S7, Ep 90: Transitioning Tactics: Matt Reilly on Targeting Smallmouth and Musky This Fall

EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Regional Fishing Report - Matt Reilly (Guide at Matt Reilly Fly Fishing, Southwest Virginia)

In this episode: Virginia guide Matt Reilly shares fall transition tactics for targeting large smallmouth bass in Southwest Virginia's New River as conditions shift from summer patterns. Topics include adapting to cooling water temperatures, fish movement patterns and streamer strategies for low clear water.

Key fishing techniques covered:

• Upsizing streamers in clear water during fall
• Bug fishing with slow finesse presentations
• Sight fishing for visual targeting
• Prospecting topwater in transitional conditions
• Subsurface streamer presentations

Location focus: Southwest Virginia, New River

Target species: Smallmouth bass, musky (incidental)

Equipment discussed: Topwater bugs, streamers (larger profiles for fall), subsurface flies

Key questions answered:

• How to target large smallmouth in fall on New River
• What happens to big fish patterns in October
• When to switch from topwater to streamers
• How fall water temps affect smallmouth behavior
• What techniques work in low clear water during fall transition

Best for: Intermediate to advanced anglers interested in fall smallmouth strategies, New River fishing and seasonal transition tactics

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

Oh, not too bad, man. Just headed up the road to talk about muskies with some. Some fishy folks, so should be a. Should be a good day.

Marvin Cash00:00:21

Well, there you go.And we were talking before we started recording that, you know, we've stayed warmer longer this fall than normal, but the bug thing is starting to unwind, right?

Matt Reilly00:00:30

Yeah, it definitely is. I mean, like you said, we. Our water temps are really pretty good right now. Low to mid-60s, depending on where you are.Definitely a little on the cool side, but they'll still eat. They'll still eat on top for sure, but it's just a little bit more touch and go this time of year. And, you know, we had it.We had a pretty significant cold front come through over the weekend, and it's gonna warm up here, you know, today, tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, and then we're supposed to get a little bit of rain over the weekend, and our highs are gonna go from, like, 70 to 75, down to, like, 60 for the foreseeable future. So, um, things are definitely fixing to change and kind of. Kind of right on time for me.

Marvin Cash00:01:29

Yeah. Which is a great segue to Tyler's question.He wanted to get your thoughts on effective strategies this time of the year to target large smallmouth in the new river.

Matt Reilly00:01:38

Yeah, it's a really good question that I wish I had a better answer for. Best answer I can give you is that it is. It can be very tough. You know, you. We still have.Still have low, clear, slow water, but it's starting to cool off.The fish, the big dominant fish in particular, have sort of started to abandon some of their really predictable summer spots and are just kind of moving throughout the river so that, you know, very, very specific, very direct targetability that they have from, like, late June all the way through the end of September is kind of gone there. You know, fish still hang around in similar areas, but it's just different. Started to pot up a little bit and. And just do their. Their fall things.And like I said, low, clear water. The bug is still really, in my mind, the best approach for a really big fish. And it will still work a lot of days, but a lot of days it won't work.And when it won't work.

Marvin Cash00:02:56

It.

Matt Reilly00:02:56

It can just be really tough. You know, you're talking fishing sometimes, you know, I. I.Once things start to cool off, I tend to go up in Size with streamers, even in clearer water, as long as I can get away with it. But definitely fishing a lot more subsurface these days than we were even like a week or two ago.And you know, there's just that in my mind does not specifically target a bigger fish at this current moment as well as, say, bug fishing does like you know, three weeks to a month ago. So it's, it's just different. It's a little bit tougher.And you know, there, there's a lot of days this time of year where, you know, numbers can be pretty good. And depending on what our goals are in the boat, I might lean into that for a little while.But if putting a lot of small fish in the boat and we want to, you know, upsize, I'm either going to try to push the bug until it, you know, very clearly doesn't make sense, or I'm just going to upsize and see, you know, what happens, you know, this time of year. Two fishing bigger streamers, you run the chance of running into a muskie, which can always be fun.And you could always pull out one of those super special days where you whack a big smallmouth or two and a muskie fishing some of those bigger streamers. So that's, that's my best and sort of most honest answer. It's just, it's fairly tough. Definitely tougher than it was very recently.

Marvin Cash00:04:40

Yeah. And so is there a difference kind of in presentation and approach when you're kind of, for lack of a better word, prospecting with the bug?

Matt Reilly00:04:49

Yeah. So. Well, I mean, given clear water, I'm going to do as much sight fishing as possible because again, you know, I, I do that always if I can.But if, you know, throughout the summer I, when I put the boat in on a stretch of river, I have, you know, a handful to several individual fish mapped out in that section of river that I'm targeting that day.And like I said, usually within about a week of the 1st of October, that fidelity to those spots sort of disintegrates and the fish start moving around. So, so that disappears.But you can still sort of visually scan and, and, and fish those areas and fish areas nearby and you know, just kind of feather things out a little bit and yeah, you know, just keep your eyes open, look for fish. You're gonna be able to see em on a lot of these, you know, clear water, bluebird sky, October days.And you can, you can sort of start to try to build a pattern on that just based on where you're seeing bigger fish.But yeah, the other, the other issue trying to just prospect with a bug is that when that water does get colder, the fish are not quite as buggy as they were. They, a lot of times do not come to the fly quite as quickly.And so you gotta be real intentional about slowing down, you know, especially if you can't see what's going on around your bug, you've gotta give it a lot of weight and travel time and that, that just starts to get kind of tedious, you know. And again, a lot of times you're just trying to weigh whether that approach is even gonna be viable.So, you know, that's something to keep in mind for sure. But definitely, I mean, I think we've kind of established that I tend to be kind of ride, ride or die about bug fishing through the summertime.That's, that's definitely changed at this point in the year.

Marvin Cash00:07:02

Got it. And you know, 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'll send you some articulate fly swag. And you're drawing for some cool stuff for Matt at the end of the season.And Matt, before I let you keep motoring on up the road to Charlottesville, you want to let folks know kind of what you have open. I saw an email, I think within the last week and how to get in touch and all that kind of good stuff.

Matt Reilly00:07:25

Yeah, we're definitely kind of looking at making a switch towards muskie fishing in the very near future. Already been out, been out one day so far this year.Saw a bunch of fish, had a good time, hooked a couple fish and really looking forward to making that jump. That said, we have baby number two coming down the pipe in less than a month.So I'm going to have probably some last minute openings in the next month or so that they get thrown up there just trying to fill some cracks in just based on how all that shakes out.But yeah, right now, you know, thinking outside of, of potential baby window, we're definitely booking everything from like, you know, mid to late November on and Variety already already booked a bunch of that stuff.So if you're interested in the muskie thing early, you know, mid winter, late, whatever, just reach out to me and we'll start talking about kind of when it makes the most sense to get out there.I really like taking folks that are new to it, like folks I fished with last week this time of year or into early November just because, you know, you tend to tend to get a lot of reps in, tend to see a fair number of fish, get some significant number of opportunities and sightings.Weather's a little more comfortable and it's just, just a little more enjoyable than trying to learn a muskie fish in the dead of winter when things are a little bit, a little bit tighter, a little bit higher stakes. So, as always, website's mattreillyflyfishing.com and all my contact info is on there. And you can feel free to reach out however you feel best.

Marvin Cash00:09:26

Well, there you go, folks, as always, say, yo, it's yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.

Matt Reilly00:09:32

Thanks, Marvin.