S7, Ep 52: The Summer Shift: Adapting Your Fly Game with Brendan Ruch

Marvin Cash00:00:04

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly. We're back with another Ruch Report with the man himself, Brendan Ruch. Brendan, how are you?

Brendan Ruch00:00:12

I'm good. Been riding the bench, looking at the gauges, rescheduling trips and pulling wires. How are you doing?

Marvin Cash00:00:21

Yeah, I. It's hot down here. You know, we've been getting a lot of rain.We haven't gotten as much as you have, but I was talking to some other folks in PA last week and it sounds like not a lot of people are doing a lot of fishing right now.

Brendan Ruch00:00:34

Yeah, I think it can be done especially on the, the cicada pond side of things. Been seeing a lot of people getting, getting carp, cicada fishing, like lakes and stuff like that in the zone.But yeah, as far as the Smalley river fishing goes, pretty much everything's been blown or like fishable for a day or two and then blown again for the last month and a half.

Marvin Cash00:01:04

Yeah, it doesn't sound like much fun, but you wanted to talk about, and this is kind of seasonal anyway, is to kind of talk a little bit about, you know, your top water fishing as we kind of move into summer, but also how you like to kind of scale down your bait fish as you move into summer flows.

Brendan Ruch00:01:19

Yeah, so where I'm fishing, you know, it's been said before, but I'm going to scale down to maybe like a 2 1/2, 3 inch slim profile bait fish fly. I don't have any hard and fast rules on like flashing the sun, flashing overcast.I'm pretty much going to be changing that throughout bite windows to see what when I can get a fish to react. When I'm fishing top water, it's going to be Mr. Wiggly style pretty much all the time, even with boogal bugs and cork bugs and things like that.But what I kind of wanted to talk about was how people who have the luxury of having smallmouth and faster water, higher gradient rivers, don't be afraid to fish your 5 inch flies. Your, your pre spawn box could be your summer box also, especially if you have slightly green water.But in my experience of fishing a decent amount of different water over the years, I will typically start out with my south central giant spring creek basically that I fish. You know, it's very low gradient, slow and can get super clear.So I'm, I'm gonna start scaled down and the guy in front of me or behind me on the boat's fishing like a 5 inch fly and I'm like, oh, that's interesting.And then we're catching the same amount of fish and theirs might be bigger, whatever, but if you're in that faster water, obviously you have to pick your shots because fish are gonna be not quite as spread out as I'm used to.So fishing like upstream side of ledges and boulders and the pushes on the upstream sides of that, maybe even in the, the downstream side, but the opportunistic fish are going to be on that upstream side. But yeah, it's like just try fishing big stuff this summer.I think it's, it's beaten through our heads so much that like you have to fish like a micro finesse changer or a downsized merged minnow. Um, at least it's been beaten into my head and I've beaten it into my own head and my client's head. But it doesn't have to be micro all the time.So if you're fishing faster water, give the bigger bugs a shot and maybe you're, you're like, wait, I don't even downsize all summer. What are you talking about? Well, good for you because I wish I, I wish I had that luxury. But same thing kind of goes for poppers.So like I was saying, um, I'm usually trying to create a little wake and quote unquote bend the legs when I'm fishing top water. It doesn't matter if it's cork balsa foam. That's pretty much how I'm getting fish to eat all summer long.Um, but if you're in the faster water sections, you got like a shallow flat with some good current like you can some of the rivers I fish, even in pa, you can really pop those things all summer long. And as long as those fish are in a bite window, you're going to get fish to react.And sometimes you can get some crazy eats out of the fast, faster water.

Marvin Cash00:04:39

Very neat. And got a question for you too from Samurai Flies. And he wanted to get to know if you have any R and D for tires.

Brendan Ruch00:04:47

Have I mentioned the single nut job that I've been fishing?

Marvin Cash00:04:51

I don't think you have.

Brendan Ruch00:04:54

So I've sent pictures and recipes to a bunch of people who I know have been tying and fishing the nut job with success.But back in March, I started messing around with a smaller single hook version because I knew the time would come eventually to kind of scale down and get away from like the five and a half inch fly. So it's, it started out as normal, like cut tail shank with a 15 mil shank. That has just chenille, whether it's finesse or the seno satin chenille.And then the regular front hook setup. So it's going to be shank shank, 6 mil bead maxima, 25 or 30 pound chameleon for the connection.And then like a size 1 Trout Predator or size 2 B10s has been good. And you can mess around with. You can put a 10 mil shank in between the tail shank and the front hook, but it's very fluky.I was really surprised with how well that thing moves. It might even move better than the double.And yeah, I was catching fish on it back in March and just kind of like worked it into the program, you know, as needed. When, you know, fish weren't responding to the bigger fly, it seemed like they would respond immediately to that like 3 1/2 inch fly.I'm still doing a pretty long tail, but it doesn't have to be like the full two inches that I preach on the, on the full size version. So you can go like inch and a half and you're still gonna get like a good wag and kick.But it, it seems like the, the beads have much more of an effect like the tungsten beads. So I've just been doing the old fashioned like keel as needed, which is not something I typically do.I think I've talked about that before, but craft fair sinks pretty well. And I'm not tying the chenille very dense. So heel as needed. Bring some like 025030 lead on the boat with you and just wrap it on the hook.Throw some super glue on it or resin if you're crazy. But yeah.And I also have tied some inverted versions of that same exact setup with the like Schultz woodsman set up on the shank or on the front hook rather. So you got like a 26 degree trout predator. Try to air on the bottom side of the shank for all the materials.So you're tying a little bit heavier on the bottom of the shank than you are on the top of the shank just to get that natural flip. And then you can go with a bead and a scud weight. And that thing definitely jigs really well. And I was dragging it around.I haven't fished that one a ton, but I was dragging it around with Austin just trying to get hung up. And it did not get hung up on the gravel flat or the. Not gravel flat, the cobble flat. I was fishing with Austin on the new.So more work to be done on that. But The. The regular single has been fishing really, really well.And I heard Nick Meinsinger even call that his fly of the season in a presentation last weekend at Schultz Outfitters. So Interesting stuff.

Marvin Cash00:08:13

Yeah, there you go. And, you know, if folks want to get.Get more information, should they reach out to you or you got to post somewhere on the Internet or you got a video, anything good like that, that's.

Brendan Ruch00:08:23

Still living on my phone. So you can reach out to. To Brendan Ro on Instagram, Brendan Roush on Facebook, or Ro angling on Facebook for that.Um, I've got pictures and formulas already written out. So if you listen to this and you want to fish it, just reach out and have some fun fishing. A little bit smaller fly that kicks around pretty good.

Marvin Cash00:08:44

Yeah, there you go. And you know, we love questions on the articulate fly.We're in the home stretch because, you know, Brendan, even though he's like his season keeps creeping out, I don't think I'm going to interview him in two weeks and have him tell me he's going to be guiding in August. And so we're getting kind of close to the end of the road for summer fishing.And so, you know, we'll be drawing here probably sometime towards the end of June, maybe middle, middle of July. So if you want to have a chance to win, cool. Brennan Roosh swag. You need to get your questions in.And you gave everybody your contact information, Brendan. But you know, when the water drops, you want to let folks kind of know, you know, what you have available and all that kind of good stuff.

Brendan Ruch00:09:22

Yeah, I've got handful of days at the end of the month. I think two days at the end of June, and then I will. We can talk trips August in the fall, if it works out. It works out. And we can get on some.Some bug fish.

Marvin Cash00:09:43

Well, there you go. Well, you know, folks, as I always say, this time of year, yo to yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines.Brendan.

Brendan Ruch00:09:51

Go wet a line, folks.

Marvin Cash00:09:53

There you go.