S8, Ep 16: The Seasonal Shift: Matt Reilly Discusses Spring Fishing Strategies in Southwest Virginia

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articular Flyer back with another Southwest

Virginia fishing report with the man himself, Matt Riley.

Matt, how are you?

I'm pretty good, man.

How are you?

Just trying to stay out of trouble.

You just had a big birthday.

I did a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah, one of the ones divisible by ten, so that's super cool, but you don't want to talk

about it so we'll shift to the fishing.

So we're kind of in this interesting kind of funky transition in the mid-Atlantic, although

you know, we talked before we started recording, and I think we're finally on a more stained

upward trend in temperatures, even though things have been bouncing around.

And I think that probably means for you, right, winding down musky, turning on pre-spawn,

small mouth.

But we've got a couple other things that you're into that we want to talk about too.

Yeah, just about.

I mean, we've just in the last couple of weeks had had a lot of snow melt and are the river

water temperatures took a nose dive, but we've had some 60, 70 degree highs since then.

Got a healthy amount of rain.

Water temperatures are, you know, certainly north of 40 most places and in some places,

you know, upper forties.

And we've got at least, you know, most of the 10-day forecast is going to be, you know,

highs in the 60s and 70s, even close to 80s.

So I think things are going to start to slide pretty quick.

I've got two more musky trips in knockout.

And then it's just going to be kind of laying the foundation a couple of days for the rest

of the month, small mouth fishing, and then getting all that drink.

Yeah, so you're going to be finding them, I guess, in that nice, slow water, right?

Yeah, I mean, it's for the most part, if we're in the kind of mid-upper forties, which

is where I really, you know, kind of like to start, like if we're, you know, maybe low

to mid-forties in the morning.

But that mid-upper forties range, this should be sort of staging to break out of those

winter areas.

So you'll find them in, you know, kind of the upper ends of those winter pools, the

low-rends, tail outs, and you know, once it, once it starts to warm up past that and

certainly get into 50, though just kind of spread out throughout the river and start

feeding.

And one thing that is sort of important to pay attention to that I sometimes miss if

we have some of these real warm days this time of year is some, some rivers might get

some water temps up then like the mid, you know, low to mid-50s if it's really, really

warm in late February.

We haven't, we haven't had too much of that.

But once those water temps get out, you know, you'll have fish spread out throughout the

river and usually in those, you know, in those years it will get cold again and you'll

be fishing some mid-40 degree temps and March and, you know, you're, you're looking at

the water temp thinking, well, they should be here, but, you know, two weeks ago it's

52, 53 degrees and they've, they've already moved.

So, history is important, you know, that's where, if you fish smallmouth all winter, you

have a pretty big advantage in that regard because, because you can kind of follow them

from, you know, meat of winter spots to the staging, you know, edges and then, you'll

notice pretty quick if they move.

So, that's, that's something to be paying attention to this time of year if you're just

getting back to them.

Got it.

And so, you know, where's kind of that temperature that you kind of cross over from kind of having

to pry them out off the bottom or they're not really chacy to where they kind of really

start because I know you love the streamer game right where they really start chasing

stuff.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, 50 degrees is, is plenty.

I even, you know, even those mid 40s temps, if you can, if you can fish slow and you can

get flies or, or lures, you know, mid column or maybe even a little bit deeper, just long

pauses and lots of suspension, that can, that can work, you know, pretty well too.

You don't necessarily have to go, you know, to something with dumbbell eyes bouncing on

the bottom, you know, straight to an active streamer retrieve, but, yeah, that's certainly

that kind of upper 40s through 50, you know, once I'm seeing 50 in the morning, I have,

you know, no, no fear that I'll be able to catch them on a baitfish mid column type streamer.

And usually that's, you know, just because of what's fun, what I want to do and how limited

to time window is, I'm, I'm usually going to commit myself to that unless it's really,

really obvious that that's not going to work.

God, it didn't, you know, as we mentioned before, we started recording, you've got a couple

of other things folks should know about, right?

So I don't think 13 is the kid is this year, right?

There are not, no, this is the only year in the next 13 that there's not a brood anywhere.

Yeah.

And then we'll have some pretty interesting years after that.

Yeah. So I know you'll, you'll do pre-sponsored small math and I just saw your email for the striper

run. Do you want to let folks know about that?

But I also got another email from you.

I saw you're really kind of opening up, there was all that, this one was cold and you weren't

fishing. So you were, your time flies and doing customer emails.

But then I also saw you've really kind of opened up your Mount Rogers program too.

Yeah, man, I had to, had a lot of email campaigns queued up and scheduled there for a little

while. But yeah, it's, I mean, springtime, there's just a tongue going on this time of

year. We've got, like I said, I'm going to get on small mouth here in the next couple of days

and then pretty much ride that through mid April and then striper fish, hopefully until,

hopefully until mid May, it's always just kind of a wait and see thing.

Cause, you know, strippers can be here one day and go on the next and if they're gone,

they can't catch them. So yes, they on top of that. But, and then, you know, pretty much,

I mean, late February through, you know, summers is, is pretty fantastic fishing in the

mountains too. And I've got a couple of associates that I've been working with pretty closely

that have been taken, taken a lot of folks in the mountains, trout fishing on the last

couple of months. And it's, well, I was talking to a lot of the folks up in Cincinnati at

that show last month. It's, it's, it's, it's pretty great fishing that nobody really

does around here. Just because we've got too big tail waters and, you know, there's the

smoky mountains are not that far away. So lots of folks come down to this region to fish

for wild trout, but don't necessarily end up in Southwest Virginia. And it's, it can

be pretty good. And I get a lot of requests for it. Personally, I just have been doing fewer

and fewer of those trips. So I've got a couple of guys that frankly are better than me

at it that, that I've been, been, you know, handed all my folks to. So that's, that's

been pretty exciting the last couple of months to watch. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, folks,

we love questions on the articulate fly. You can email me or DM me on social media, whatever

is easiest for you. And if we use your question, I will send you some stickers and when you're

in a drawing for some cool stuff from Matt at the end of the season and, you know, Matt

before I let you go, you want to let folks know kind of how to get in touch. And, you

know, I know things are kind of always in a state of flux kind of moving around. So

there are cancellations how to kind of keep their eye open if they can maybe sneak in

a small mouth date that they weren't able to book six months ago. Yeah. Um, well, first

of all, my information is on the website. It's Matt Riley, flyfishing.com. And, uh, as you

know, I pretty much send a newsletter out every month with kind of, you know, monthly

fishing report, what's coming up forecast kind of deal and then upcoming programs. I usually

try to include some, some tying stuff and, and anything that's kind of tip and tactic

that's, uh, that's seasonally relevant. Um, so, uh, feel free to check that out too. But,

um, and, and you'll see a lot of my open dates there too. But, uh, pretty much got just

a couple, a couple of March, March and early April, small mouth days, a couple of striper

slots. And then we're just looking at, uh, you know, post-bond everything. Um, there's

some musky fishing to be done in, you know, May, early June. Um, and then we're, you know,

for the most part, just small mouth fishing this year until, you know, October or so with

those cicadas, which I don't want to say I'm thankful for, but it'll be, it'll be nice

to have, have a little bit of a break from running around this year after the last several.

Yeah, not having to dial in the hatch and then find an Airbnb close by, right? Mm-hmm.

That's right. Yeah. And so I would imagine on the small mouth side, you're probably kind

of in the prime top water months, probably pretty full. But what does your backside

smallly calendar look like this season? Um, you mean getting into the fall? Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. And, um, that, you know, I always, there's, those first couple of weeks of October

are usually always my, my last to book. And I don't really push them that hard because

frankly, I usually end up having to reschedule some dates into that, that window.

But it's, it's pretty open at the moment. I think I have three or four days booked.

I do have some stuff still, you know, just here and there and like June and July.

You know, I've had a couple of days in August and September cancel that, that have come

up and just, you know, canceled in the last couple of weeks that were booked months ago.

So yeah, it's, it's always changing. That's why I always tell people if they're interested

in something just to get in touch with me. And that way, at least know you're interested.

And we can, we can try our best to make it happen. Yeah, get in there before it shows up

in a newsletter blast to, uh, for an empty day, right? Exactly. Yeah.

Too early to get you a 2027 musky deposit. Yeah. Uh, probably. Yeah.

Fair enough. Uh, well, listen, folks, it's warming up in our neck of the woods.

If it's warming up to go out and fish, you should get out there and catch a few.

Otherwise, tie some flies, tight lines, everybody, tight lines, Matt. Thanks, Marcus.