S7, Ep 65: Dirty Water Dilemmas: Fishing Insights from Matt Reilly in Southwest Virginia

Join The Articulate Fly fishing podcast as host Marvin Cash catches up with Southwest Virginia guide Matt Reilly for essential summer fishing insights when conditions get challenging.

Matt shares his expert strategies for adapting to dirty water and high flow conditions that have disrupted typical topwater opportunities across the region. Learn how to modify your smallmouth bass fishing approach using streamer techniques, including Chuck Kraft's Critter Mite patterns and crayfish imitations that produce results when visibility drops.

Matt reveals his go-to color choices for dirty water fishing—emphasizing contrasty dark patterns like black and blue combinations with copper flash—and explains why bottom contact becomes critical when smallmouth orient deeper during reduced visibility conditions.

Discover how to scale up your streamer sizes from typical 3-inch summer patterns to 4-5 inch offerings when dealing with swift, colored water, and get the inside scoop on seasonal timing as Matt looks ahead to fall musky season bookings.

Whether you're dealing with isolated storm cells affecting your local waters or planning your next Southwest Virginia fishing adventure, this fishing report delivers practical techniques that will keep you catching fish when summer conditions aren't cooperating.

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

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S7, Ep 19 - Weathering the Winds: March Fishing Insights and Pre-Spawn Strategies with Matt Reilly

S6, Ep 41 - Smallmouth Secrets and Streamer Savvy with Brendan Ruch

S7, Ep 14 - The Streamer Playbook: Tips and Tactics for Targeting Big Trout in East Tennessee with Ellis Ward

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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?
I'm not doing too bad. Marvin,how are you?
Just trying to stay cool.Sounds like you're in the same boat.
Yeah, it's been hot, been wet.Just doing everything we can over

(00:24):
here.
Yeah. Well, I'm going toremember this because we, you know,
you always tell me you're somuch cooler than we are kind of on
the other side of themountain. So I now know it's hot.
Are too.
Yeah, well, it's, it'sdefinitely hot. It just depends on
where you are. I mean, we werefishing down in Tennessee last week
and, you know, just, just 45minutes to an hour from me south,

(00:47):
it starts to, it's creeping upinto the mid-90s. You go north of
me and the highs are in themid-80s. So it just kind of depends
on your elevation and, andall. But it is definitely hot and
it's been fairly humid a lotof these days too.
Yeah, you were telling me it'skind of messed up your, your top
water groove.
Yeah. You know, like, like Itell people in the summertime, I,

(01:13):
I have a lot of options as faras water I can fish. So I am generally
trying to chase the conditionsthat I want to fish and that are
conducive to catching big fishconsistently. And in the summertime,
it generally means looking forgood top water bug fishing options.
And we've, we've been pretty,pretty thin in that department lately

(01:41):
with a lot of, a lot of highdirty water and, you know, isolated
storm cells rolling throughovernight. And so, yeah, it's been
a little bit of a challenge,but, you know, haven't lost any days
until today, which is a littlebit of a fluke. But it hadn't been
too bad.
Yeah. And so, you know, ifyou're, you know, how do you kind

(02:02):
of change things up if youdon't get exactly what you want?
You're fishing this high,dirty water kind of. What do you
shift to.
Man? A lot of, a lot of, youknow, streamer, bait, fish stuff.
I wouldn't say dredging, butlike, you know, crayfish and fishing.

(02:23):
A lot of Chuck's critter miteis type flies here lately. You know,
just sort of a, a wide rangeof, of tactics right now. Just kind
of trying to feel things out,working with the clarity and the
speed of flow because it'sanother thing you can deal with is,
you know, dirty water isn'talways high and it's not always fast.

(02:46):
And those are two verydifferent, you know, low to average
flow and dirty water. It's avery different scenario than say
high, swift, dirty water. So,you know, just, just playing the
subsurface game, trying totake flies, two fish and yeah, that's,

(03:07):
that's really been it.Crayfish. When we've get some, get
some color in the water andthere's some speed, I'll, I'll go
up in size a little bit in mystreamer patterns, you know, maybe
kind of an intermediarybetween my normal like three, three
and a half inch summer typeflies to, you know, my spring pre

(03:29):
spawn stuff. So somewhere inthe like 4, 4 and a half, 5 inch
range sometimes. Yeah, justseeing what the fish want day to
day is always the name of the game.
Yeah. And so in terms offishing dirty water, how do you like
to kind of change your fly color?
You know, contrasty darkcolors? I like black, black and blue,

(03:53):
black and purple, some kind ofcoppery flash or, you know, brush
s Daz, whatever. On, ondifferent subsurface patterns are
always good. Bottom contactcan be a big deal because fish, you
know, smallmouth tend toorient to the bottom when, when their

(04:18):
visibility is reduceddramatically. So sometimes the color
is less important than makingbottom contact. But I, I always,
you know, generally get out ofthe, the whites and tans and, and
you know, go towards darkerkind of more contrasty colors.

(04:39):
Got it. And I can't remember,are you a rattle or a no rattle guy?
Man, I, I really, really notsure. I, I have an opinion, but I
don't fish a lot of rattles.And you know, again, the, I talk
about fishing dirty water,it's, we're not talking about fishing

(05:00):
brown, you know, blown out,opaque water because we run into
that, we're, we're going tocancel or reschedule. And if that's
the case somewhere, I usuallyhave an option somewhere else that's,
you know, in better shape. Butyou know, just largely talking about

(05:20):
some reduced visibility, youknow, foot, two feet of visibility
and you know, fish visually Ithink have, have a fairly easy time
finding flies in those kindsof conditions. I think people don't
give them enough credit. Whytheir reaction distance will, will
shrink. And so, you know, it,you do have to get closer to a fish

(05:44):
with your offering, whichusually means, you know, more cast,
working things moremethodically. But you know, I, I
have, I have especially in themusky world, played with rattles
and the absence of rattles.And I really can't form a scientific
opinion on it.
Fair enough. And so eventhough you've been fishing a ton,

(06:05):
you managed to get an articleout and hatch.
Yeah, yeah, I had, I had oneabout what I wish I could be doing
right now, fishing for bigtechie smallmouth on the surface.
Come out a couple of days ago.Just something I've been kind of
holding on to for a couplemonths. But hopefully we can get

(06:26):
back to some of that here inthe next couple of weeks. We've just
got a couple more weeks ofthese dog days and hopefully the
temperature swing and, youknow, moisture swing will, will help
our, our water clarity andriver level situation.
Yeah, you're a little bit moreoptimistic than I am. I'm just sitting
here going like, gosh, are wegoing to have to wait until after

(06:47):
Labor Day for it to cool off?
Well, I don't have much of a choice.
Well, you know, folks, we lovequestions on the articulate fly.
You can email me or DM me onsocial media, whatever's easiest
for you. And if we use yourquestion, I will send you some articulate
fly swag and probably throw ina butcher shop sticker or two and
enter you in a drawing forsome cool stuff for Matt at the end

(07:09):
of the season. And Matt, Iknow you are already pretty well,
I know you're probablycompletely booked up other than cancellations
for smallmouth and you've kindof started to crack the books on
the muskie thing, but you wantto let folks know kind of what you
have available, how to reachout and all that kind of good stuff.
Yeah, definitely looking at,you know, fall, winter fishing. Next
dates I'm going to have openare going to be in, you know, probably

(07:34):
early second week of Decemberor so, but really haven't started
booking real heavily for muskyseason yet. So there's a lot of open,
open dates there. If it'ssomething you're interested in, it's
worth reaching out. Starttalking about it so we can, you know,
whether you've, you know, not.Not done it at all and want to, you

(07:59):
know, have a, a strongintroduction or, you know, you're
looking to, you know, target abigger fish or, you know, learn something
in particular there. There aresome nuances to the different portions
of the fall winter muskieseason. So if it's something you're
interested in, definitelyreach out and we'll kind of start

(08:20):
figuring out when would bebest to book a trip. I really, really
like having the ability to dothat, especially with muskie clients
because it's not an easy game.And, you know, more than anything,
I just like to focus onteaching folks and, you know, showing
them sort of the most valuableday to their fishing as possible.

(08:46):
And, you know, if I can helpit, I really don't want to take a
beginner in January. And if.Yeah. So that that's a conversation
worth having. But you can getin contact with me, as always, through
my website, mattrally flyfishing.com. it's got my phone number,

(09:07):
email, all that on there andjust reach out however you feel best.
Well, there you go. Well,folks, as always, say this time of
the year, first of all, staycool, but show it yourself to get
out there and catch a fewtight lines, everybody. Tight lines,
Matt.
Thanks, Marv.