S8, Ep 38: High Water and Transitional Fish: Matt Reilly's Southwest Virginia Fishing Insights
Episode Overview
In this Southwest Virginia Fishing Report on The Articulate Fly fly fishing podcast, host Marvin Cash checks in with guide Matt Reilly of Matt Reilly Fly Fishing for a candid late-spring conditions update covering the post-spawn transition, dirty water tactics and the seasonal arc ahead. Recorded amid rising, stained flows on the New River and surrounding drainages — following months of below-average flows — the episode captures a moment when Southwest Virginia smallmouth fishing is firmly in between patterns, and angler adaptability is the only reliable edge. Reilly addresses the dual pressure facing anglers right now: a post-spawn funk settling over fish on some waters while others remain slightly earlier in that arc, and high, off-color water shrinking reactive distances and pushing fish to the bottom. He details how an early crayfish molt — triggered by unusually warm water temps in the low-to-mid 70s weeks ahead of schedule — has shifted his focus away from streamer presentations and toward bottom-contact crayfish patterns on fish that are otherwise visible but unmovable on top. Reilly also previews the seasonal calendar ahead, sketching the transition through a late-May/June baitfish bite, crayfish activity and eventually the cleaner, lower-water conditions that make topwater the dominant game — typically not until around the Fourth of July. Guide availability closes the episode, with Reilly noting his summer calendar is fully booked and early October representing the next realistic opportunity for prospective clients.
Key Takeaways
- How to identify the post-spawn funk by its signature symptom: cycling rapidly through multiple fly types with sporadic, pattern-less catches.
- Why bottom-contact crayfish patterns outperform streamers and topwater when smallmouth are locked down during an early crayfish molt.
- How to approach high, stained water when flows are elevated but not extreme — targeting the bottom rather than automatically moving to the banks, because fish can spread across mid-river structure when current isn't pushing them to the edges.
- Why an early summer crayfish molt can pull even cruising, visible fish away from topwater presentations and onto gravel-bar bottom feeding.
- When to expect the seasonal transition to more consistent patterns: a late-May/June baitfish bite followed by bug-fishing conditions that typically don't fully materialize until around the Fourth of July.
Techniques & Gear Covered
Reilly runs multiple rods in the boat simultaneously — a floating line with a topwater bug, an intermediate-tip with a streamer and a floater rigged with a crayfish — to rotate through presentations efficiently when no single pattern dominates. In dirty, elevated water he emphasizes making bottom contact as the primary directive, noting that smallmouth research documents a behavioral shift toward bottom-oriented hunting when turbidity increases. Crayfish patterns are the anchor of his current program given the early molt activity, with darker, high-contrast and flashier fly choices appropriate for off-color conditions. Streamer fishing remains part of the rotation but Reilly is candid that listening to what the fish show you — even when it conflicts with your instinct — is the overriding tactical discipline during transitional windows.
Locations & Species
The episode centers on Southwest Virginia's river systems, with the New River specifically mentioned as the water Reilly was guiding on the day of recording. The New is described as deteriorating during the conversation — elevated and stained from recent rainfall — but holding up better than surrounding rivers that Reilly characterizes as borderline blown out. Smallmouth bass are the sole target species discussed. Conditions at time of recording include water temperatures already touching the mid-70s — well ahead of the typical early June arrival of such temps — and flow levels running significantly below seasonal averages for the year before recent rains, creating a compressed, accelerated seasonal arc that has pushed crayfish molt timing and post-spawn transitions out of seasonal norms.
FAQ / Key Questions Answered
How do you know when you're in the post-spawn funk and what do you do about it?
Reilly identifies the funk by a tell-tale pattern: you start with one fly, catch one fish, slow down, switch flies, catch another, slow down again, and end the day with six wet flies of five different types drying on the boat bag. When that's happening, he leans on instinct — reading the water type in front of him and putting his best guess forward — while staying honest about whether a presentation isn't working or just needs more time. He acknowledges it's sometimes simply tough and you have to grind through it.
Why would you target the bottom in high, stained water rather than moving to the banks?
When water is elevated but not high enough to concentrate fish in bank-side slack water, smallmouth can spread broadly across mid-river structure — and increased turbidity shrinks reactive distances significantly. Reilly points to behavioral research showing smallmouth shift to bottom-oriented hunting in dirty water. Getting a fly to the bottom gives fish a plane they can reliably relate to even when visibility is poor, and on the day of recording it was the only approach consistently producing.
What triggers a crayfish molt and why does it pull fish off topwater?
Early warm water — Reilly observed low-to-mid-70s temperatures weeks ahead of the typical mid- to late-June timing — accelerates crayfish shedding their shells, making them soft and highly vulnerable. Even smallmouth that would otherwise be ideal topwater candidates were cruising shallow gravel bars but locked to the bottom, unwilling to come up. Once you see that behavior, Reilly says you have to accept it and feed them crayfish regardless of how tempting topwater looks.
When does consistent topwater fishing typically kick in for Southwest Virginia smallmouth?
Reilly frames late May through mid-June as a transitional window featuring a baitfish bite (non-game fish like darters and chubs spawning, creating forage) interspersed with molting crayfish activity. Reliable topwater conditions — when it becomes the path-of-least-resistance strategy rather than just a fun option — typically don't arrive until water temperatures and flows settle in the summer, usually around the Fourth of July, assuming conditions don't remain abnormally low and clear even sooner.
What does Matt Reilly's fall guide calendar look like, and what should you expect booking-wise?
As of this recording Reilly's summer is fully booked, with early October being the next available window. He describes October as a mixed bag: possible hurricane-driven high water and strong streamer fishing, or a continuation of summer patterns depending on the year — but consistently a period when big fish show up in the first couple weeks before his focus shifts entirely to musky season.
Related Content
S8, Ep 29 – Fishing in Flux: Matt Reilly's Take on Spring Trends and Techniques
S8, Ep 23 – Low Water Chronicles: Matt Reilly on Pre-Spawn Smallmouth Strategies and Seasonal Shifts
S6, Ep 112 – Smallmouth Transitions and Musky Prep: Matt Reilly's Southwest VA Update
S6, Ep 71 – Adapting to Heat and Low Flows: A Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly
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In this Southwest Virginia Fishing Report on The Articulate Fly fly fishing podcast, host Marvin Cash checks in with guide Matt Reilly of Matt Reilly Fly Fishing during a challenging late-spring window defined by post-spawn smallmouth bass and dirty, elevated water on most regional rivers. Matt breaks down the transitional nature of fishing in late May and early June — when no single pattern dominates — and explains why a premature crayfish molt driven by unseasonably warm, low water pushed the fish hard to the bottom, overriding the top water and streamer bite he'd normally be running. He also addresses tactics for stained, mid-range flows, where getting flies to the bottom and using larger, higher-contrast patterns proved most productive on the New River. The conversation closes with a look ahead to the summer-to-fall progression and Matt's October guide calendar as musky season begins to come into view.
EPISODE SUMMARY
Guest: Matt Reilly – Guide at Matt Reilly Fly Fishing (Southwest Virginia)
In this episode: Guide Matt Reilly delivers a late-spring Southwest Virginia fishing report covering the post-spawn smallmouth funk, a premature crayfish molt triggered by unseasonably warm and low water, and strategies for fishing stained, mid-range flows on the New River and surrounding drainages. Topics include reading transitional conditions when no single pattern dominates, adapting fly selection across multiple rod setups, bottom-contact tactics in dirty water and the summer-to-fall seasonal outlook.
Key fishing techniques covered:
- Multi-rod approach to transitional conditions — floating line topwater, intermediate tip with streamer, floating line with crayfish
- Bottom-contact tactics for stained mid-range flows when reactive distance shrinks
- Crayfish pattern fishing during early summer molt (soft-shells triggering lock-bottom behavior in cruising fish)
- Larger, higher-contrast, flash-forward patterns in dirty water
- Baitfish bite targeting in late May–mid June during non-game fish spawning (darters, chubs)
Location focus: Southwest Virginia — New River and surrounding drainages
Target species: Smallmouth bass (post-spawn), muskellunge (fall outlook)
Equipment discussed: Floating line topwater flies, intermediate tip streamers, crayfish patterns
Key questions answered:
- How do you adapt fly selection when no single pattern is working during the post-spawn funk?
- What tactics work best for smallmouth in stained, mid-range flows?
- When does the crayfish molt typically happen, and how does it change the bite?
Best for: Intermediate to advanced anglers interested in Southwest Virginia smallmouth bass fishing, post-spawn seasonal transitions and adaptive water-reading strategies
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Marvin Cash
Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly.We're back with another Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with the man himself, Matt Reilly. Matt, how are you doing?
Matt Reilly
I'm doing good, man. How are you?
Marvin Cash
Just trying to stay dry, I think. You know, we were talking before we started recording and you know, maybe you should be careful what you wish for.
Matt Reilly
Yeah, I'm still gonna say no. I mean we need it pretty bad. It's.Well, you know, we do have what I would call borderline blown out rivers, but definitely dirty, you know, very dirty rivers right now for the most part, pretty much everywhere. The new still looks pretty okay, but it's deteriorating as we were on it today.So it's, it's potentially going to be depending on, depending on how much rain we get over the next two days, tonight and tomorrow. It, it may be out of commission for a couple of days, but we'll just see.You know, like I said, we need, we're, we're still like 11 inches behind for the year or something like that, so we'll take everything we can get.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, it has been good.You know, we kind of, we got a ton of rain I guess a couple days ago, but this, it looks like it's just kind of like, kind of heavy showers for like the next week or so.So hopefully, you know, between the trees and the, the, the low water table may hopefully can kind of soak it up and kind of keep things from getting too, too gnarly on the water.
Matt Reilly
Yeah, yeah, we'll see. I, I have a feeling that's this probably going to be the way that it goes, but it has been nice to have some water in the river.I mean it was almost unrecognizable today after, you know, looking at it at a, you know, quarter of the seasonal average for the last couple of months.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, so you got a couple things going on. Right. You know, it's kind of funny.I talked to Brian Shoemaker last week and saw all the smallmouth guys are getting ready for the June post spawn funk. Right. So you got that going on and then you've got kind of, you know, the stained high water. So, you know, what do you do when you go out day to day?
Matt Reilly
I would say that's, that's the million dollar question some days, you know, and, and it really kind of depends on where you are, like I always say.I mean we have, we've had some of that funkiness going on in some places for a couple weeks now and you know, we'll Likely be out of it, hopefully by like a week or two from now. But. And, and really what that is is just where you have fish that are kind of tired, lazy, you know, dispersing throughout the river. Just.You're in between patterns. You know, things are transitional in a. In a big, big way. And it's like I said, just depending on where you are, we're in different stages.You can still find some. Some pretty cold water on the new in places. And, you know, in that sense, we have fish that are, you know, a little bit earlier in that.In that spawning arc. But when. When you're dealing with those kinds of situations where you just don't really, you know, there's no real consistent pattern. It's.It's real easy. It's real. And I. I tell people this in the boat sometimes it's a pretty good symptom of that funkiness.Anytime you're in a transitional time frame, when, you know, you start with one program, you're fishing a certain fly a certain way, you catch like one, and then it's kind of slow. Maybe you catch another one. Gets kind of slow, you change flies, Catch one real quick. Gets pretty slow again.Next thing you know, you've got a handful of fish and there's like six wet flies of five different types on your boat bag drying off. I. I really try to, you know, I always have a couple different rods in the boat with different lines and flies for different situations.You know, whether it's a floating line top water fly or a intermediate tip with a streamer or a, you know, floater with a crayfish or something.But I will definitely kind of just rely on my instincts a little bit more sometimes in those situations and, you know, think, you know, for this water type, this is probably what will fish best and put your best foot forward and. And just kind of roll through it. Now, you obviously have to pay attention to what the fish tell you, and this year is a great example of that.We've had such low water and. And warm water early.I mean, you know, mid-70s water temps usually, you know, we're not gonna see until sometime in June, but we've had them for a couple weeks now.Couple of the rivers I fish have had some pretty big crayfish molts go off and, you know, usually I would say the bigger one that I notice in the summertime happens like late June. And I mean, I'm talking.I think I saw one kind of start a week ago and, you know, we had some low to mid-70s, clear water and you can, you can see, you know, not only soft shelled crayfish, but also fish that would otherwise be great top water candidates that are cruising in shallow water on gravel bars and stuff, but they're just locked into the bottom and they will not come up. Most of the time they can be really spooky to anything that's not kind of bottom oriented, but they'll, you know, they'll wolf a crayfish.So that's, that is definitely something that we've leaned on a little bit harder in the last week or two, which I kind of have a little bit of a hard time doing when I'm seeing cruising fish.And you know, this time of year, normally I'm doing more streamer fishing and you know, sometimes it just doesn't work and you've gotta listen to those cues.So I would say, you know, I don't do a whole lot different other than, you know, know that you're kind of know what's going on, you know, know that you're in a transitional timeframe, that there might not be a really strong pattern. So you do have to listen to what the river and the fish are telling you.But at the same time, you know, if something's not working but you feel really good about it, you know, maybe give it a little bit longer, you know, maybe be a little bit, you know, more hard headed at times and, and just kind of feel things out. But sometimes it is just tough, you know, and you've gotta just kind of work your way through it. Yeah.
Marvin Cash
And then on the high stained water, I assume you're probably going larger patterns, maybe some flash, you know, darker colors and higher contrast, right?
Matt Reilly
Yep, yep, for sure. Trying to make bottom contact, you know, if they're not like today, for whatever reason, we just could not get fish to, to chase much at all.You know, we'd pick them up on the bottom pretty consistently.Um, so yeah, I mean, and, and part of what we had going on today was, you know, it's hard to say high, high water is definitely stained, but much higher than it has been. So your instinct is to get to the bank and start, you know, chopping wood.But that's, you know, higher than it has been, doesn't necessarily mean that there's enough current to basically push all the fish to the edges.Sometimes when you have that kind of meat middle and flow, you know, not high, but not low, it can be kind of tough because the fish can really spread out. And then if you've got dirty water, it can make it that much tougher because you know, your reactive distance is shrunk.And you know, the best thing you can do sometimes in those situations is just get to the bottom. Cause that's a, that's a plane that the fish can relate to.And you know, there have been studies done that show that that's a, that's a common behavior of smallmouth when the water gets dirty is that they'll, they'll relate to the bottom and, and hunt down there a lot more. So that, that's what we went to today and it worked out for us.Um, and you know, it's not an uncommon thing for me when, when things get kind of stained and, but not, not real, not real high.
Marvin Cash
Yeah. So that's pretty much all you need to know until the 4th of July and you start fishing bugs, right?
Matt Reilly
Yeah, if it were that simple, I'd be pretty happy. We'll, we'll go through a couple different events, you know, and they will be kind of influenced by the conditions.But typically, you know, again, typically in late May through like mid June, you'll see a bit of a bait fish bite where you've got kind of average water temps and that like high 60s to 75 degree range and kind of medium flow and you've got a lot of non game fish darters and chubs and stuff spawning. You'll get a, you'll get a pretty good bait fish bite and then you'll get some, you know, molting crayfish in there too.And then you know, interspersed with all that. I mean you can always get fish on top water when top water bugs, when the water's low and clear.But as much as I hate to say it, sometimes it's not, it's not the thing to do.You know, if you're looking to catch, you know, kind of dial into a program sometimes, if that's just what you want to do, then go for it, you know, I mean, I'm not, I don't, I, I do that all the time, fish the way I want to fish. But yeah, we'll, we'll kind of be bouncing all over the place probably until July unless the water gets, you know, super, super low again.And, and it's just kind of the, the easiest thing to do to fish on top.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, got it. And you know folks, we love questions.So you know, email me or DM me on Instagram and if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag. And we're in a drawing for some cool stuff from Matt. At the end of the season. And Matt, I think I saw it, a newsletter come out with some open dates.Not too far in the past. You want to let folks know kind of.I know you're probably have a few smattering of days here and there and you probably don't really kind of open up until kind of like late. Late summer, early, early fall. Right.
Matt Reilly
Yeah, I say it wasn't too far in the past, but it's pretty much outdated at this point. I don't think I have really a day open until October at this point. So, you know, again, things change all the time. People cancel.Always reach out if there's something you're interested in. But yeah, I mean, summer's pretty well, pretty well stocked at this point. Early October, there's some stuff.And you know, I. I tell people that that time of year is kind of a.Kind of a mixed bag, kind of a crapshoot because you can have a hurricane, you can have some high water and you can have some really good streamer fishing, or you can have a continuation of summer patterns. Or we, you know, hold on to hot, you know, warm weather and clear water and it just kind of depends on the year, but it can be really good.We always catch some big fish that those, you know, first couple of weeks in October and then we're just looking at musky stuff after that.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, I'm a believer in the October stuff. Cause I still don't believe you that it's cooler on your side of the mountain than on the other side. I, I like it after the heat breaks.That's what I'm looking for.
Matt Reilly
Yeah, we. I'd have to say the last couple years have not been normal for us.And I would say, I mean, heck, the, the hottest weather we've had the last two years has been in, in June, and then it's. It's kind of cooled off after that. So we'll see what happens this year.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, yeah. But if you wait until October, you know, it's going to be cool.
Matt Reilly
You hope it's going to be cool. Yeah.
Marvin Cash
Well, listen folks, you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.
Matt Reilly
Thanks, Marvin.
Guide | Fly Tier | Outdoor Writer
Matt grew up stomping around the warm water creeks and rivers of his native central Virginia, just a stone's throw from the James River. He's been blessed with a great many mentors, including his father, who introduced him to fishing before the age of two.
In his teenage years, Matt took his first professional venture into the outdoor industry as a freelance writer and photographer, and soon secured a weekly outdoor column in The Daily Progress' Rural Virginian.
After heading south for college and falling in love with the fisheries of southwest Virginia, Matt established his guide service in 2018. Today, he is a father, husband, USCG-licensed captain, and a leading fishing guide specializing in smallmouth bass, musky, and other predatory game fish. He speaks regularly on a range of topics. His writing has appeared in several national and regional publications like Eastern Fly Fishing, American Angler, Fly Tyer, Southern Trout, Hatch Magazine, and Virginia Wildlife. He is also an ambassador for Reilly Rod Crafters, a producer of premium fly rods based in Virginia.
