S7, Ep 1: Winter Fly Tying and Pre-Spawn Tips with Matt Reilly

Marvin Cash
00:00:00

Foreign. Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly. We're back with the first southwest Virginia fishing report of the year with Matt Riley.

Matt, how are you?

Matt Reilly
00:00:12

I'm doing great, man. Just holed up in my basement running away from the weather.

Marvin Cash
00:00:17

Yeah, you. I think you're gonna have a pretty cruel January in Southwest Virginia.

Matt Reilly
00:00:22

That's, that's the way it's looking. That's the way it's been so far.

Been out a couple times in the last couple of days where we've had a, you know, window of, you know, not 40 mile an hour winds and highs 5 degrees below freezing. But those are definitely the exception of the rule for the next ten days or so.

Marvin Cash
00:00:46

Yeah. So no real fishing stories.

But it's kind of funny because, you know, kind of coming through the other side of the holidays and kind of depending on where you are in the country, you know, winter can be more cruel in other places than others.

But Josh Fleener is obviously anticipating pre spawn smallmouth action and he's probably sitting in his vise and he wanted to get your thoughts on your favorite pre spawn patterns and color combinations.

Matt Reilly
00:01:12

Yeah, man, that's what I'm doing too. Just trying to get everything knocked out while I've got time. Because we'll be smallmouth fishing.

It's hard to believe right now, but maybe another month and a half depending on, depending on how this, the winter goes. I mean, it definitely seeming like it's a colder winter, maybe slower spring than it's been the last couple of years.

But I know, I know Josh ties a pile of, pile of swim flies. So I'll, I'll kind of keep it to, to the, you know, mid column streamer realm.

In terms of color combinations, I, I take a lot of my inspiration for color combos from the conventional world.

The kind of stuff that I, I like in a, in a jerk bait or a spinner bait or something like that to, to just get some, you know, diversity of interesting colors. And then, you know, you always have to think about water conditions too.

So you've got to have stuff for clear water, dirty water, cold water, warmer water. One thing I, I pretty, I mean, white's a given. White's a great color. White and chartreuse. I always have stock too. And then just some.

For some, like real clear water, some different variations on white. I do a lot of like white and gray, white and tan, that kind of stuff.

But one, one color that I've always liked in pre spawn streamer flies is, is orange. If you look at my jerkbait box, there's a couple different colors. Scoop is one of my favorite, like X rap colors.

It's like a purple back gray, you know, mid flank and an orange belly. I don't know why, I've just always, always done well in that color. And then anything else that's like in that tan orange realm.

You'll hear people talk too about fishing cold water smallmouth and there being a time frame in the early spring, late winter where like hot oranges and yellows are good and I've caught a lot of fish on those colors.

I'm not sure why necessarily that might be other than the fact that most fish, when they get, you know, pre spawn or, or you know, some fish that don't spawn on nests or maintain nests when they are actively spawning, they just get really sort of hormonal and aggressive. And so those bright colors like chartreuse and yellow and orange tend to be the good producers. So I've always got some in that realm in my box.

And then in terms of, you know, water clarity that kind of already mentioned some, some whites, whites and tans, whites and grays are, are all good chartreuses for some dirtier, you know, kind of more green, dark green water. And then you know, always have some darker color patterns too, like black and blues and black and purples and stuff like that.

That's pretty much been, been my, my formula. It's not, not too, too technical or anything groundbreaking, I don't think. But that's, that's pretty much where I live.

Marvin Cash
00:04:53

Yeah. Got it. In any kind of, you know, particular forage you're imitating. I mean obviously those like bright reaction strikes, not really a forage choice.

But is it really just kind of like, you know, small chubs and suckers and things like that? Is that kind of what you're trying to imitate on the fly side?

Matt Reilly
00:05:10

Yeah, I mean gear too. But I will say because I mean I fish, I fish both pretty actively, particularly through the late winter pre spawn time frame.

I, I'll fish a lot more bottom with conventional gear. And it's not to say I don't with fly gear, but it's just, it's.

It's way easier to achieve a really good bottom crawling presentation with spinning gear than it is with fly gear. It's also way more fun to fish swim flies streamers with a fly rod as opposed to dredging.

So if, if you're an equal opportunist and you'll use both, you know, like I'm I'm gonna go to the fly rod when I want to fish mid column and move a fly and pre spawn. I mean there's two times a year when.

Well there's probably more than two, but two big times a year that come to mind when smallmouth are really driven to feed heavily by instinct, more so than metabolism.

And the pre spawn is definitely one of those time frames because we could be fishing water, you know, basically between high 30s, low 40s, all the way up to 60 degrees. They, they, they're not burning calories like crazy.

They have to eat a lot to build up egg masses and just caloric reserves for the males that aren't going to eat for a while when they're garden nests and so and the water temperature is cold enough that they're able to chase big prey without burning too many calories.

So frankly, you know, I don't want to say the bigger the better but I, I tend to go pretty big in the springtime just because they, they're looking for big meals.

I mean I can't tell you how many like 6 and 7 inch chubs and stone rollers and mad toms and stuff I've pulled out of like 16, 17 inch smallmouth in, in March and April just because they're just trying to bulk up.

So that's, that's pretty much, pretty much what I'm going for on the fly front is you know, and, and obviously size you can and, and should probably take some cues from water level and clarity and blow. You know, if it's, we have a really low clear water spring, you probably need to dial it back from 6 and 7 inch flies.

Conversely, if it's really high and you're fishing a 2 inch, you know, like late summer day fish pattern is probably not going to be the best tool.

But yeah, for the most part I'm just, I'm trying to imitate large bait fish and then on the bottom big crayfish, flies and, and basically anything kind of creature y that you can bounce around and present a big meal without getting hung up too much.

Marvin Cash
00:08:20

Got it. And you know, we love questions on the articulate fly. You can email them to us or DM us on social media, whatever's easiest for you.

And if we use your question I will send you some articulate fly swag. And we're in a drawing for some cool stuff at the end of the 2025 season which obviously brings us to the drawing for the 2024 season.

And as I always do, I take the names of everyone who submitted a question and put them in the Google random number generator and pull one out of the hat. But before I announce the name, you want to announce what the winner's going to win?

Matt Reilly
00:08:49

Yeah, I'm going to pretty much do what I always have done.

I'll put together a little fly box of some of my favorite and best producing smallmouth flies for the whole season basically, um, as well as a bunch of stickers and, and ride company stuff as well.

Marvin Cash
00:09:13

Well, there you go. Well, the lucky winner is one of the articulate fly frequent flyers, Brenner Johnson. So Brenner, congratulations.

I suspect you will find me before I find you, but we'll get you hooked up with Matt and get you your goodies.

Matt Reilly
00:09:27

Yeah, man, sounds good. Yeah.

Marvin Cash
00:09:29

And so, you know, while you're at home getting super prepared for pre spawn, why don't you let folks know kind of, you know, what you're booking, how to reach out and all that kind of good stuff?

Matt Reilly
00:09:40

Yeah, man, pretty much booking everything right now I'm taking care of for the rest of muskie season, especially with all the days I've had to, to push here recently, but pushed a couple muskie days to next season, October, November. So if that's something you're interested in, at least reach out and we start talking about when to fit you in.

Over the course of that, you know, five month season and respond stuff. March and April is, is getting booked pretty, pretty solidly. But there's some days left.

So if that's your jam, streamer fishing, looking for the biggest, heaviest smallmouth of the year, that, that's, that's probably your program. And, and then I've got some summer days still left in the prime top water like mid July into early October window.

So those are always go pretty quick too. I mean I don't have a ton left pretty much anywhere, but still got some spring striper stuff open. Yeah, like I said, booking just about everything.

So if you're interested in any of that, just give me a shout and we'll, we'll at least talk.

Marvin Cash
00:11:06

Yeah, there you go.

And you know, I want to, first of all, I want to wish everyone a happy new year and encourage you when it thaws out a little bit to get out on the water.

But if you can't do that, you know, spend a little bit of time at the vice or maybe if you're lucky enough to have a fly fishing show near where you live, go check one of those out. Tight lines everybody. Tight lines.

Matt Reilly
00:11:24

Matt. Hey, thanks Marvin.