S7, Ep 23: Pre-Spawn Secrets: Brendan Ruch on Spring Bass Tactics

Marvin Cash00:00:00

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Flower, back with another Roosh report with the man himself, Brendan Rusch.Brendan, how are you?

Brendan Ruch00:00:12

I'm doing well, Marvin. Back on bass for 25. And it feels good to. To get some vitamin D and feel a tug.

Marvin Cash00:00:20

Yeah. I tell you, your groupies crawled out of the woodwork on social media when we were chumming for questions. They missed you.

Brendan Ruch00:00:27

Yeah, it's pretty funny. I, I would imagine most of them are also texting me at the same time that they're answering questions or asking questions. But yeah, I appreciate it.I appreciate the participation.

Marvin Cash00:00:39

Yeah, there you go. So, you know, you're. I don't know, you're a few hundred miles north of me up in, up in pa, so it's not as, I mean, tropical down here.I think we were almost at 80 degrees today. You're not quite there yet. But what are you seeing on the pre spawn bite?

Brendan Ruch00:00:55

Last week we like midweek was totally insane. It was like pre spawn was on. Weren't fully committing to that upper water column.Lighter colored fly bite for me, but just kind of fishing flies with a, you know, a small tungsten bead or a keel that were darker and had copper flash seemed to be the trick. And once we cracked that code, it was like two days of mayhem. And then it got super windy and I, I left the state for a few days.

Marvin Cash00:01:26

Yeah, any, any trip you want to share with our folks?

Brendan Ruch00:01:31

Well, before that, I was fishing down in Virginia with Austin from Virginia trophy guides and my boy Jimmy G, who was a master cork bug specialist out of Pittsburgh. But yeah, I was, I was on a trip for pleasure this past weekend.

Marvin Cash00:01:48

Well, there you go.Well, you know, you told us a little bit about kind of fly color, you know, any particular type of bug or anything on the terminal tackle side you want to share?

Brendan Ruch00:01:56

Yeah.So if anyone's been following what I've been posting, I've been fishing the nut job or the leggy hair day, I think it's called on the AirX YouTube page. But yeah, so it's just a craft for a fly that fishes a lot like a leggy boy. So shimmy shake with the tail on the shank.It's a pretty long fly, like probably five and a half inches, like standard size. But yeah, fishing black over olive with some satin sen o and olive. I don't think that color really matters.It's more like the density of the material and then veiling that sen oceanil with copper polar flash, which I think is the big key right now.

Marvin Cash00:02:44

Got it. And got a question for you from Corey Rubin. He wanted to get your thoughts on two things.First, you know, kind of, you know, when do you like to, you know, use keels on your swim flies? But then also too, you know, what's your favorite novelty shape when it comes to Reese's?

Brendan Ruch00:03:00

Cubs, man. I think the, the Reese's question is pretty tough. We'll circle back to that.But as far as keeling goes, I think I have a different perspective on it than the guys that I learned to keel from. I'll usually secure a keel at the vice and I don't really make adjustments on the water. I'll just pick a different fly.That's one of the nice things about not having pike is that I have so many flies that I've tied the last seven years, eight years, so. But in the last, God, I don't know, since the leggy boy came out, I've been putting different size tungsten beads instead of a keel.So most of the time they're going to be a 3:16 speed. Sorry to all you Euro guys out there. I'm not sure of the millimeter, but 3:16 speed.And then pretty much all the swim flies I tie and fish are going to be dense. So that's why I put the bead in like, like every feather changer, especially with a brush head.Um, I think it's really important just to get that fly to break, you know, break that top five inches for me.Um, but yeah, the keel I think is really nice if you don't have, you know, a hundred swim flies to choose from and you want to be able to be more versatile with what you have on the water. So.So yeah, I think needing to get that fly maybe out of sight, like if, if you find yourself getting eats, which I often do, like you, you know, strip, strip, pause, and that fly goes outta sight and then all of a sudden you feel a tug. Um, so then I would say, you know, go in your bag, get out some 030 lead, put a keel on your fly, and then you're gonna get eats more consistently.

Marvin Cash00:04:45

Got it. And any, any, you know, as opposed to keeling, would you maybe switch to a denser line?

Brendan Ruch00:04:54

Yeah, you can do that too. So the, the newer Mid Atlantic Orvis SA Fulling mill rep. His name is David Litton. He's a great dude.He turned me on to fishing the SA Titan sync tip last year. The, the Type three.Um, so it's just a little bit heavier than the intermediate and it seems to keep that fly down, especially when you're doing a little bit faster retrieves. And I'm not necessarily changing the way I fish or anything, but, or, or like the flies or anything like that.It's just I'm using that line during the higher spring flows, especially now when the fish kind of want to stay down a little bit more. So yeah, thank you to David for that. And that line has been making my life a lot easier.And we're, we're able to make the pauses a little bit shorter, I think because you know that that fly is just staying down that that line's keeping the fly maybe five inches deeper than it would be with an intermediate.

Marvin Cash00:05:53

Got it. And now, you know, you gotta answer the Reese's cup question.

Brendan Ruch00:05:57

I was joking. It wasn't hard at all. It's the Easter egg. And no, no flat, thin eggs. I'm talking like the regular.You know, you buy em, one or two in a, in a container and yeah, it's, it's the right ratio. And there are a few others out there. I think the, the hearts are a good ratio.I don't know, some of the, maybe like the, the Christmas tree, the pumpkin, but there are some frauds out there that just have too much chocolate.

Marvin Cash00:06:28

Got it. And where do you come down on Cadbury eggs.

Brendan Ruch00:06:34

From memory? Not a fan. A little too, a little too gooey, I think. I haven't had one in a long time. Favorite color of Peeps Yellow pops into my head.It's the only one I know.

Marvin Cash00:06:45

Oh, there you go. Well, you know folks, we love questions on the articulate fly. You can email me or DM me on social media, whatever's easiest for you.And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag. And it might even include a new butcher shop sticker. And we will enter in a drawing for something TBD from Brendan at the end of the season.And Brendan, before I let you go and finish shuttling your boat today, you want to let folks, you know one, you know where they can find you to book you and fish with you, but also where your adoring fans can find you on Log Jam every Tuesday night.

Brendan Ruch00:07:17

Yeah.So Tuesday night on the Log Jam fishing company Instagram account, you should be able to find it through my Instagram account as well, which is at Brendanrous. We do live fly tying and recently we've been.We were inspired by an episode with Chris Willen last year when he really went kind of all out and gave us his. His whole Muskie. Muskie spiel. We really appreciated that. So we've been doing some more in depth episodes, but yeah, so you can reach us there.Tuesday night, 8.35ish. And then I have a Facebook page at Brendan Roush. And then rouge angling.I don't really keep up with rouge angling, but I'll be on there a little bit more often. And yeah, my cell number is 215-837-6533. Please, no pictures.

Marvin Cash00:08:10

Well, there you go. And as I say, is where, you know, most of the countries kind of thong out, you know, you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few.Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Brendan.

Brendan Ruch00:08:20

Take care, guys.