May 4, 2025 • 11 mins
In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash reconnects with Matt Reilly for the latest Southwest Virginia Fishing Report. The conversation begins with Marvin sharing his recent travel adventures and the challenges of pollen season, which has been particularly tough on Matt as he navigates the striper fishing scene. They discuss how the warmer weather has led to an early start for striper action, but with low water levels, the fishing conditions are quite variable.
Matt provides insights into the current state of the fishing, emphasizing the need for rain to improve water conditions and the potential for a fruitful summer if the weather cooperates. They also touch on the upcoming smallmouth season, with Matt explaining how he plans to transition from striper fishing to targeting smallmouth bass as they move into post-spawn behavior.
Listeners will appreciate Matt's expert advice on fishing techniques, including the use of topwater patterns and streamers, as well as his thoughts on the upcoming cicada hatch. He highlights the importance of understanding the localized nature of cicada emergences and the need for scouting to find the best fishing spots. This episode is filled with practical tips and a camaraderie that will inspire anglers to hit the water.
To learn more about Matt, check out our full length interview.
All Things Social Media
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Support the Show
Subscribe to the Podcast
Subscribe to the podcast in the podcatcher of your choice.
Advertise on the Podcast
Is our community a good fit for your brand? Advertise with us.
In the Industry and Need Help Getting Unstuck?
Check out our consulting options!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
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?
I'm doing pretty good, man.How are you?
I'm getting there. I'm glad tobe home, I think. I. I don't know
if I told you this before westarted recording, but I've been
traveling a lot. And nextweekend, Cameron graduates from Chapel
Hill. And when I get home fromthat trip, I will have been out of
(00:26):
town five of the last six weekends.
Yeah, that's. That's a lot,man. That's. That's. I'll tire anybody
out.
Yeah, I'm. And I'm not as oldas I. Well, I'm not as young as I
used to be. And it's kind offunny, you're a little croaky because
you're down in Brook, Neil,and the. The pine pollen and the
dust is kind of getting to youon the striper game, right?
(00:47):
Yeah, it's been pretty wickedlast couple of weeks. I have probably
been through more cough dropsthan I've had in my lifetime, just
in the last couple weeks. Justtrying to take the edge off a little
bit, but we just don't. Wedon't have that in the mountains
where I live for the mostpart. And it's been dry, so lots
(01:10):
of particulate matter in theair, period.
Yeah. It's amazing, too. Like,you know, you get to those times.
I can kind of remember, youknow, I've got family kind of in
eastern North Carolina in thatpart of the world, and it's like,
you see these just clouds ofbasically yellow, green pollen, dust
from the pine trees.
Yep. You feel it hitting youin the face. Running up the river,
too.
Yeah. And so you were tellingme before we started recording that
(01:33):
things have kind of popped offa little bit kind of earlier than
normal on the striper front.So you're pretty close to kind of
rolling the sidewalk up on that.
Yeah, we've had some sort ofearly warm weather, just been the
story the last couple ofyears, but also very little water,
very little rain. We'resupposed to get some this weekend
(01:56):
that may be fairlysignificant, but otherwise it's been
pretty low, pretty dry, mostin most of the state. So it's pretty
much the story on the new backhome, all the way up through the
Shenandoah Valley, up intoMaryland, Pennsylvania. Um, so, you
(02:18):
know, hopefully we'll haveanother summer like we did last year,
but I'm not real hopeful atthis point.
Yeah, I Guess the silverlining if we come a little bit closer
back to home is we didn't havea scouring flood during the smallmouth
spawn.
Yeah, for the most part, youknow, we're still not out of the
woods for that yet. If we getthrough, get through the first half
(02:39):
of May without anything crazyhappening, I'll be pretty happy.
Yeah. And so you've got, Idon't know, handful. You'll fish
kind of, you were telling me,kind of you'll do the striper thing
through the weekend and thenyou're gonna head back home. And
that's gonna be smallmouthwith a parenthetical for the cicadas
are coming.
Yeah, I may do a couple moresmallmouth trips with some of my
(03:00):
folks that, you know, can kindof hop in last minute, but otherwise
I'm hoping to hit the road andgo look for some bugs. Hopefully,
you know, that warm, warm, dryweather with, you know, potentially
some more significant rainscoming at a critical, you know, early
(03:22):
May timeframe may bring thosebugs out a little bit. Kind of right
on time with, with thisclosing up shop up here and we're
starting to see some pop up indifferent places around the southeast.
So we may be right on the cuspright now. Yeah.
And so, you know, when you getback home, you know, where do you
expect kind of in the, youknow, done with the spawn, fully
(03:46):
in post spawn kind of mode forthe smallmouth fishing to be.
Yeah, usually by, usually bymid May, most of our females are,
are kind of back into baitfish chase and shave. But outside
of that, you know, you'll havemales coming off the nest by, you
(04:09):
know, by mid May too. So that,that's really kind of the turning
point, I think. You know, 15ththrough the 25th or so amaze when
you see a lot of thattransition happen. So, you know,
if I were smallmouth fishingnext week, I'd be, especially with
the low flows, I'd. I'd beprobably throwing some, some top
(04:31):
waters around, some poppers,some, you know, slider diver kind
of things. Fishing fairly slowfor some of those bigger post spawn
females. Trying to stay awayfrom nest sites if I can, and then,
you know, working more andmore sort of pretty active streamer
(04:52):
presentations into the programas we get later in the month.
Yeah, and I know on kind ofthe pop or slider front, you know,
where are you kind of on that,the, the frog hatch?
You know, I, I have done somefrog fishing. I think it's a, it's
a legitimate approach. I, I'mnot Real positive that it's a major
(05:19):
foraging event on, on frogsspecifically. But so much of targeting
smallmouth bass has to dowith, because, you know, they're
very opportunistic predators,they'll eat just about anything they
can fit in their mouths. Sothe patterns at any given time of
year tend to be whereopportunity overlaps with, you know,
(05:44):
the presentation as it relatesto fishing, that style of fly or
type of imitation where thatsort of meets the smallmouth in their
general behavioral sphere atthat given time, you know, so if
you've got lazy postponefemales in low water fishing something
(06:06):
that's going to stay on thesurface or very near the surface,
that can be fished slowly andstill trigger a fish is a, is a good
approach, you know, and viceversa. In the spring, you know, early
spring, pre spawn, you know,larger offerings that, you know,
pack a bigger protein punchtend to meet the smallmouth where
(06:28):
they're at then too. So Ithink the frog, you know, the diving
bait fish kind of thing, Ithink that has a lot of place this
time of year because it'sfairly versatile. You can fish them
fast, you can fish them slow.But I'm not entirely sold on the
like smallmouth or keying iton frogs idea.
Got it. And we'll back up justa little bit on the cicada front
(06:50):
because I'm sure you get amillion questions like, you know,
when are they coming? And it'slike, I don't think most people really
appreciate how incrediblylocalized the hatch is.
Yeah. So every, every brood, Ibelieve we have 12 broods. Some of
them are 13, some are 17 yearbugs and they're temporarily staggered.
(07:10):
So in each breed has its ownvery specific geographic range. Um,
and knowing sort of theobserved geographical range of the
specific brood that'sscheduled to come out on any given
year is the key to findingbugs and fishing that year. So, you
(07:31):
know, you hear a lot of thislike, yeah, you know, we had them
four years ago and they'recoming back again this year. And
you know, that's just not howit works because the breed you had
four years ago, if it was a 17year bug, isn't going to come out
for another, you know, 13years. So understanding that concept
(07:51):
is, is, I mean, pretty, prettyparamount to the whole thing. And
you know, I tell a lot ofpeople this too. You know, 17 years
is a long time, relativelyspeaking, to development to the Internet.
You know, we're at a prettygreat place right now for remote
(08:17):
Internet based citizen sciencereporting. And that was not the case.
Two emergences ago for thebrew that we're going to have this
year. You know, 34 years ago,we were in a very different place
with the Internet. So some ofthose maps, some of those, some of
(08:37):
those county lists and thingsare pretty, pretty accurate. But
there's, there's a lot ofmissing information in some cases.
So, you know, and like I said,development, some of those areas
that had a lot of bugs 17years ago that have been clear cut
and pine trees planted andhousing developments put up and parking
(08:58):
lots paved, you know, there'sno bugs there anymore. So things
do change. But starting withthe geographic distribution of the
specific brood that's emergingthat year is import. Yeah.
And it's even super localizedkind of within that geographic distribution.
So it reminds me a little bitof like, if you're serious about
(09:19):
it, you really almost need toget out there and put your scouting
time in. Just like you werehunting for, you know, deer or turkey,
right?
Yeah, you do. You gotta do alot of driving sometimes. But you
know, like you said, even acounty name is, is too general sometimes.
Sometimes they're just in acorner of a county or, you know,
(09:41):
in 50 acres of a county. I'veseen places like that too. So yeah,
there is a lot of scouting involved.
Yeah. You know, in an amazing.No substitute for putting in the
time that is correct. Well,you know folks, we love questions
on the articulate fly. You canemail me or DM me on social media,
(10:01):
whatever is easiest for you.And if we use your question, I will
send you some articulate flyswag. Might even include a new butcher
shop sticker and will, youknow, drawing for some cool stuff
from Matt at the end of theseason. And Matt, before I let you
go, I know, you know, dayswith you at this point, absent some
knock on wood, major weatherevent are scarce as hen's teeth.
But you want to let folks knowkind of what you have available,
(10:22):
how to reach out and all thatkind of good stuff.
Yeah. Still got a couplesummer days left, couple early fall
smallmouth days. Talking aboutcicadas. If anybody's interested
in, in that program. I justhave people reach out to me to let
(10:42):
me know so I can kind of keepyou appraised of the situation. But
I've been looking at muskiefishing in the fall and winter. That
stuff will be here before weknow it too. So just thinking about
the future. Yeah.
Well, there you go. Well,folks, as always say yo it yourself
to get out there and catch afew tight lines everybody. Tight
(11:05):
lines.
Matt.
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?
I'm doing pretty good, man.How are you?
I'm getting there. I'm glad tobe home, I think. I. I don't know
if I told you this before westarted recording, but I've been
traveling a lot. And nextweekend, Cameron graduates from Chapel
Hill. And when I get home fromthat trip, I will have been out of
(00:26):
town five of the last six weekends.
Yeah, that's. That's a lot,man. That's. That's. I'll tire anybody
out.
Yeah, I'm. And I'm not as oldas I. Well, I'm not as young as I
used to be. And it's kind offunny, you're a little croaky because
you're down in Brook, Neil,and the. The pine pollen and the
dust is kind of getting to youon the striper game, right?
(00:47):
Yeah, it's been pretty wickedlast couple of weeks. I have probably
been through more cough dropsthan I've had in my lifetime, just
in the last couple weeks. Justtrying to take the edge off a little
bit, but we just don't. Wedon't have that in the mountains
where I live for the mostpart. And it's been dry, so lots
(01:10):
of particulate matter in theair, period.
Yeah. It's amazing, too. Like,you know, you get to those times.
I can kind of remember, youknow, I've got family kind of in
eastern North Carolina in thatpart of the world, and it's like,
you see these just clouds ofbasically yellow, green pollen, dust
from the pine trees.
Yep. You feel it hitting youin the face. Running up the river,
too.
Yeah. And so you were tellingme before we started recording that
(01:33):
things have kind of popped offa little bit kind of earlier than
normal on the striper front.So you're pretty close to kind of
rolling the sidewalk up on that.
Yeah, we've had some sort ofearly warm weather, just been the
story the last couple ofyears, but also very little water,
very little rain. We'resupposed to get some this weekend
(01:56):
that may be fairlysignificant, but otherwise it's been
pretty low, pretty dry, mostin most of the state. So it's pretty
much the story on the new backhome, all the way up through the
Shenandoah Valley, up intoMaryland, Pennsylvania. Um, so, you
(02:18):
know, hopefully we'll haveanother summer like we did last year,
but I'm not real hopeful atthis point.
Yeah, I Guess the silverlining if we come a little bit closer
back to home is we didn't havea scouring flood during the smallmouth
spawn.
Yeah, for the most part, youknow, we're still not out of the
woods for that yet. If we getthrough, get through the first half
(02:39):
of May without anything crazyhappening, I'll be pretty happy.
Yeah. And so you've got, Idon't know, handful. You'll fish
kind of, you were telling me,kind of you'll do the striper thing
through the weekend and thenyou're gonna head back home. And
that's gonna be smallmouthwith a parenthetical for the cicadas
are coming.
Yeah, I may do a couple moresmallmouth trips with some of my
(03:00):
folks that, you know, can kindof hop in last minute, but otherwise
I'm hoping to hit the road andgo look for some bugs. Hopefully,
you know, that warm, warm, dryweather with, you know, potentially
some more significant rainscoming at a critical, you know, early
(03:22):
May timeframe may bring thosebugs out a little bit. Kind of right
on time with, with thisclosing up shop up here and we're
starting to see some pop up indifferent places around the southeast.
So we may be right on the cuspright now. Yeah.
And so, you know, when you getback home, you know, where do you
expect kind of in the, youknow, done with the spawn, fully
(03:46):
in post spawn kind of mode forthe smallmouth fishing to be.
Yeah, usually by, usually bymid May, most of our females are,
are kind of back into baitfish chase and shave. But outside
of that, you know, you'll havemales coming off the nest by, you
(04:09):
know, by mid May too. So that,that's really kind of the turning
point, I think. You know, 15ththrough the 25th or so amaze when
you see a lot of thattransition happen. So, you know,
if I were smallmouth fishingnext week, I'd be, especially with
the low flows, I'd. I'd beprobably throwing some, some top
(04:31):
waters around, some poppers,some, you know, slider diver kind
of things. Fishing fairly slowfor some of those bigger post spawn
females. Trying to stay awayfrom nest sites if I can, and then,
you know, working more andmore sort of pretty active streamer
(04:52):
presentations into the programas we get later in the month.
Yeah, and I know on kind ofthe pop or slider front, you know,
where are you kind of on that,the, the frog hatch?
You know, I, I have done somefrog fishing. I think it's a, it's
a legitimate approach. I, I'mnot Real positive that it's a major
(05:19):
foraging event on, on frogsspecifically. But so much of targeting
smallmouth bass has to dowith, because, you know, they're
very opportunistic predators,they'll eat just about anything they
can fit in their mouths. Sothe patterns at any given time of
year tend to be whereopportunity overlaps with, you know,
(05:44):
the presentation as it relatesto fishing, that style of fly or
type of imitation where thatsort of meets the smallmouth in their
general behavioral sphere atthat given time, you know, so if
you've got lazy postponefemales in low water fishing something
(06:06):
that's going to stay on thesurface or very near the surface,
that can be fished slowly andstill trigger a fish is a, is a good
approach, you know, and viceversa. In the spring, you know, early
spring, pre spawn, you know,larger offerings that, you know,
pack a bigger protein punchtend to meet the smallmouth where
(06:28):
they're at then too. So Ithink the frog, you know, the diving
bait fish kind of thing, Ithink that has a lot of place this
time of year because it'sfairly versatile. You can fish them
fast, you can fish them slow.But I'm not entirely sold on the
like smallmouth or keying iton frogs idea.
Got it. And we'll back up justa little bit on the cicada front
(06:50):
because I'm sure you get amillion questions like, you know,
when are they coming? And it'slike, I don't think most people really
appreciate how incrediblylocalized the hatch is.
Yeah. So every, every brood, Ibelieve we have 12 broods. Some of
them are 13, some are 17 yearbugs and they're temporarily staggered.
(07:10):
So in each breed has its ownvery specific geographic range. Um,
and knowing sort of theobserved geographical range of the
specific brood that'sscheduled to come out on any given
year is the key to findingbugs and fishing that year. So, you
(07:31):
know, you hear a lot of thislike, yeah, you know, we had them
four years ago and they'recoming back again this year. And
you know, that's just not howit works because the breed you had
four years ago, if it was a 17year bug, isn't going to come out
for another, you know, 13years. So understanding that concept
(07:51):
is, is, I mean, pretty, prettyparamount to the whole thing. And
you know, I tell a lot ofpeople this too. You know, 17 years
is a long time, relativelyspeaking, to development to the Internet.
You know, we're at a prettygreat place right now for remote
(08:17):
Internet based citizen sciencereporting. And that was not the case.
Two emergences ago for thebrew that we're going to have this
year. You know, 34 years ago,we were in a very different place
with the Internet. So some ofthose maps, some of those, some of
(08:37):
those county lists and thingsare pretty, pretty accurate. But
there's, there's a lot ofmissing information in some cases.
So, you know, and like I said,development, some of those areas
that had a lot of bugs 17years ago that have been clear cut
and pine trees planted andhousing developments put up and parking
(08:58):
lots paved, you know, there'sno bugs there anymore. So things
do change. But starting withthe geographic distribution of the
specific brood that's emergingthat year is import. Yeah.
And it's even super localizedkind of within that geographic distribution.
So it reminds me a little bitof like, if you're serious about
(09:19):
it, you really almost need toget out there and put your scouting
time in. Just like you werehunting for, you know, deer or turkey,
right?
Yeah, you do. You gotta do alot of driving sometimes. But you
know, like you said, even acounty name is, is too general sometimes.
Sometimes they're just in acorner of a county or, you know,
(09:41):
in 50 acres of a county. I'veseen places like that too. So yeah,
there is a lot of scouting involved.
Yeah. You know, in an amazing.No substitute for putting in the
time that is correct. Well,you know folks, we love questions
on the articulate fly. You canemail me or DM me on social media,
(10:01):
whatever is easiest for you.And if we use your question, I will
send you some articulate flyswag. Might even include a new butcher
shop sticker and will, youknow, drawing for some cool stuff
from Matt at the end of theseason. And Matt, before I let you
go, I know, you know, dayswith you at this point, absent some
knock on wood, major weatherevent are scarce as hen's teeth.
But you want to let folks knowkind of what you have available,
(10:22):
how to reach out and all thatkind of good stuff.
Yeah. Still got a couplesummer days left, couple early fall
smallmouth days. Talking aboutcicadas. If anybody's interested
in, in that program. I justhave people reach out to me to let
(10:42):
me know so I can kind of keepyou appraised of the situation. But
I've been looking at muskiefishing in the fall and winter. That
stuff will be here before weknow it too. So just thinking about
the future. Yeah.
Well, there you go. Well,folks, as always say yo it yourself
to get out there and catch afew tight lines everybody. Tight
(11:05):
lines.
Matt.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com