, one of our favorite question
askers, Brenner, had a prespawn smallmouth question. So I think
his timing is perfect. And hewanted to get your thoughts on color
(04:18):
recommendations for crayfishand pre spawn smallmouth.
Sure. Yeah, I would say. Imean, I, I, I keep my crayfish color
choice is pretty basic. Ithink I've talked about this before,
but if we're going to relateit specifically to pre spawn, I'm
(04:39):
going to isolate the, youknow, stream flow and water clarity
variable. You know, not that Idon't deal with high water, dirty
water in the summertime, butin the spring, I'd say you probably
deal with a lot more, youknow, consistently, you know, colored
water because we're getting alot of rain at times. But, you know,
(05:04):
my standards are pretty muchjust variations on, you know, brown,
olive, natural color, and thenblack and blues and black purples,
something contrasty black andred, black, but, you know, copper,
something like that. And then,you know, like I said, variations
(05:25):
on natural browns. The what,what the gear guys call peanut butter
and jelly is a good color.Sort of tan, brown and purple, Purple
accents. That's, that's,that's pretty much, pretty much what
I do. I don't don't make itmuch more complicated than that.
(05:46):
You can get creative. I mean,in the New River, I'll see a fair
number of, of crayfish that,that have, you know, a lot of red
on them. They'll be dark blackwith red splotches. You know, so
that's kind of a fun differentcolor to have. And you know, black
and oranges and stuff likethat. Things that are natural. If,
(06:10):
if you want to play aroundwith color patterns, you know, just,
you know, variations on allthose natural colors are fine. And
I would say just, just in flytying in general, it's, it's a huge,
huge benefit to have thatskill where you can go home and tie
(06:31):
flies and kind of match whatyou're seeing, but also tying things
in different colors just tohave, you know, you have six different
colors that could beconsidered natural. And in my mind,
it's, it's not a bad thing to,to fish a bunch of different colors
that fit into those schemesbecause, you know, then you're not
(06:53):
showing the fish the same flyevery day. So, you know, definitely
have fun with it. But I, Iwouldn't overthink it. You know,
something that shows up indirty water and something that's
more natural and, and will.Will work well in clear water.
Yeah. And I would imaginethose color rules kind of, you know,
(07:13):
they work for everything, notjust crayfish. Right. Changers and
everything else. You want tofish for pre spawn.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I willsay too, to kind of broaden it a
little bit. I, I do thinkthere's also a bit. So, you know,
the, the. If you're going toisolate the, the water clarity variable,
(07:37):
you know, dark contrastycolors and dirty water, more natural,
lighter colors and clearwater. I also think there's something
to be said for fishing colorsthat can be seen from further away
in colder water, just becausethe fish are not moving quite as
much, their reactive distancesare, are smaller than they are in
(08:00):
warm, you know, sort oftemperate water. And I, I just, I
think if those fish can beaware of your fly for longer and
they can kind of take theirtime getting to it as opposed to,
you know, having a fly thatthey can't see very well moving past
them pretty quickly, I, Ithink that's sometimes a benefit.
(08:24):
So sometimes I'll considerthe, the water temperature too, and
just, you know, how visibleand how catchable that that color
is going to be.
Got it. And you know, folks,we love questions on the articulate
fly. You can email me or DM meon social media. Whatever is easiest
for you. And if we use yourquestion, I will send you some articulate
fly swag. Then you're goingfor a drawing for some cool stuff
(08:46):
from Matt at the end of theseason. And Matt, before I let you
go, you want to let folksknow, like, I'm sure you're super
booked up, probably into,like, August, but kind of let folks
know what you have available.I know you're running a striper program
and you might be chasing somecicadas as well.
Yeah, I think I'm pretty muchspoken for for, you know, spring
(09:07):
smallmouth stuff that there'salways, you know, there's always
a day or two popping up hereand there with cancellations and
things. So never be. Never bescared to ask. But, yeah, I probably
still have maybe seven striperslots and in early May and then.
(09:28):
Yeah, I haven't really talkedabout it much publicly, but we. We
are going to have anotherperiodical cicada hatch in the Southeast
this spring. So that'll be,you know, mid. Mid May to mid June
time frame. And then I've gota, you know, a dozen or so dates,
(09:50):
you know, just kind ofinterspersed throughout the summer
months. And then we're talkingabout the fall. So, you know, like
I always say, anything that Ido that you're interested in, just
shoot me a phone call orsomething. We'll at least start talking
about it. Because, you know,selecting the proper, proper season,
(10:14):
proper season within theseason to accomplish whatever. Whatever
goal you might have or kind ofmeet you where you are in terms of
targeting a certain speciesand learning potentially from square
one is pretty important to me.Try to match all of that really well.
(10:37):
So everybody has the bestexperience possible. And that's kind
of tough when you call inFebruary wanting to book a muskie
trip. So if there's somethingyou're interested in, reach out and
we'll try to find the perfecttime to get it done.
Yeah, absolutely. And just soI know, I mean, I know that the state
college boys are tyingcicadas. What's the footprint for
(10:59):
this cicada emergence this summer?
Yeah, middle Pennsylvania isdefinitely, definitely a hot zone.
But, you know, parts ofsouthwest Virginia, east Tennessee,
east central Kentucky, partsof West Virginia. I'm sure there's
(11:20):
more, but that is sort of my.In my immediate sphere, what I'm
aware of. And yeah, it's. Doyour homework. It's not a. Not an
easy thing. And if justbecause you hear about a cicada hatch
on the news doesn't mean it'sgoing to happen in your backyard.
So do your research and doyour footwork if. If you have plans
(11:45):
to capitalize on that or callme, because I obsess over that. And
I spend a lot of time doingthe research and doing the footwork.
Yeah, there you go. And youknow, folks, as I always say, if
it's warm enough where youare, you should get out and fish.
If it's not quite warm enoughyet, tie some flies. Or if you've
got a fly fishing show nearyou, drop by and check it out. Tight
(12:06):
lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.
Thanks, Marvin.
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