S6, Ep 61: The Ruch Report: Early Summer Flows and Topwater Fishing
Join host Marvin Cash on The Articulate Fly for the latest Ruch Report with the man himself, Brendan Ruch. Brendan shares insights on early summer fishing conditions, including the excitement of fishing streamers in high water and transitioning to the topwater bite as water levels drop. Learn about the best techniques for targeting bass with topwater bugs, including the importance of shade lines and optimal depths for fishing.
Brendan also answers listener questions, including a humorous inquiry from a friend about listening to The Smiths while fishing. He provides practical advice on the best ways to fish topwater bugs, from the right amount of twitching to the importance of water clarity and depth. As summer approaches, Brendan discusses the upcoming topwater season and the end of the big streamer bite, recommending smaller streamers like finesse changers and shimmering minnows for continued success.
Don't miss Brendan's shout-out to his friends at Logjam and House Fly, and learn about the exciting prize pack he's putting together, including stickers, merchandise and a Ruch Angling hat. Whether you're planning your next fishing trip or looking for expert advice, this episode is packed with valuable information and a few laughs. Tight lines!
To learn more about Brendan, check out our interview.
All Things Social Media
Follow Brendan on Facebook and Instagram.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Support the Show
Subscribe to the Podcast
Subscribe to the podcast in the podcatcher of your choice.
Advertise on the Podcast
Is our community a good fit for your brand? Advertise with us.
In the Industry and Need Help Getting Unstuck?
Check out our consulting options!
Speaker:
Marvin: Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly,
Speaker:
Marvin: and we're back with another Roosh Report with the man himself,
Speaker:
Marvin: Brendan Roosh. How are you, Brendan?
Speaker:
Brendan: Doing well, Marvin. Thank you. How are you doing?
Speaker:
Marvin: As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And how have things been on your
Speaker:
Marvin: home waters the last couple of weeks?
Speaker:
Brendan: Been dropping pretty consistently into the nice early summer flows.
Speaker:
Brendan: Got a little bit of rain today i would imagine the smaller water is going to
Speaker:
Brendan: bump a bit maybe get a little bit dirty for the next couple days but that's
Speaker:
Brendan: a good thing if you want to get out there and throw some streamers yeah.
Speaker:
Marvin: I was going to say that sounded like maybe the thing you were so excited about
Speaker:
Marvin: was having all that high water to fish streamers was kind of going away from you right.
Speaker:
Brendan: Yeah definitely it's uh gonna be turning into more of a top water bite and or
Speaker:
Brendan: um crayfish and smaller bait fish slim profile stuff gotcha.
Speaker:
Marvin: And so when you say top water are you talking like top water like frogs are
Speaker:
Marvin: you talking about top water bugs.
Speaker:
Brendan: Bugs for sure the frog bite kind of goes away with the the streamer water the
Speaker:
Brendan: bigger streamer water that is um but yeah i mean you're still fishing pretty
Speaker:
Brendan: large boogal bugs like the you
Speaker:
Brendan: know the largest size they make they'll eat them most of the summer got.
Speaker:
Marvin: It well uh you know your friends uh came uh you know came in for you because
Speaker:
Marvin: you got some really great questions.
Speaker:
Marvin: And I think I told you the asshat to non-asshat ratio was one to two or two
Speaker:
Marvin: to one if you go non-asshat to asshat.
Speaker:
Marvin: And the funny question is from one of your buddies, I guess it's Shagbark Sheriff,
Speaker:
Marvin: and he wanted to know how you listen to the Smiths on the water and not get
Speaker:
Marvin: so sad that you can't catch anything.
Speaker:
Brendan: Well, first of all, shout out Sam Riedman. I appreciate the question.
Speaker:
Brendan: I mean, if you're in the mood to listen to the Smiths you're already sad,
Speaker:
Brendan: so I don't think that's going to affect how you fish because you were going
Speaker:
Brendan: to fish the same way either way I think the Smiths just gives you a little bit of a boost,
Speaker:
Brendan: you get a little bit of a bass line and some drums to,
Speaker:
Brendan: add some consistency to your casting cadence and your stripping cadence and
Speaker:
Brendan: yeah, you can sing along too too, so you don't have to be sad by yourself.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, but it doesn't make you want to grab the anchor and just roll over the gunwale?
Speaker:
Brendan: No, never. No, no, no. Morrissey's boys counteracts the lyrics.
Speaker:
Brendan: That's the nice thing about the Smiths.
Speaker:
Marvin: There you go. And so in a slightly more serious vein and actually related to
Speaker:
Marvin: what you're seeing on the water, J.
Speaker:
Marvin: Wynn wanted to know, do you target shade lines when you topwater fish in the
Speaker:
Marvin: summer and also kind of some thoughts around, you know, the,
Speaker:
Marvin: the optimal depth to fish top water.
Speaker:
Brendan: Definitely targeting shade lines when they exist on good banks. Um,
Speaker:
Brendan: there are some some like silty featureless banks where maybe i'll just kind
Speaker:
Brendan: of pop out and fish that that first drop structure um yeah i mean you could
Speaker:
Brendan: be looking anywhere from a foot to,
Speaker:
Brendan: five feet um bass will definitely notice a cork bug slapping on the surface
Speaker:
Brendan: you know within 10 feet of them or so maybe even a little further when the water
Speaker:
Brendan: is super placid and uh typically
Speaker:
Brendan: it's going to be pretty clear when you're fishing that stuff.
Speaker:
Marvin: And so do they generally like to sit on the edge or are they going to sit inside
Speaker:
Marvin: from the edge and move to the bug?
Speaker:
Brendan: In the shade line you're talking about?
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:
Brendan: I mean, I would definitely get it a few feet, maybe two feet inside the edge,
Speaker:
Brendan: but I have had fish move out of the shade line on, you know,
Speaker:
Brendan: watching a cast that didn't get there all the way.
Speaker:
Brendan: You can see a fish poke its head out and come up and sit. it i'd be i'd be going
Speaker:
Brendan: two feet in though two to three feet got.
Speaker:
Marvin: It and i would imagine depth is probably what a function of water clarity.
Speaker:
Brendan: Yeah i mean in the shade line they can sit in some really skinny stuff um i
Speaker:
Brendan: think it's just gonna be more productive if you have like cobble rock bottom
Speaker:
Brendan: um or some you know a shade line
Speaker:
Brendan: that's going to be covering some boulders and um maybe a log or two got.
Speaker:
Marvin: It and then i'll you know ask you you know are you a no twitch the bug or twitch the bug kind of guy.
Speaker:
Brendan: I'm in
Speaker:
Brendan: between i'm a twitch the
Speaker:
Brendan: bug and if you twitch it too soon
Speaker:
Brendan: i'll say all right give it like twice the amount of pause and then i might say
Speaker:
Brendan: i give it twice that amount of pause it's kind of like that's one of those things
Speaker:
Brendan: where i feel like goldilocks um like it's too odd or too cool like it just doesn't
Speaker:
Brendan: feel right sometimes and when it does feel right it's usually when it gets seeking
Speaker:
Brendan: as far as like the the length of your pause.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, and I would imagine, or you're probably just trying to wiggle the bug
Speaker:
Marvin: just enough really to just kind of move the legs and disturb the surface just
Speaker:
Marvin: a little bit. You're not popping unless you're fishing a popper, right?
Speaker:
Brendan: Yeah, I mean, even if I am fishing a popper, a lot of times I'm doing that kind
Speaker:
Brendan: of leg bending movement.
Speaker:
Brendan: I think it depends on the speed of the water and the depth of the water.
Speaker:
Brendan: um like fishing some faster
Speaker:
Brendan: rivers in the past like faster than the stuff that i fish in
Speaker:
Brendan: south central pa um you can definitely pop a little
Speaker:
Brendan: bit louder um and a little bit more often when
Speaker:
Brendan: you're in some faster current um and then
Speaker:
Brendan: when you're in that really placid flat water that's not
Speaker:
Brendan: moving a ton i think i just don't think you need to pop um because a fish is
Speaker:
Brendan: going to respond to your fly landing and if it's starting to come up and you
Speaker:
Brendan: like you might not even see it but bending it bending the legs and creating
Speaker:
Brendan: a little bit of a wake is going to make that fish commit and.
Speaker:
Marvin: I would imagine you're probably doing that with just a little tap of the rod
Speaker:
Marvin: tip you're not moving the line hand right.
Speaker:
Brendan: Yeah i think if you strip it then you are more likely to get drag on the fly
Speaker:
Brendan: um just like you would if you were trying to dead drip the dry fly you're not
Speaker:
Brendan: gonna um do any sort of stripping, you're just going to be feeding line.
Speaker:
Brendan: So, um, typically what I recommend people do is just raise the rod tip until
Speaker:
Brendan: they see the legs move and then drop it immediately.
Speaker:
Brendan: So that slack kind of stays in the system and, uh, the fly isn't going to start
Speaker:
Brendan: swinging out if there are more than one currents, um, or if there's a current
Speaker:
Brendan: that's different in between you and your fly.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And, uh, you know, as you kind of start to move into the warmer days
Speaker:
Marvin: of the summer, uh, you know, what do you think the next couple of weeks are
Speaker:
Marvin: going to hold for you in Pennsylvania?
Speaker:
Brendan: Um the forecast is looking good i think we're
Speaker:
Brendan: going to definitely be going into the summer
Speaker:
Brendan: program pretty quickly um flows that
Speaker:
Brendan: i'm looking at are more typical of like a solid summer flow that's definitely
Speaker:
Brendan: not low water yet by any means but um fish are going to be looking up and i
Speaker:
Brendan: think I think the big streamer bite's probably over for most people.
Speaker:
Brendan: But the small streamer bite's still fun, and the best time of the year,
Speaker:
Brendan: the topwater season, is on the horizon.
Speaker:
Brendan: So dead drifting bugs is going to be the thing for the next few months here.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, and then probably what on the streamer front, probably like small changers, things like that?
Speaker:
Brendan: Yeah, finesse changers, Murdage Minnows, Shimmering Minnows,
Speaker:
Brendan: deceivers. I mean, anything that's going to be a slim profile and sub three and a half inches.
Speaker:
Marvin: Well, there you go. And you know, folks, we love questions at the Articulate Fly.
Speaker:
Marvin: You can email them to me. You can DM me on social media. We want to keep Brendan's
Speaker:
Marvin: life as simple as possible, and I'll manage the ASHAT and non-ASHAT questions.
Speaker:
Marvin: And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag.
Speaker:
Marvin: And Brendan is in the process of putting together a pretty Pretty good bunch
Speaker:
Marvin: of goodies from him, from the Log Jam folks, from the House of Fly folks.
Speaker:
Marvin: You want to tell folks a little bit more about that?
Speaker:
Brendan: Yes. And it's not House of Fly. It's House Fly from these guys.
Speaker:
Marvin: I'm sorry. The House of Fly guys are the guys on the West Coast, right?
Speaker:
Brendan: Yes.
Speaker:
Marvin: All right. My bad.
Speaker:
Brendan: But I totally understand the mix-up. It happens all the time.
Speaker:
Marvin: It makes me feel not so bad.
Speaker:
Marvin: so you want to tell folks a little bit more about kind of what you're pulling
Speaker:
Marvin: together and i know you're still working on it a little bit.
Speaker:
Brendan: Yeah um so we're going
Speaker:
Brendan: to get some stickers and some merchandise from uh log
Speaker:
Brendan: jam and my buddies at housefly um and i'll throw in a ruch angling hat as well
Speaker:
Brendan: a couple stickers so it's going to be if you're into uh any one of those companies
Speaker:
Brendan: you're probably in all three so should be a nice little prize bet super.
Speaker:
Marvin: Cool and you want to let folks know where they can reach out to you and book
Speaker:
Marvin: in fish with you this summer.
Speaker:
Brendan: Yeah um at brendan rish on instagram rish angling on facebook and uh yeah come
Speaker:
Brendan: out and fish it's going to be i think it's going to be a solid summer i don't
Speaker:
Brendan: see any weird weather patterns doesn't feel like it's going to be a weird year yeah.
Speaker:
Marvin: And then i guess if your groupies want to find you i know that you're kind of
Speaker:
Marvin: a regular on the Tuesday night time stuff with the Log Jam folks anywhere else folks can find you?
Speaker:
Brendan: As of right now, I don't have anything else on the horizon besides the Roosh
Speaker:
Brendan: Report and Log Jam Live on Tuesdays at 8.35 p.m. Eastern.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, that's an insanely specific time for you guys. It's kind of weird.
Speaker:
Brendan: I think he's doing it on purpose. I think it's like a Seinfeld bit.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, I would throw my hat and say just go for 8.37, seven, but that's just
Speaker:
Marvin: me split the difference. Exactly.
Speaker:
Marvin: Well, listen, folks, folks, as I always say, you owe it to yourself to get out
Speaker:
Marvin: there and catch a few tight lines, everybody tight lines, Brendan.
Speaker:
Brendan: Take care, Marvin. Thanks.
Follow:
