S7, Ep 46: Navigating Seasonal Shifts: Fishing Tactics for Summer Success with Mac Brown

In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash reconnects with Mac Brown for another insightful installment of Casting Angles. The duo discusses the unexpected weather patterns impacting fishing, with Mac expressing his disappointment over the forecasted rain that never materialized. As they navigate the transition into summer, they explore how cooler temperatures have affected fishing conditions, particularly focusing on the effectiveness of dry dropper setups in the high 50s to low 60s water temperatures.

Listeners will gain valuable insights into the timing of fishing trips during the summer months, as Mac emphasizes the importance of early morning outings to avoid the heat of the day. He shares his favorite rigs, including the elk hair caddis paired with a soft hackle pheasant tail, and discusses the significance of adapting techniques as the fishing season progresses. The conversation also touches on the seasonal shift towards terrestrial patterns, highlighting the effectiveness of ants and beetles in the Appalachian region.

As they reminisce about past fishing experiences and upcoming guide trips, Mac and Marvin offer tips for anglers looking to maximize their time on the water this summer. This episode is a treasure trove of practical advice for anyone eager to enhance their fishing game as the season heats up.

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Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash,the host of the Articulate Fly. We're
back with another CastingAngles with Mac Brown. Mac, how are
you?
I'm doing great. How are youdoing, Marvin?
As always, just trying to stayout of trouble. And you were telling
me before we startedrecording, you're a little bit disappointed.
The weatherman didn't quiteget it right this weekend.
He really didn't. We'resupposed to have a deluge of water

(00:24):
again. And I mean, it hasn'teven. Which I think they were predicting
like Thursday last week, fiveand six inches. And I mean, we've
had maybe just enough to wetthe patio. So I'm kind of glad we've
had a. We've had our share offloods, you know, so it's. It's kind
of nice. We don't really needa bunch more floods going on right
now.
Yeah, absolutely. You know,we're kind of heading into a transition

(00:46):
time of year. Like, fishing isreally good, but, you know, I guess
we've got probably two weeksuntil DH Burns off, and then we're
going to start to, you know,at some point kind of march into
the dog days of summer, right?
Oh, yeah, it's common. Butwe've been really cool as far as
the temps. You know, we'vebeen really a lot cooler than normal

(01:06):
for May, I think last week wehad two days in the low 40s. And
I think one of those days Italked to a guy on the radio up in
New Hampshire and this reallysurprised me to be at the end of
May, and it talked about MountWashington being like 5 degrees and
snowing, and I thought, wow,because Mount Washington's not near
as high as the mountains, youknow, around the house here. So it

(01:29):
gets some pretty harshweather, though. So, yeah, we're
ready for some warmtemperatures, though.
Yeah, so it's going to warmup. I think that was the kind of
a nor' easter that kind ofwhipped through. And that's why our
weather's been kind of cooland funky, too. But you were telling
me that as you would expect,you know, probably water temperatures
probably in the high 50s,maybe, maybe low 60s, kind of depending

(01:50):
on where you are, is probablyreally, really good kind of dry dropper
action.
Yeah, that's what's been the.The ticket the last few weeks. We're
still doing a lot of drydropper. And of course, with all
these cloudy days, we've had alot of fish up, like, really up in
the column. So the dropper'snot really that far away. From the
dry, you know, it's like 16,16 inches to 12 inches away. I mean,

(02:15):
somewhere in that neighborhoodseems to work really well when the
hatches get rolling and. Yeah,that's. That's been the ticket. That's
been probably the mostproductive thing I've seen the last
two weeks. Yeah.
And that's going to, you know,that's going to continue to kind
of work throughout the summer.It just may get a little bit tougher,
you know, because once itstarts, you know. You know, DH in
most places, you know, givefolks a couple weeks and they're

(02:36):
going to clean out most ofthose fish. Right. And then you're
going to have either educated,you know, DH fish or wild fish. And
then it's going to get low andclear and hot, right?
Yeah. Then it'll be going backdown deep. Of course, fishing early.
Early. Like, I. I wish we'd.I. There's just no way to do it.
But I wish we'd go to somehoudal stuff here, you know, like

(02:57):
when it gets hot. Because, Imean, we're done. Like the trips
we do in the summer, we're atthe door daylight and we're done
by like 10:30. So it's like.But you can't really tell everybody
to do that. But, you know, alot of people want to wake up on
vacation and start at 10 andfinish at 4, and that's just a recipe
for disaster, you know whatI'm saying? If you're trying to do

(03:18):
well in the summer, I just. Assoon as the water temp hits about
68 degrees, it's probably bestto quit, you know?
Yeah, it's kind of like if youstart late like that, by the time
you kind of get everybody inthe boat and, you know, tell them
which way to point the rod,it's kind of. You're fishing in the
worst part of.
The day, that's it. And it'slike, I. I kind of like the early
morning. I really like. I likethe early morning stuff on the water.

(03:40):
I mean, that's probably myfavorite. That's some of my favorite.
And it's not that it's bad inthe summer. You just gotta go at
the right time. People alwaysask, is it a lot worse? And I'm like,
well, no, it can be reallygood to you in the summer. It's just
you gotta go when the fish aregonna be happy. And that's early
in the morning.
Yeah, I would say, you know,gosh, in the summertime, you know,
we're talking dry Dropper,probably my, you know, favorite rig

(04:01):
is probably an elk hair Cattusand a soft tackle pheasant tail.
Mm, that'd be a good one. Imean, that would be definitely a
good one. And of course, theterrestrial game will start to get
bigger too, as we get intolate June, July. But yeah, we're
in a. We're going to be in abig transition here the next few
weeks. It's not going to bethe easy fishing we've had. I mean,

(04:22):
you're going to have to workharder for them when it gets in,
you know, into June, July.You're going to have to be doing
exactly what they want. Rightnow we've been able to get away with
a lot of stuff, dry dropperand not very selective on the, the
nymphs. You know, just as longas it's something that looks buggy,
it's been working fine. Andit's like it'll start to be more

(04:43):
selective here the next couple weeks.
Yeah, it's interesting too. Ialways kind of think too that, you
know, particularly like asmall black beetle is kind of my
change up on really selectivefish, like fish in the South Holston
or the Watauga, you know, andbecause I think it's something a
lot of people don't think tokind of throw at them. I tell you,
another good one for me is abig June bug.

(05:03):
Oh, yeah, we like, we like theJune bugs a lot too. And that works
really well on these parkstreams, like the Freestones up here.
We throw a lot of beetles andwe throw a lot of inch worms, of
course. And you know,everybody has all this hopper mentality
from western England and theyall come here and think they're going
to throw a big hopper. Andit's like, it's just very few places

(05:26):
in Appalachia that it's notlike Iowa or the Wisconsin or Illinois
around the Driftless, whereyou got all these hoppers, grass.
You know, how many hoppers yousee in the woods? Very, very rare.
So, like, my field has them.I've got eight acres of pasture around
the house and of course we gotthem here, but unfortunately there's
not a trout stream flows by myhouse. So, yeah, the hopper thing

(05:50):
is overrated in Appalachia. Ithink what I'm saying, it's, it's,
it's a western thing.
Yeah. I think part of it comesback to, you know, it's just kind
of people paying attention andmatching the hatch and it's kind
of like, you know, even ifyou're out west if you're walking
to the water and you're notmoving a lot of grasshoppers, you
might not want to fish ahopper, right?
That's. Yeah, that's right.But there's times that way, of course,

(06:12):
they fly like, you know,hundreds of birds coming off the
grass with, with the hoppers.I mean, when it's like that, it's
probably a good time to do ittoo, so. Yeah, but we just don't
have a lot of them. We havethem here around the pasture. But
like I say, most of the stuffthat I work on out of the forest
service or park service land,there's not any pastures up there
in the national park that flowalong the creeks, you know, so it's

(06:35):
definitely inchworm is, isking in this part of the country.
I mean, there's, there's closeto 500 varieties of inch worms here
in Appalachia. So that's a waymore common food source to fish that
live back in the woods, you know.
Yeah. How do you feel aboutcrickets and ants?
I like ants a lot. Of course Ilike crickets. From as a kid, you

(06:56):
know, we used to fish a lot ofcrickets when I was growing up. But,
but ants, I use a lot of ants,black ant and cinnamon colored ants.
I mean, I tie a lot of antsand I've done really well with ants
that are like fishing themunderneath. Like, I used to fish
a lot of ants come June, July,where I'd have a floating ant on

(07:17):
top, dry dropper, and then I'dhave one that sinks underneath and
I'd be fishing two ants, youknow, at the same time. So ants can
be really productive becausethere's a lot of big like carpenter
ants and stuff up in the parktoo with decaying wood matter and
stuff. And they'll fall in thestream. Pretty common fish. Definitely
know what the ants are, you know.

(07:38):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It'sinteresting too. I mean, I have.
I usually try to carry somebeetles that aren't like made out
of foam because I thinksinking beetles, particularly June
bugs, works really well too.
Yeah, they would. Yeah. I liketerrestrial season a great deal.
I mean, that's one thing Ireally do enjoy when it turns to
summer because we're not goingto have. There's really not a whole

(07:59):
lot of per se hatches that arepouring off like this time of year
already. I mean, if we wentnorth, you know, drove a good ways
north, I mean, they still gota lot of great hatches going on up
north of us. But our hatchseason's pretty much coming to a
close for the most part untilnext, next fall. You know, when it
cools off, it'll be aterrestrial game for the next next

(08:20):
bunch of months. You know,you'll see a few bugs here and there
like Isoperla stones andthere'll be, there'll be a handful
of things that are. I wouldn'treally call that a hatch though,
because most of the stones arecoming off at nighttime. You know,
you might see some flutteringabout, laying eggs and things, but
you're not going to see likeprolific mayfly hatches and things
on a freestone this time of year.

(08:42):
Yeah, it's interesting too.Right. So, you know, we're, you know,
depending on where you are inthe country, some kids are already
out of school. Kids aregetting ready to get out of school.
I think you're telling meDuncan's going to be out of school,
you know, middle of this week.I think my, my youngest son's in
school for two more weeksmaybe and then it's going to be kind
of crazy. So you're going tobe guiding and doing stuff like that
too. And if I remembercorrectly, you don't have any schools

(09:04):
kind of until the fall, right?
That's right. The next onethat we do will be the cast, the
two day weekend school like inSeptember. And then we have a couple
of, couple of five day schoolsthat are going on October, November.
And then we got the one inArkansas with Davey for the wet fly
school, the clinic andMountain Home. I think that's really

(09:26):
the only four big four thingsthat coming up like in the fall or
those four. So we're lookingforward to all of those because I'm.
I'm really looking forward togetting back to Mountain Home.
Yeah. And then, you know, getsome, get some folks in, you know,
I know you've got some tripsplanned this summer too, but get
some folks to come out andfish with you, get in the boat or
hike up high with you ifthey're up for that.

(09:48):
Oh yeah, yeah. That's alwaysfun. Going up high. Going up high.
And when it gets warmer likethat, I'm, I'm really excited. I
get to take Duncan. He getsdone on Wednesday. Then we're going
to go up and stay for four orfive days up high, about three hours
in, you know, walking in andso that'll be a lot of fun. That'll
be a good way to celebratebeing done with school and getting

(10:10):
ready to become a junior. He'sgoing to be a junior in high school.
So Time's going fast, Marvin.
It happens that way, I think.You know, the last time we spoke
it was, I think I just gottenback from my oldest son's graduation
and he was the one that. FromCarolina, and he's the one that was
talking all that junk when hewas like 8 years old and Raleigh
at the fly fishing show.

(10:30):
Yeah, I remember. I remember.Well, yeah, that's hard to believe
that he's graduated collegealready and. Yeah. Congratulations.
Yeah, no, thank you. He'll be23 in September. It's kind of crazy,
but I remember he was talkingjunk to you and I was just watching
him and I thought you weregoing to swallow your dip.
Yeah, he was funny. I rememberhe was full of himself at that age.

(10:52):
Yeah, he's changed a littlebit, but maybe not that much. But,
you know, as folks alreadyknow, if they listen regularly, that
they need to go to Mac BrownFly Fish for all the, all the information.
And probably the best thing todo is to call you, text you or shoot
you an email if they want toget in touch and get on the boat
or hike up in the park thissummer. And you know, folks, we've
got kind of a little bit of abreak here in the Southeast. It isn't

(11:14):
going to stay cool like thisand wet and, you know, it won't take
very many weeks of hot, hot,no rain, you know, to basically dry
things up and, you know, moveus onto the warm water fish for the
rest of the summer. So as Ialways say, yo to yourself to get
out there and catch a few.Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines,
Mac.
Tight lines. Marvin.