S8, Ep 23: Low Water Chronicles: Matt Reilly on Pre-Spawn Smallmouth Strategies and Seasonal Shifts

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

Virginia fishing report with the man himself, Matt Riley, Matt, how are you?

I'm good, man.

How are you?

Just trying to stay out of trouble and get ready for the Easter Bunny.

It's kind of funny.

We were talking before we started recording.

It sounds like you might need to do a rain dance in your neck of the woods.

Oh, yeah, man.

I think much as I hate to say, you know, my pre-spawn small mouth season, I'll pretty much

end here like the 14th of April.

I don't think we have much hope for more water in the next couple of weeks just looking

at the extended forecast.

So rain would be nice just for the remainder of the year, but I don't see it happening

here in the immediate future.

Yeah, very interesting.

So, you know, Andrew, hit me up on Instagram when I was soliciting questions and he wanted

to get the update on the pre-spawn bite, you know, how's it been?

It's been, I mean, typical up and down recently.

We've really settled into that low water pattern.

And you know, when I say low water, I mean like like a fifth of the seasonal average, maybe

a quarter, it is very low out there pretty much everywhere.

That in places is causing, we've had some very warm weather too, you know, string of days

here in the upper 70s, close to 80.

So water temps are sliding really quick and that can kind of make things funky at times

if your water temps get in the upper 50s is certainly 60 plus, you know, well ahead of

the photo period that drives the spawn.

So all that said, you know, last couple of days on the river have been pretty good.

And we just we just been having to adapt to those conditions and really make sure we're

fishing the right water type and I mean, like I said, we're kind of sneaking around

like summer.

Yeah, it's interesting.

So I mean, I would imagine your lengthening leaders, are you trying to go for like more

delicate flies to kind of get rid of that plop?

You know, I haven't, I have been fishing more delicate flies just as a byproduct.

It's nothing I did intentionally.

I don't know, I don't know if that's necessarily going to make a huge difference.

I have lengthened the leaders a little bit, I'm mostly fishing intermediate lines and

here recently, I've dropped down to a seven weight and I've been fishing clear tip intermediate

seven weight lines with a, you know, my standard like six and a half foot intermediate

leader.

I did, I did lengthen my, my tip at section a little bit.

So it might be closer to seven feet, but, you know, streamer fishing with a clear tip

line and a seven foot leader, it's, it's, I think that's, that's plenty.

At least it's been, been working for us.

And yeah, you know, just, same, same as I would do it on the, from the conventional side,

just as things get lower and clearer, just, you know, downsizing, which I really hate

to do this time of year, but we're firmly in the, it's necessary place, but just, just

going a little bit smaller, a little bit slimmer, a little more natural colors.

And, you know, especially on these sunny days early and late tend to be, tend to be the

ticket too.

So, yeah, not unlike streamer fishing for, for trout, you know, it's a similar, similar

thing you're trying to do.

Yeah, and so on the pattern side, what's, what's your favorite, like feather changers,

CK baitfish?

What are you throwing?

Yeah, CK baitfish kind of, and, and my buddy Rogers, Rumpshaker pattern is like a, you

know, four inch, smaller profile baitfish, some bigger mertage minnows, that, that kind

of thing.

You could, you could definitely get away with any, any number of game changers there in

that smaller size and, you know, I have it times played around with, with, with

going a little bit bigger and, and certain places to see if it, if it makes a difference.

And, like I said, at this point, I think it does more harm than good and, you know, having

been on the water every day too, you know, I, I have seen it very linearly transition

from, you know, fish, fish, smoking six, seven inch big profile flies and chartreuse

in orange and, um, to really needing that, that smaller, more subtle presentation.

So I'm pretty confident in that.

I mean, I've fished the last, after Monday, we kind of, kind of cracked that code and,

then, and then the last two days, I really haven't changed, changed flies much and it's,

it's been working.

So that's, uh, that's what we're at right now.

Yeah.

So we'll slide into the Easter holiday and then you'll probably come back, got a few

days, get your taxes done and then you'll be on the stripper train, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

My, my accountant hates me because he, he, uh, he's trying to get a hold of me this time

a year and that just, that just doesn't work.

I think I've, I think I've been extended the last like five years.

Um, but, uh, we, yeah, we'll have another week and a half or so.

Um, we are supposed to get a little bit of rain over the weekend.

So maybe that'll, that'll kind of bolster us a little bit, hopefully.

Um, and then water temps or, air temps are supposed to kind of settle back into that season

all like 40 to 65 range.

So, uh, you know, hopefully that'll kind of keep those, those water temps in the, in the

fifth piece consistently again.

Uh, God, it, well, you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly.

You can email me or DM me on Instagram.

And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly stickers and you are

drawing for something cool for a matter of the end of the season and, you know, Matt

before I let you hop, like I always do, you know, you want to let folks know kind of

what you have open, how to get in touch and all that kind of good stuff.

Yeah.

Um, I have a, basically a handful of days in like June, July, um, and then like one or two

in August and September, um, it's, it's, you know, as I always say, it's kind of always

changing.

So don't, uh, if you're interested in something, don't hesitate to reach out.

Um, I, as always, I'll, I'll keep my, uh, my site and newsletter subscribers, uh,

breast of any cancellations or shifts around in the schedule or anything.

Um, so that's where you'll see that stuff first, um, but yeah, that's, that's pretty much

it.

We're just kind of looking at a couple of, a couple of days in the post-pong smallmail time

frame, May, June, and then a couple of summer dates and, um, yeah.

That's a good problem to have gives you a good excuse for your account too, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Um, so it sounds like folks are kind of out of luck on the striper front.

So maybe they just need to plan better for next year and, um, you know, folks, I have

all of Matt's contact information in the show notes.

So drop down there, go to the website, sign up for the newsletter so that you can, uh,

maybe sneak in a, a day or two here before, uh, we get into that kind of late summer slash

early fall smallmouth window that's probably still got a few more days.

Yeah, there's still a few, a few more days, particularly in October, um, but, uh, you

know, that stuff tends to book up pretty quick.

So it's, uh, it's pretty fun.

Well, there you go.

Well, listen, folks, it's getting warm outside and as Matt said, though, I think we're finally

out of this yo-yo weather where it snows one day and then it's 85 degrees the next.

So, um, you know, if it's warmer, you are, get out there and fish and also want to wish

everyone a happy Easter.

Tightlines everybody.

Tightlines and happy Easter, Matt.

Hey, thanks, man.

You too.