S7, Ep 29: Smallmouth Strategies: Pre-Spawn and Beyond with Matt Reilly

In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash is back with Matt Reilly for the latest Southwest Virginia Fishing Report. Matt shares insights on the current pre-spawn smallmouth fishing, discussing the challenges posed by unpredictable weather and sustained winds that have been plaguing anglers since February. As they navigate the nuances of spring fishing conditions, Matt emphasizes the importance of understanding water temperatures and fish behavior during this critical time.

The conversation takes a deep dive into the spawning cycle of smallmouth bass, detailing how tactics need to shift as the season progresses. Matt explains the significance of nest guarding males and the behavior of post-spawn females, offering valuable tips on where to find fish and what techniques to use as the water warms. Listeners will appreciate his expert advice on adapting to changing conditions, including the types of flies and fishing methods that work best during this transition period.

With practical insights and a passion for fishing, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to maximize their time on the water as the season heats up.

To learn more about Matt, check out our full length interview.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash,the host of the Articulate Fly. And
we're back with anotherSouthwest Virginia fishing report
with Matt Riley. Matt, how are you?
I'm doing great, man. How are you?
As always. Just trying to stayout of trouble. And we were talking
before we started recordingand you may not even know what day
of the week it is.

(00:21):
No, I'm not sure I do. It'sbeen a pretty wild last several weeks.
We've had some good pre spawnsmallmouth fishing. Have just a couple
weeks left and hope we don'tget messed up by any rain here. Doesn't
look like we will, but we've.We've gotten a little bit and have

(00:42):
a little bit still to come.And my only complaint would be if
somebody could figure out howto turn the fan off or at least drop
it down to like 5 to 10 milesan hour every day. But I won't complain
too much.
Yeah, it's funny you say that.I was talking to Blaine and I was
like, you know, March andApril just makes me think about being

(01:02):
a kid in Virginia and flyingkites. Right.
Yeah. And you know, this. Ihesitate to even say things like
this because I feel like Imight say it every year, but I just
can't remember havingsustained heavy winds for this long
through the spring. I. I swearI've been dealing with it since like

(01:26):
probably the 20th of Februaryto end a muskie season. And we've
had a break here and there,but man, there's been a lot of like
10 to 20, you know, gust andheavier and on the big new river.
That's a. That's a bear.
Yeah. And it's interesting. Ilooked at your forecast and I didn't

(01:46):
see rain, but I saw a coldsnap in about five to seven days.
Right.
Yeah, we, you know, that'sspring for you. It's almost not worth
talking about. We're going upand down, you know, over the weekend.
We were starting out at like55 degrees in the morning. This morning
we started out about 28. Wehave a high of 86 on Saturday or

(02:10):
Sunday. And then we're backdown to like mid to low 50s as a
high we. And that just keepsour water temps bouncing around in
those like mid upper 50s thistime of year, which is a great place
to be. Some places it gets alittle warmer than that, but the

(02:31):
photo period won't. Won't kickoff that first big wave of spawning
for at least another. At leastanother week and a half or so. But
yeah, they're Calling for alittle bit, you know, maybe half
to three quarters of an inchof rain on Sunday. We just had, you

(02:52):
know, a half to an inch,depending on where you are in southwest
Virginia yesterday. So thatmeans full rivers, which is good.
Something we haven't had mostof the season. If there's been an
issue to contend with otherthan the wind, it's been low. Kind
of like summer, like waterconditions keeps the fish sort of

(03:13):
scattered after they've exitedtheir, their winter zones, spreading
out into, you know, feedingzones. But, you know, you gotta make
it work.
Yeah. And so with thetemperatures bouncing around, does
that kind of make the fish alittle funky?
Um, you know, I could say yessome days. And, but this time of

(03:38):
year, I mean, spawning is soimminent. And I mean, even with a,
Even with a 28, 30 degreeovernight, when you have water temps
in the mid to upper 50s, Imean, it's, it might knock it back,
but you're still looking at,you know, low to mid-50s in the morning.
And this, this fish have toeat. So, yes, momentarily. But in

(04:02):
the grand scheme of things,you know, this is one of the times
a year that they're fairlyresilient to that, you know, summertime,
when they've got, you know,four months to just lay around and
eat, I think it's a lot more significant.
Yeah, got it. And got aquestion for you from Michael Felton.

(04:22):
He's already looking past thespawn and wanted to get your thoughts
on kind of, you know, how yourtactics change in the weeks to the
month following kind of postspawn before we get into kind of
the full summertime groove.
Yeah. So if I had to, if Icould give summertime a start date,
I mean. Well, it has a startdate. It would be right around sort

(04:45):
of the calendar start ofspring or summer, you know, mid to
late June. Typically, most ofour spawn's gonna go off like between
the 12th and 18th of April orthe, the first big wave anyway. So
post spawn, you know, you'rereally talking late April through

(05:09):
early to mid June, probablymore. You know, the bulk of it would
be May, certainly mid Maythrough mid June. And to, to have
a tactical approach to thosefish in the river that time of year,
you have to know what you'relooking at and where the smallmouth

(05:31):
are in their, in their, youknow, life history. And like I said,
the first big spawning event'susually going to happen in mid April.
And what happens, you know,females will spawn and once they
drop eggs and, you know,they're pretty much done the males

(05:51):
Are the ones that garden nestsfor a couple of weeks. And so there
is a window where, and, andbecause it's a, it's a progression,
it's a bell curve. Not all thefish spawn at one time. You're going
to have males on nest forabout a month and that's, you know,
like mid April to mid May. Andthose fish, you know, nests are usually

(06:15):
created in areas that areprotected from current with a fairly,
you know, gravelly smallpebble substrate bottom. Where that
is depends on the ambientstream flow when the spawning occurs.
So if the water's really lowgoing into spawn, then they can spawn

(06:37):
in a lot of different places.Sometimes it's like the tail outs
of pools, you know, behind asmall rock. If it's high, it's in
a lot more protected areas,you know, back bays and behind little
rock points and stuff in theriver where there's still some flow
but, but it's protected fromreal swift water. So those areas

(07:02):
are going to have males inthem that, you know, they could be,
could be large fish. It couldbe, you know, 14, 15 to 18, 19 inch
fish sometimes. And they will,when they're guarding nests, exhibit
some pretty aggressivebehavior at times they're, they're
defending their eggs from nestpredators. So if something lands

(07:25):
on the nest or above the nest,like a top waterfly or it's just
kind of hanging in their zone,a lot of times they'll come over
and pick it off and they maynot be eating it. Sometimes they'll
kind of lip grab it and try tocarry it away. If you're streamer
fishing at this time of year,you'll often times throw a bug up

(07:47):
on the bank, strip it out.You'll have a fish kind of lazily
following it out and thenthey'll hang up and they'll turn
back. And again, if you don'tknow what you're looking at, you
might think, well, that fishjust refused my fly or didn't follow.
And what that is usually isjust a male on a nest that doesn't
want to strike too far. And ina lot of, you know, I would, I would

(08:08):
pretty much advise just, justmoving on. So it's, it's important
to, to know what kind ofhabitat you're fishing in, whether
you have nests in that area ornot. And those males, those kind
of mid teens, upper teens,males can, you know, a lot of them

(08:30):
are tied up that time of year.The bigger females will be pretty
well exhausted after theyspawn and they'll often kind of retreat
to Sort of lazy habitatsometimes, usually vertical structure,
mid river sometimes. Andthey'll just be kind of lazy and

(08:54):
hard to come by for a coupleof weeks usually until, you know,
mid to late maybe. And thenthey'll start feeding up again, they'll
get their strength back. Youknow, water temps are still low,
you know, in the, in the, youknow, around 70 usually. And so they'll
be chasing bait fish and, andbeing fairly aggressive in that like

(09:16):
mid to late May, early Junetimeframe. And then throughout this
whole period, I mean you havesexually immature fish, small males
and females that you can findin current pocket water and all that
kind of stuff. But you know,as far as tactics go, I mean just
sort of catering to where thefish are in the river, trying to

(09:41):
stay away from big nestingareas or at least not, you know,
anchoring and beating up onthem for an hour, you know, maybe
probing some of those, youknow, deeper kind of slower with
big ledge systems, you know,pieces of habitat that might have
some bigger females in them.Usually fishing pretty slow if you're

(10:03):
looking to catch a post spawnfemale, sort of dead drifted, you
know, neutrally buoyant baitfish flies, even top waters fish
pretty slow, work fairly wellthat time of year. And then just
as things ramp up from there,um, like I said, water temps will

(10:23):
be, you know, from, from Mayto mid June, anywhere from 60, 65
degrees to 70, 75 degreeswhich is still pretty comfortable
for those fish to be out andabout chasing bait fish and things.
Generally speaking, I'm goingto fish smaller than I do pre spawn

(10:47):
and you know, so that's,you're gonna start and you're, you're
also catering to the waterconditions. You know, in June you
could have higher flows or youcould have summer like flows. We're
downsizing, you know, fishingmore of like a three, three and a
half, four inch fly as opposedto like a five, six, seven inch fly.
Like I might fish right nowwill make more sense. But that bait

(11:12):
fish bite and some top water,you know, poppers and stuff tend
to work fairly well through,you know, that May, early June timeframe.
And, and then let's see whatelse as well. That's, that's summer,
you know, getting into July,you start talking about crayfish
a little bit. But that's,that's where I tend to live. You

(11:35):
know, intermediate floatinglines most of the time, sort of mid
sized, mid sized streamers andthen just really trying to understand
the, the mechanics and, andprogression of the spawn and take
what you're seeing from fishbehavior and how they react to your

(11:58):
fishing and, you know, try to,try to interpret what you're seeing.
You know, are you seeingguarding males? Are you seeing lazy
postpone females? You know,fish that haven't spawned that are
just eaten away in the rifflesand, and current seams and stuff.
So that's, that's, that'swhere I would say to start.

(12:21):
Well, there you go. We knowfolks. We love questions on the articulate
fly. You can email me or DM meon social media, whatever's easiest
for you. And if we use yourquestion, I will send you some articulate
fly swag and may even includea sticker for the new butcher shop
podcast too. And when you'redrawing for some cool stuff for Matt
at the end of the season. AndMatt, I know you don't have a lot

(12:41):
of dates left because I justsaw your newsletter because you were
off the water a couple daysago, but you want to let folks know
kind of, you know, kind ofwhat you're booking probably, I don't
know, gosh, now kind of maybethrough October.
Yeah, couple summer datesopen. I actually did just have three
days next week, for what it'sworth, get canceled. So those are

(13:04):
open pre spawn dates and thenyeah, like a week in early to mid
October. Just sort of when Itend to conclude my regulation small
mouth season. That and whatelse? Couple striper slots in May,

(13:27):
early May, and that is aboutit. Yeah, just, I mean, maybe maybe
15 days or something over thecourse of the next. This, this smallmouth
season and spring season. So.But like I said, you know, days get
canceled all the time.Schedules shift around. So, you know,

(13:49):
I never want to discourageanybody from calling and talking.
If they're interested insomething, we can usually figure
out a way to do it.
Well, there you go. Well,folks, as I always say, you know,
things are warming up. Prespawn bites going to wind down here
in a few weeks. Or maybe youwant to go start chasing panfish
or trout. You owe it toyourself to get out there and catch
a few. Tight lines, everybody.Tight lines. Matt.

(14:10):
Yeah, buddy. Thanks.