S6, Ep 146: Musky Mysteries: Winter Tactics and Fly Tying Tips with Matt Reilly

Marvin Cash
00:00:04

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly. We're back with another southwest Virginia fishing report with Matt Reilly. Matt, how are you?

Matt Reilly
00:00:11

I'm doing pretty good, man. Just thawing out from a pretty brutal day on the water.

Marvin Cash
00:00:16

Yeah, we're actually recording early because you got blown off, right?

Matt Reilly
00:00:20

Yeah. Got a big cold front basically coming through middle of the day today.

I guess we started out, left the house this morning with like 52 degree temps and rain, and by, you know, two in the afternoon, it was gusting 40 and 50 and snowing. So big change.

Marvin Cash
00:00:44

Yeah, it's that southwest Virginia thing. I always say when I come over the mountain to fish for muskie, the Temperature is like 15 degrees colder over there than it is in Bedford.

Matt Reilly
00:00:53

That is correct.

Marvin Cash
00:00:55

So you are 100% on the Muskie train for the most part.

So, you know, it's been kind of funny because we were talking, you know, it was super cold, it's warmed up, it's going to cool off again, and then it's going to warm back up to kind of, I guess, seasonable levels, you know. What are you seeing on the water?

Matt Reilly
00:01:11

Yeah, yeah, like you said, I mean, we had. We had ice in. In the watershed in a lot of places last week, early last week, mid last week because we.

We didn't get above freezing for a couple of days.

And then basically the weekend through, you know, today, this morning, we'd had some highs in the upper 40s and 50s, close to 60 on Sunday, I think it was. So things have warmed back up pretty quick.

You know, water temps were down around freezing, and certain places were up to like, the low to mid-40s again. So it's definitely been changing around a lot.

I was off the water for a couple days there when it was real cold and then on bad duty for a couple of days after that. So thankfully, I just got to get back into the swing when. When things warmed up a bit here.

Marvin Cash
00:02:20

Yeah. And so when you kind of have that temperature. Yo. Yo.

You know, does the cold, you know, when it's super cold and then it warms up, you know, did the fish get a little chase here or is it just not enough of a movement for long enough for it to really matter?

Matt Reilly
00:02:34

I mean, I think those big warmups are really significant. I mean, like I said, in places, we've seen a close to 10 degrees swing in the last four days or so. And, you know, once.

Once those fish are in winter mode, you know, those cold fronts, usually, you know, you'll have, you know, A day or two where the highs are around freezing or lower.

And you know, a couple of real bright bluebird days, some wind it can, can make for some really tough fishing and, you know, so that'll shut them down for a couple of days sometimes. And then, you know, you get a kind of a warm front coming through. Like we've had the last couple of days with the temp comes back up.

We've got some clouds and rains usually associated with those events. And that can, that can be. Be pretty good. I mean, we've had a. We had a really good day today despite the challenging conditions.

And these, these are some of those days where you just kind of have to have. Have faith and. But still be stoic about muskies being muskies and taking what the river will give you and, you know, being there.

Marvin Cash
00:03:59

Yeah.

And so I guess really kind of what you're saying is they don't really move around once they're in their winter spots, but what that water temperature is doing is it's affecting their metabolism. Right, Right.

Matt Reilly
00:04:07

Correct. Yeah. And I mean, to that end, they did.

You know, that big drop in temp that we saw, you know, a week or two ago certainly has caused a final bit of movement into wintering areas.

Whereas, you know, two or three weeks ago they were, you know, we still had water temps in the mid-40s in places, and they were a little bit more, know, loose in the river where if I'm fishing now, I'm. I'm definitely, you know, limiting my. My water more so than I was a couple weeks ago.

Marvin Cash
00:04:53

Got it. And got a question for you from Jason.

And he must be musky curious because he wants to get your thoughts on flies to start tying to get into the muskie game.

Matt Reilly
00:05:04

Yeah, that's a good question.

I was actually just talking to a friend of mine about this the other day because he's doesn't do a lot of muskie fishing, but has been wanting to mess around with the flies and for good reason because it's a lot of fun and they're cool. But I would say just to kind of keep it simple to start with.

Marvin Cash
00:05:29

There.

Matt Reilly
00:05:30

There's a couple. I mean, there's a couple of skill sets that really come into play time. Musky flies that you should, you should practice one.

You know, being hollow or reverse time bucktail is a big one. Learning to tie and learning, sort of the concept behind a bulkhead is kind of the genesis of the real popular muskie fly, the Buford.

Those things are worth messing around with. I Wouldn't jump straight into like giant, you know, 12 inch, 14 inch bugs just because they're expensive to tie.

I mean you get a lot of reps in doing that, practicing those techniques.

But if you want to turn out a couple of flies, I mean start with some singles, single Bufords, even things like Brad Bones got a fly called an optic minnow.

I think it was one of my, one of the first, first flies that tied pretty much just, you know, saddle feathers and a bunch of reverse tied bucktail and maybe some epoxy head or a fish mask head. Um, and then you know, there's a couple of synthetic or mostly synthetic flies that I like a lot. I fish a lot that are really effective.

Um, the Optimus Swine is one that comes into mind pretty quick. That's a, you know like a single five or six hook, some synthetic materials, some flash some feathers, some bucktail laser Dubai eyes.

You know, again kind of standard large streamer, musky materials and processes. And those slides fish pretty well. They're easy to tie. There's several videos out there on the Internet about them.

Those would probably be my first couple recommendations. Just because, you know, a Buford and an Optimus swine, I mean fairly easy to tie, pretty simple and lots of instruction out there for both of those.

And they catch fish. So I would start with something like that.

And I would say just as a general point, when you're, when you're working with bucktail, it makes a huge difference having quality bucktail stuff that, you know, if you're trying to build a body for a fly that's, that's going to kick and glide. Do all the stuff you want musky flies to do. Generally speaking, you want some flies with some buoyancy, some flair.

You know, when you, when you spin it and tie with it, it's fairly crinkly and not super straight. Just kind of helps create a fuller body. And there's, there's several really good providers of that stuff. My buddy Ellis is a good one.

He sells his stuff direct but also through Tailwaters Flyco down in Bluff City. Musky fool makes make some really good stuff. There's some guys up in, I think they're. Honestly, I think they're in Canada. I can't remember high guys.

I think it is make some really good bucktail. But it can, you'll pay for it. But frankly the as expensive as just your standard hairline like northern bucktail has gotten, it's, it's worth it.

And if you're somebody like me who is going to be really critical about, you know, how the fly turns out and what it looks like and how it feels and all that. You're going to want to, you're going to want to play with good stuff and, and frankly, it'll just, it's easier to tie with the higher quality it is.

So that's a, that's a tip that I would definitely keep in mind. And I actually just put, I just put an article out, well, earlier this week with Hatch magazine that it's kind of along these lines.

It's not really telling anybody what patterns to tie or what materials to use or anything like that, but it's just kind of some really basic sort of design attributes that you want in a musky fly that, that can, you know, poke, hold and land a fish. And I make a pretty, pretty prominent point in there that you should, you should be creative and you should try different things.

So, you know, the other tip is basically just to have fun, mess around with it, do different things. And muskie will eat a lot of stuff, so it's nice to be able to play around and kind of veer off of the recipe a little bit.

Marvin Cash
00:10:48

Yeah.

And then as you kind of fall deeper down the rabbit hole and you start talking about lots of shanks and brushes, do you suggest that people maybe tie like, you know, large or larger trout streamers to kind of work on the techniques so they don't go drop 30 bucks in brushes on a really, really long fly the first time out of the box?

Matt Reilly
00:11:06

Yeah, I mean, 30 bucks would be maybe on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but that's not a bad idea at all. And, and, yeah, but I mean, you know, the other side of it is these flies take time to tie, period. No matter.

I mean, sometimes I spend just as long on a 4 inch trout streamer as I would a 12 inch Muskie fly. And it, you don't, I, people ask me all the time, well, how long does it take you to tie a fly like that?

And I, if I could tie one in an hour, I, I, I don't do it because I like to take my time and I want it to turn out well and I want it to turn into something that I'm going to be excited about fishing.

So, you know, I would, I would say to, yeah, maybe start on the smaller side, but you know, not necessarily, you know, if, if you're going to invest the time, definitely spend it tying something that, that you're going to want to fish or be confident in fishing when it does Come to that. Yeah.

Marvin Cash
00:12:14

It's interesting because, yeah, you can spend a small fortune and we could even really like, you know, send Jason down the path and tell him to get a brush table and make his own brushes.

Matt Reilly
00:12:22

Yeah, yeah, don't do that. Not yet. It'll. It'll suck you in at some point if. If you're prone to it.

Marvin Cash
00:12:31

Yeah, sounded like a good idea at the time, they like to say.

Matt Reilly
00:12:36

That's right.

Marvin Cash
00:12:36

Yeah, that's right.

Matt Reilly
00:12:37

It'll save you money and time.

Marvin Cash
00:12:40

You'll have some. You'll save so much money you can buy an extra boat.

Matt Reilly
00:12:44

Right?

Marvin Cash
00:12:44

Yeah. So, you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly. You can email me or DM me on social, whatever is easiest for you.

And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate flash wagon interviewing for a drawing for some cool stuff from Matt. And we're going to. Actually, this will be our last report of 2024, but we'll draw the first report of 2025.

So, you know, we're going to keep doing these. So folks, keep sending in your questions.

And, you know, Matt, before I let you go, you want to let folks know kind of what you have available, what you're booking, how to reach out and all that kind of good stuff.

Matt Reilly
00:13:18

Yeah, I still got some musky days available through, like, January, February, mostly February, and then kind of booking everything. I mean, I've had some folks starting to. Starting to book spring smallmouth stuff. I've had summer stuff booked for a long time, spring striper stuff.

We're going to have another periodical, Cicada Hatch, to play with this coming spring. So if you're interested in that, you know, reach out to me, too. And, you know, I'll start hitting sort of my.

My inner circle, my regular folks here in the next couple of weeks to make sure we've got our dates on the calendar. So things will start to start to fill up pretty quick. But yeah, like I.

Like I always say, if there's anything that you're interested in, whether you're, you know, actively planning on booking something or not, just reach out. We can have a conversation and figure out what the windows are and how to get done, what you're interested in, and go from there.

Marvin Cash
00:14:32

Yeah, And I'll put out my standard Southwest Virginia, western North Carolina, east Tennessee public service announcement to remind people that it's easy to get to these places again. There are very, very few roads that are still closed post. Helene. All of these communities lost a ton of tourism money in the fall.

And so, you know, when you're doing holiday shopping or holiday traveling, I would encourage you to go to these communities and spend money or buy gift certificates or buy gift cards.

Matt Reilly
00:14:59

Yeah, absolutely, man. I appreciate that.

Marvin Cash
00:15:02

Yeah. So it's going to be a multi year process, but that's just a little something that people can do.

And you know, I just want to say, first of all, I'm going to always encourage you to get out and get on the water. But I also want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year, Matt.

Matt Reilly
00:15:16

Merry Christmas, Marvin.