S7, Ep 47: Cicada Chronicles: Navigating the Buzz and Bites of Southwest Virginia with Matt Reilly

In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash catches up with Matt Reilly for the latest Southwest Virginia Fishing Report. The duo discusses the recent weather patterns and their impact on fishing, with Matt sharing insights on his recent forays into stillwaters and the excitement of cicada season. As the cicadas emerge, Matt reflects on the abrupt end of the striper run and the thrill of fishing with these iconic insects.

Listeners will learn about the geographical variations in cicada emergence across the Southeast and how this affects fishing opportunities. Matt emphasizes the importance of adapting techniques and tackle based on the species being targeted, particularly when it comes to carp. He shares valuable tips on leader lengths and fly durability, ensuring anglers are well-prepared for the challenges of catching larger, more powerful fish.

The conversation also delves into fly tying, with Matt discussing his experimentation with new cicada wing designs and the importance of matching the hatch. As summer approaches, he anticipates a shift in fishing patterns, highlighting the potential for topwater action and baitfish opportunities as the season progresses.

This episode is packed with practical advice and insights for anglers looking to make the most of their time on the water as cicada season unfolds.

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. We're
back with another SouthwestVirginia fishing report with Matt
Reilly. Matt, how are you, man?
I'm doing great. How are you?
As always, just trying to stayout of trouble. And I was a little
concerned when you were ableto record a little bit earlier today
that you might have gottenwashed off the water for the next

(00:21):
week or so like so many ofyour brethren.
No. Well, we were actuallyslated to get a bunch of rain today,
so I moved to. Moved a coupleof trips up to try to get away from
it. But thankfully, the waythe weather and the stream flows
have been lately, I'm not tooreliant on my normal smallmouth rivers

(00:43):
these days. Been mostlyfishing out of town and still waters.
So we're. We're pretty inpretty good shape.
Yeah, I know striper's wrappedup, but I guess the word of the day
is cicada, right?
Yeah, we'd been. So, you know,unfortunately, striper run kind of

(01:04):
petered out very abruptlyabout a week, week and a half early
back in early May. And, yeah,it took about a week to run around,
scout some bugs and. And lookat some. Look at some waters that
I wasn't super familiar withand confirmed bug presence. And we've

(01:27):
been. Been rocking on thatfishing for probably, I guess, almost
two weeks now. So the. There'sa lot of anxiety for me in that time
kind of between. Between whenthe bugs come out and the fishing
starts. But it's all blissnow, thankfully.

(01:50):
Yeah. And of course, we knowthey don't all, you know, emerge
at the same time. So kind of,you know, we're recording here almost
at the end of May, just on theother side of Memorial Day, you know,
kind of, you know, how manymore weeks do you think we have?
Yeah, I mean, it. It largelydepends on where you are. Like, we
had a lot of the bugs in sortof my area of the Southeast, you

(02:16):
know, western North Carolina,east Tennessee, northern Georgia,
Kentucky, southwest Virginia.A lot of those bugs sort of started
popping sometime between thelast couple days of April and, you
know, mid May. And we. We hada lot of sort of colder, cooler weather,

(02:45):
cooler rain, lots of cool rainin that timeframe. And I think what
that has done is sort ofbroken the typical latitudinal gradient
that you see with expansiveperiodical cicada emergences in the
spring. You know, areas thatgot a lot of cold rain kind of got

(03:07):
set back a little bit or hadthat emergence curve spread out a
little bit and so you've gotsome areas around that are, you know,
further south than others thatare further behind. Has complicated
things a little bit. But Ithink what that'll do for us is just

(03:28):
depending on where you are andwhere you're spending your time,
it can, it'll give us somefairly local options to extend our
fishing. So I would thinksomewhere, you know, that is relatively
convenient to me, we'll havefishing into, into mid June regardless,

(03:51):
certainly for, certainly foranother couple weeks. But I'm, I'm
thinking we might get a thirdout of it.
Yeah, it's interesting. I waslooking at the map and I mean the
footprint for this emergenceis relatively large and I think that
they really haven't evenstarted to regularly see them up
in like Central pa. Yeah, so.
Well, they actually got apretty big, pretty big rain event

(04:14):
up there maybe week and a halfago with, with some warm weather
associated with it. And thatthose warm rains, just because they
soak into the ground, they canaffect ground temperature. They can,
they can push bugs to come outand that's, that's what happened
up there. There was a prettyearly push about a week and a half

(04:37):
ago and I think a lot of folkshave gotten excited. But you know,
I think that was like I said,still early up there and we should
see, should see some fishingstarting up there in the next couple
of weeks. But you know, it's agood ways. I mean we're talking four

(04:59):
or 500 miles north of me. Soif things have just started cranking
in the last week, week and ahalf down here, then you know, there's
still a couple weeks beforethey really get going.
Yeah, absolutely. And youknow, any kind of, you know, fly
or kind of tackle, you know,tips you want to share with folks.

(05:21):
Let me think about that. Well,I'd say it depends on what you're
doing. I predominantly targetcarp and, and usually large carp,
so I, I don't mess around withmy, my leaders and tippets. I'm usually
fishing 16 pound tippets andfairly, you know, stiff large diameter

(05:44):
butt sections. So I willusually adapt my smallmouth top water
leaders, maybe make them alittle bit shorter just because you're
dealing with a heavy, densefish. You know, we've caught some,
caught some grass car up inthe last couple weeks that are in
the 50 to 80 pound range. Andwhen you get those fish close to

(06:07):
the boat and your rod isliterally doubled and you've got
a nine foot leader, it's, it'sreally tough to, really tough to
get Them close enough to theboat to, to land easily if you've
got a long leader. So I'llshorten them sometimes for that reason,
but otherwise, gosh, just, youknow, paying attention to the bugs

(06:34):
you're seeing on the water,trying to match them. I try to fly
or tie as durable a fly as Ipossibly can just because, you know,
some days we're, we'reliterally cycling through like 50
to 100 carps and you get thosefish in a net and they hang, hang

(06:55):
bodies in, in the mesh andflop around and you know, flies can,
flies can, can fall apartpretty easily. So try to use lots
of glue and tight threadtension and everything, but yeah,
that's everything that, thatcomes to mind right off.

(07:15):
Yeah. Have you tied any flieswith any of Blaine's new kind of
cicada wings and things like that?
I have, yeah. I been, beenhaving a lot of fun with, with this
sort of like crippled wingconcept, using some, some span flex
and, and punching holes in thewings to, to create some extra flutter.

(07:37):
I don't necessarily think it'ssuper necessary. I really don't think
it's necessary at all.Especially when the bugs are, or
the fish are, are reallygoing. And it, it depends on, depends
on the size of your fish too.You know, we've been in some situations
recently where we've beencatching a lot of smaller fish, you

(07:59):
know, four to eight, ten poundfish. And those, those fish realistically
have fairly small mouths andso bigger bugs with lots of sort
of protruding and extendingappendages sometimes will harm your,

(08:20):
your hookup ratios. Sosometimes a smaller profile kind
of tighter, tighter flies ismore necessary. Bigger fish, bigger
mouths, it can get away with alittle bit more. But yeah, I like
them a lot. They work welltoo. Just tied in know, traditionally
kind of tinted like, likeBlaine did with his original gummy

(08:45):
wings on his cicado pattern.So yeah, they've been a lot of fun
to play with.
Yeah. And I would imagine, Iguess, you know, figure, you know,
cicadas will burn off andyou'll be firmly kind of in postpone
smallmouth. What do you expectto see then?
Yeah, so it'll, like I said,I'll, I'll carry, carry this for
another two to three weekshopefully and then we'll be kind

(09:10):
of mid, mid to late June,which realistically should be, should
be summer fishing in fullswing. I would anticipate. Still
some, still some, definitelysome top water opportunities, especially
if like last year we lost alot of revenue. Lot of precipitation

(09:31):
about now and things startedto dry out and we've got low clear
water, which we don't rightnow. We should have some top water
opportunities, but businesscould will very likely still be keyed
in on, on bait fish and goinginto early July crayfish as they

(09:55):
start molting and doing theirthing. But you know, should have
top water opportunities prettymuch every day once this is all said
and done. So hopefully we'llcarry the top water site fishing
thing from here until October.
Yeah, there you go. And youknow folks, we love questions at

(10:16):
the articulate fly. You canemail me or DM me on social media
and if we use your question, Iwill send you some articulate fly
swag and you know, drawing forsome cool stuff from Matt at the
end of the season. And I knowyou're already super booked up, Matt,
but I know you have days hereand there you want to let folks know
before I let you go, kind ofhow to get in touch and kind of what
you have available and allthat kind of good stuff.

(10:38):
Yeah, as far as, you know, inthe immediate future, I do, you know,
I book cicada dates fairlylast. But there's, there's some opportunity
there potentially, if you'reinterested in that, just shoot me
an email or text or something.Let me. Otherwise, smallmouth wise,

(11:01):
we're talking a couple ofdates in July, I think one in August
and a couple in September. Andthen we're, we're looking at muskie
season. So like I always say,if you're interested in anything
that I do, just, just, youknow, shoot me a note and we'll start
talking and figuring out howwe can get it done.

(11:21):
There you go. Well, folks,this time of year, as I always say,
you owe it to yourself to getout there and catch a few Tight lines,
everybody. Tight lines, Matt.
Thanks, Marvin.