S7, Ep 65: Dirty Water Dilemmas: Fishing Insights from Matt Reilly in Southwest Virginia

EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Matt Reilly - Professional Guide at Matt Reilly Fly Fishing (Southwest Virginia)

In this episode: Southwest Virginia guide Matt Reilly shares dirty water fishing strategies and summer adaptation techniques for challenging conditions. Topics include streamer tactics for high water, color selection strategies and transitioning from topwater to subsurface presentations.

Key fishing techniques covered: • Streamer fishing with crayfish patterns • Chuck Kraft's Critter mite flies for dirty water • Bottom contact techniques • Upsizing streamers for swift dirty water • Contrasty dark color selection

Location focus: Southwest Virginia rivers, Tennessee border waters

Target species: Smallmouth bass, musky

Equipment discussed: Streamers (3-5 inch range), crayfish patterns, black and blue flies, copper flash patterns

Key questions answered: • How to fish dirty water effectively • When to change fly colors vs tactics • How to adapt summer fishing strategies

Best for: Intermediate to advanced anglers interested in smallmouth bass tactics and guide-level strategic thinking

Marvin Cash00:00:00

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 Reilly00:00:11

I'm not doing too bad. Marvin, how are you?

Marvin Cash00:00:14

Just trying to stay cool. Sounds like you're in the same boat.

Matt Reilly00:00:17

Yeah, it's been hot, been wet. Just doing everything we can over here.

Marvin Cash00:00:25

Yeah.Well, I'm going to remember this because we, you know, you always tell me you're so much cooler than we are kind of on the other side of the mountain. So I now know it's hot. Are too.

Matt Reilly00:00:33

Yeah, well, it's, it's definitely hot. It just depends on where you are.I mean, we were fishing down in Tennessee last week and, you know, just, just 45 minutes to an hour from me south, it starts to, it's creeping up into the mid-90s. You go north of me and the highs are in the mid-80s. So it just kind of depends on your elevation and, and all.But it is definitely hot and it's been fairly humid a lot of these days too.

Marvin Cash00:01:02

Yeah, you were telling me it's kind of messed up your, your top water groove.

Matt Reilly00:01:06

Yeah. You know, like, like I tell people in the summertime, I, I have a lot of options as far as water I can fish.So I am generally trying to chase the conditions that I want to fish and that are conducive to catching big fish consistently. And in the summertime, it generally means looking for good top water bug fishing options.And we've, we've been pretty, pretty thin in that department lately with a lot of, a lot of high dirty water and, you know, isolated storm cells rolling through overnight. And so, yeah, it's been a little bit of a challenge, but, you know, haven't lost any days until today, which is a little bit of a fluke.But it hadn't been too bad.

Marvin Cash00:02:00

Yeah. And so, you know, if you're, you know, how do you kind of change things up if you don't get exactly what you want?You're fishing this high, dirty water kind of. What do you shift to.

Matt Reilly00:02:10

Man? A lot of, a lot of, you know, streamer, bait, fish stuff. I wouldn't say dredging, but like, you know, crayfish and fishing.A lot of Chuck's critter mite is type flies here lately. You know, just sort of a, a wide range of, of tactics right now.Just kind of trying to feel things out, working with the clarity and the speed of flow because it's another thing you can deal with is, you know, dirty water isn't always high and it's not always fast. And those are two very different, you know, low to average flow and dirty water. It's a very different scenario than say high, swift, dirty water.So, you know, just, just playing the subsurface game, trying to take flies, two fish and yeah, that's, that's really been it. Crayfish.When we've get some, get some color in the water and there's some speed, I'll, I'll go up in size a little bit in my streamer patterns, you know, maybe kind of an intermediary between my normal like three, three and a half inch summer type flies to, you know, my spring pre spawn stuff. So somewhere in the like 4, 4 and a half, 5 inch range sometimes. Yeah, just seeing what the fish want day to day is always the name of the game.

Marvin Cash00:03:41

Yeah. And so in terms of fishing dirty water, how do you like to kind of change your fly color?

Matt Reilly00:03:48

You know, contrasty dark colors? I like black, black and blue, black and purple, some kind of coppery flash or, you know, brush s Daz, whatever.On, on different subsurface patterns are always good. Bottom contact can be a big deal because fish, you know, smallmouth tend to orient to the bottom when, when their visibility is reduced dramatically.So sometimes the color is less important than making bottom contact. But I, I always, you know, generally get out of the, the whites and tans and, and you know, go towards darker kind of more contrasty colors.

Marvin Cash00:04:39

Got it. And I can't remember, are you a rattle or a no rattle guy?

Matt Reilly00:04:44

Man, I, I really, really not sure. I, I have an opinion, but I don't fish a lot of rattles.And you know, again, the, I talk about fishing dirty water, it's, we're not talking about fishing brown, you know, blown out, opaque water because we run into that, we're, we're going to cancel or reschedule. And if that's the case somewhere, I usually have an option somewhere else that's, you know, in better shape.But you know, just largely talking about some reduced visibility, you know, foot, two feet of visibility and you know, fish visually I think have, have a fairly easy time finding flies in those kinds of conditions. I think people don't give them enough credit. Why their reaction distance will, will shrink.And so, you know, it, you do have to get closer to a fish with your offering, which usually means, you know, more cast, working things more methodically. But you know, I, I have, I have especially in the musky world, played with rattles and the absence of rattles.And I really can't form a scientific opinion on it.

Marvin Cash00:06:01

Fair enough. And so even though you've been fishing a ton, you managed to get an article out and hatch.

Matt Reilly00:06:08

Yeah, yeah, I had, I had one about what I wish I could be doing right now, fishing for big techie smallmouth on the surface. Come out a couple of days ago. Just something I've been kind of holding on to for a couple months.But hopefully we can get back to some of that here in the next couple of weeks.We've just got a couple more weeks of these dog days and hopefully the temperature swing and, you know, moisture swing will, will help our, our water clarity and river level situation.

Marvin Cash00:06:43

Yeah, you're a little bit more optimistic than I am. I'm just sitting here going like, gosh, are we going to have to wait until after Labor Day for it to cool off?

Matt Reilly00:06:51

Well, I don't have much of a choice.

Marvin Cash00:06:54

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 probably throw in a butcher shop sticker or two and enter you in a drawing for some cool stuff for Matt at the end of the season.And Matt, I know you are already pretty well, I know you're probably completely booked up other than cancellations for smallmouth and you've kind of started to crack the books on the muskie thing, but you want to let folks know kind of what you have available, how to reach out and all that kind of good stuff.

Matt Reilly00:07:23

Yeah, definitely looking at, you know, fall, winter fishing.Next dates I'm going to have open are going to be in, you know, probably early second week of December or so, but really haven't started booking real heavily for musky season yet. So there's a lot of open, open dates there. If it's something you're interested in, it's worth reaching out.Start talking about it so we can, you know, whether you've, you know, not.Not done it at all and want to, you know, have a, a strong introduction or, you know, you're looking to, you know, target a bigger fish or, you know, learn something in particular there. There are some nuances to the different portions of the fall winter muskie season.So if it's something you're interested in, definitely reach out and we'll kind of start figuring out when would be best to book a trip. I really, really like having the ability to do that, especially with muskie clients because it's not an easy game.And, you know, more than anything, I just like to focus on teaching folks and, you know, showing them sort of the most valuable day to their fishing as possible. And, you know, if I can help it, I really don't want to take a beginner in January. And if. Yeah. So that that's a conversation worth having.But you can get in contact with me, as always, through my website, mattrally fly fishing.com. it's got my phone number, email, all that on there and just reach out however you feel best.

Marvin Cash00:09:12

Well, there you go.Well, folks, as always, say this time of the year, first of all, stay cool, but show it yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.

Matt Reilly00:09:21

Thanks, Marv.