S7, Ep 82: The Art of Stealth: Catching Big Smallmouth in Low Water Conditions with Matt Reilly

The Articulate Fly brings you essential insights for navigating challenging fall smallmouth conditions with Southwest Virginia guide Matt Reilly.

As low, clear water conditions continue with extended summer-like weather, Matt shares critical smallmouth bass fishing strategies that separate successful anglers from frustrated ones.

Discover why stealth becomes paramount when targeting spooky fish in shallow, clear water, and learn specific techniques for minimizing unnecessary disturbances from your boat.

Matt reveals the deliberate approach required for effective bug fishing, emphasizing strategic fly placement over rapid-fire casting and explaining how a fish's "zone of awareness" differs from its reactive distance.

Get expert guidance on selecting the right cork bug density for maximum attraction power versus foam alternatives, plus tactical advice on when to focus on prime locations rather than covering extensive water.

Matt also discusses his transition from smallmouth fishing to winter musky opportunities, making this episode valuable for anglers planning their fall and winter strategies in technical water conditions.

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

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Episode Transcript

(00:04):
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 pretty good, how are you?
As always, just trying to stayout of trouble. And you know, I think
we are pretty close to the, toofficially being in fall and not
have any more hot weather herein the mid Atlantic.
Yeah, I would say wedefinitely want hot water, but we

(00:28):
are kind of petering out ofwhat, you know, you might call a
false fall or India summer orI don't know what the official term
is for it, but it's been cool.And we've got a bunch of, you know,
80, 85 degree highs and 5060degree overnights in the next couple

(00:49):
of weeks coming. Not a lot ofrain and low clear rivers. So, you
know, summer at least on theriver is going to cling on for a
little while longer.
Yeah. And so, you know, whenyou get into that low clear zone,
you know, what do you do onthe smallmouth front to get more
fish in the boat?

(01:10):
Well, I, to tell you thetruth, I'm not necessarily concerned
with more fish in the boat.I'm particularly this time of year.
I mean, pre spawn and latesummer, I'm really, and I mean, I
guess always looking for bigfish and sometimes that comes at

(01:31):
the expense of numbers. Butanytime you're dealing with, with
low, clear water, especiallyreal close, low and clear water,
I mean, you're going to havespooky fish and you've got to have,
you've got to have a gameplan. You know, you've got to think
about water that you can, youknow, approach fish well in. You

(01:56):
know, sometimes you have realbony water that you can barely get
the boat through and you'regonna, you know, be making a bunch
of commotion and stuff, just,just traversing that water. And sometimes
the best move is just toeliminate that focus on, on places
that you can approachstealthily. And you know, when the

(02:18):
water gets really low andclear, it moves a lot slower too.
So if you're fishing ninemiles a river, seven and a half miles
of river, you know, andyou're, you're really being stealthy
and moving slowly and, andputting your best foot forward in
the right places, that canmake for a really long day. So, you

(02:40):
know, you've got to, you'vegot to have a, an idea of where your
best spots are going to be toachieve the goal at hand and eliminate
some and you know, reallyspend your time where you need to
so does pay to have a game plan.
Yeah. And I would imagine too,on the stealthy front, you know,

(03:01):
in low water, it also helps toprobably be able to cast a fair distance
without rocking the boat, right?
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean,that's a, that's a skill that can
be very noticeable whensomebody doesn't have it, you know,
shifting weight really heavilyfrom, from your, you know, right

(03:25):
foot, left foot, right foot,left foot is your false casting.
If you're on flat, clear,slow, shallow water. I mean, this,
it's a, it's a dead giveawayand, and you're going to have to,
you know, it's a, it's a bighurdle to overcome, especially when
you're talking about big,wise, spooky fish. It's something

(03:45):
that, that I try to do whenI'm fishing. Doesn't matter, you
know, what I'm fishing for. Ifyou can, if you can, you know, not
shift weight as, as much aspossible and, and keep that weight
and, and pressure waves to aminimum, it's always, it's always
helpful. And then, you know,just the really technical aspects

(04:09):
of, of, you know, bug fishingand smallmouth behavior come into
play too. I mean, one of thethings that I've been drilling people
with the last couple of weeksis just this idea of sort of a small
mouse awareness of items thathit the water as it relates to their

(04:34):
reactive distance andwillingness to go inspect and eat
that fly. You know, there'sdays where we're talking specifically
about bug fishing. There's,there's days where the fish are extremely
buggy. You slap the bug downand they might travel 20ft to come
eat it. And then there's dayswhere they're very not buggy or,

(04:55):
or, you know, they're notwilling to travel like that. But
that bug might still be yourbest bet in terms of putting a big
fish in the boat. And bugshave a bad habit of, you know, just
trying to get as many casts inas possible, just splatting the bug,
picking it up, splatting itdown again. And when it's done well,

(05:17):
bug fishing is a verydeliberate exercise. You know, you're,
you're trying to be stealthy,trying to imitate a bug that's hitting
the water dead or, you know,helpless and allowing a fish to take
its time to come over, takeadvantage of that easy to catch meal.

(05:39):
And there's, if you're fishingtoo quickly or you're making too
much commotion, you're, you'regoing to find yourself with some,
some spooked Fish and somelong periods without fishing the
boat. So a couple of thingsthat I always try to get people to
do is one, you know, do notlet your bug hit the water or your

(06:00):
line hit the water unless it'sin the spot that you have previously
selected that you want the bugto hit down in that you're prepared
to fish. Because anytime youflat a bug down and pick it up, any
fish that's aware of that flyis now usually uncatchable. You know,

(06:24):
so in the same vein, makingsure you pick up quietly and recast,
you know, well away from whereyou picked that fly up in a new,
you know, very intentionalspot is also important. And, you
know, there are lots of dayswhere a fish's zone of awareness

(06:46):
sort of is. Is wider thantheir reactive distance. And if that
fly lands kind of inside ofthe awareness zone, outside of the
reactive distance, then, youknow, you're gonna. You're not gonna
be able to catch that fish.You're gonna have to fish to a new
fish, because if you pick thatfly up, they see it exit, they're

(07:09):
spooked, and, you know, if yousplat it down closer to that fish,
you know, you don't have ashot. So it's. It should be a really
deliberate process and justkeeping stealth foremost in your
mind is. It's one of thosethings that, you know, the results
are sort of hard to. Sort ofhard to quantify the benefits there

(07:36):
because, I don't know, a lotof folks just, I guess, don't really
understand what's happeningwhen you're fishing poorly. You know,
you could still be catchingfish, but you're. You're not getting
as much as you can out of thesituation. And so all. All of that
stuff just becomes more andmore important, the, the more technical

(07:56):
the conditions become.
Got it. And so do you everdownsize the bug or maybe go from
cork to foam to kind of dealwith the stealth issue?
You know, I, I have playedwith that, and I. I'll say I'm generally
not a. Not a big fan of. Offoam. I just don't feel like I can

(08:18):
pull a fish from quite as farwith it. And, you know, when the
water's really low and clear,some days, you know, when it's. When
it's real sunny and the fishare fairly predictable in their location
and you can put a fly rightnear a fish, you know, I think it.

(08:39):
I think it can work well. Butdays where they're potentially scattered
and you're going to have to,you know, move A fish from further
away, you know, to stand achance at catching net numbers of
fish or you know, put anotherway, you know, if, if their reactive
distance is, is going to besmaller, narrower because you're

(09:03):
fishing a fly that they're notgoing to move quite as far too or
they're not going to be awareof it from as far away. It, it's,
it's just important to have a,a bigger splat, bigger presence.
I do fish, you know, I, Icarry a bunch of different sizes

(09:25):
and, and sort of weights ofintensities of, of cork just because
yes, there are times when youdo want a lighter splat but you know,
I've just never been a big fanof foam and I've, I've, I've kind
of tried to a b test those alittle bit and my, my general takeaway

(09:51):
is just that I have not caughtnearly as many or I tend to catch
bigger fish with, with denserbugs than with, with lighter bugs.
Got it. And you know folks, welove questions on the articulate
fly. You can email me or DM meon social media, whatever's easiest
for you. And if you, we useyour question, I'll send you some
articulate fly swag. And whenyou're in a drawing for some cool

(10:13):
stuff for Matt at the end ofthe season and Matt, like we always
do, you want to let folksknow, you know, what you're booking,
how to reach out and all thatkind of good stuff.
Yeah man, we are pretty muchbooked. I mean no smallmouth dates
left for the sort ofregulation season here. We'll be
doing some small mouth thewinter but the main focus is always

(10:37):
going to be muskies andstarted booking a fair number of
those dates. I just kind ofopened that up a week or so ago and
yeah, let me know if you'reinterested in that. We've got plenty
of days left but it won't bethe case for long I don't think.

(10:57):
And yeah, not really focusingon booking anything into the spring,
summer yet. But you know, likeI always say, I mean I've, most of
everybody I fish with is, is arepeat client and tend to rebook
dates similar times a yearevery year. And so if you're, if
you're interested in doingsomething that I do, I would, I would

(11:21):
at least you know, just kindof start a conversation. We'll, we'll,
we'll try to get it donebecause I can't always promise I'm
going to have a plethora ofdates left in, you know, a couple
months before, so always feelcomfortable reaching out. And all
of my contact information's onmy website, which is mattreillyflyfishing.com.

(11:45):
And, yeah, I'll stop talking now.
It's all good. Well, listen,folks, as I always say, yo, it's
yourself to get out there andcatch a few tight lines, everybody.
Tight lines, Matt.
Thanks, Marvin.