Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.

Marvin: We're back with another Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Riley. Matt, how are you?

Matt: I'm doing all right, man. I'm recovering from a baby-born illness I've been

Matt: struggling with for the last week or so.

Matt: But we're staying out there.

Marvin: Yeah, I mean, kudos for not missing any days on the water.

Marvin: It's kind of amazing. When you told me that, it made me think about when we,

Marvin: when our boys were little and they first started to go into daycare and they

Marvin: would bring home this like little house on the prairie plague and they would

Marvin: like spit up a tablespoon and then you were in bed for like four days.

Matt: Yeah, well, it's a funny story about that. Finnick had been not in daycare for

Matt: quite a while and he just,

Matt: he started like one day a week, a couple of weeks ago. I think we've been sick twice since then.

Marvin: I will tell you it gets better.

Matt: I'm sure I'm sure it does it was pretty good there for a little while I don't

Matt: think I've been sick since Christmas.

Marvin: Well don't jinx yourself it's interesting, we were talking before we started

Marvin: recording you've got probably three more weeks on the Smalley train with a little

Marvin: bit of fishing for yourself before you jump on the Muskie train but what are

Marvin: you seeing out on the Smallmouth water.

Matt: Um, we, we are fairly in transition.

Matt: We're, we're getting into that, uh, kind of odd in between fall, late summer timeframe.

Matt: Um, the, uh, water, water trips have been kind of all over the place in the

Matt: last couple of weeks, you know, then all the way down to the like mid to upper

Matt: sixties, mid to lower seventies, upper seventies.

Matt: Um and what what that means is especially with uh we've had a couple shots of rain,

Matt: um in the last couple weeks it brought the river

Matt: up we had a big one a couple days ago um so

Matt: it's brought some uh some kind of

Matt: power fishing techniques back into into the arsenal um the fish have been a

Matt: little more you know a little less buggy um particularly in the mornings and

Matt: a little more willing to chase things fairly aggressively when the water temps

Matt: have been kind of stably low.

Matt: Especially with some little bit higher flows.

Matt: But when we have those couple warm afternoons and lower water and a couple warm

Matt: days in a row, the bug fishing has been pretty good too.

Matt: So it's a real grab bag and you're just kind of reading the weather and conditions

Matt: day to day like you always do.

Matt: And in certain places, it kind of seems like we've been seeing some fish potted

Matt: up like we will usually late September.

Matt: And I mean, we're pretty close to late September.

Matt: So, you know, things are definitely changing.

Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting. I think Ellis screwed up the weather forecast again

Marvin: because I looked at the weather and it's going to actually, you know,

Marvin: warm up a decent amount kind of in this part of the world for the next week to 10 days.

Matt: Yeah, that's on you for listening to him.

Marvin: Well, I was just going to encourage people to bet on the under for whatever

Marvin: his earliest snowfall date is.

Matt: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Marvin: So as we kind of move deeper, you know, into fall and things start to kind of

Marvin: more consistently cool off, right?

Marvin: You mentioned the fish potting up. i also would imagine they're going to start

Marvin: to kind of move kind of out of the riffley water and kind of move into the deeper

Marvin: stuff and kind of get ready to kind of hunker down.

Matt: Um i mean not necessarily there's a long ways between you know upper 60s low

Matt: 70s and you know upper 40s 50s degree water temperatures they'll uh.

Matt: Once things really start to cool down, they will feed fairly well for a couple

Matt: of weeks in preparation for that cold weather that's coming.

Matt: And that's still several weeks off.

Matt: But, I mean, you know, we still got warm water and fish being,

Matt: you know, riffly water smallmouths right now. So that's definitely still a thing.

Matt: And particularly, you know, before this last shot of rain, things have been real low.

Matt: And when that's the case, they do tend to hang out oftentimes in the upper and

Matt: lower extensive of pools, you know, closer to the moving water,

Matt: just where you have some decent current.

Matt: Um so i wouldn't say that's

Matt: changed a ton just yet um and

Matt: you know we we uh i feel

Matt: like i say this a lot but when when you're floating down the river just kind

Matt: of pay attention to where you're seeing food too you know um if you're seeing

Matt: still seeing minnows and sunfish and things you know right up against the bank

Matt: and up in riffles and little eddie pockets and stuff then And,

Matt: you know, you're still good to go.

Marvin: Got it. And, you know, folks, we love questions on the Articulate Fly.

Marvin: You can email them to us or DM me on social media.

Marvin: And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag.

Marvin: We're going to be drawing for some cool stuff from Matt at the end of the season.

Marvin: And, you know, Matt, I think I saw an email blast from you, what,

Marvin: maybe a week to 10 days ago, that was kind of giving people kind of an idea

Marvin: of what you had left on your muskie calendar, right?

Matt: Yes, probably. kind of a general update on everything but muskies are definitely kind of the,

Matt: you know what's in the immediate uh headlights

Matt: right now um i'll i'll start doing some trips there kind of mid to late october

Matt: um i mean we we we can fish them now i mean i've been a couple of times toting

Matt: some muskie gear along with us smallmouth fishing um,

Matt: just to kind of poke around some some likely areas and and see what's up but,

Matt: the uh they'll really start getting hot and heavy kind of late october,

Matt: early november and and carry it through february early early early march um,

Matt: And, uh, yeah, I mean, there's some, there's some pretty popular windows that

Matt: have pretty much come offline at this point, but, um, certainly if you'd like

Matt: to get out musky fishing this year, um, so I learned more about it. Just give me a shout.

Matt: Um, looked a lot in that, you know, November, December timeframe, um, January.

Matt: So, uh, but there's still, there's still plenty left and, and a couple of good,

Matt: you know, I say good, but what most people would consider prime moon dates.

Matt: Give me a shout if you're interested, for sure.

Marvin: Yeah, and you also, if I remember correctly, you were teasing your striper program, right?

Matt: Yeah, man. That's about halfway booked already, believe it or not.

Matt: We'll be doing some spring spawn and run striper fishing for about three weeks

Matt: after our smallmouths start spawning.

Matt: And then, you know, middle April or so through early May is when we'll be striper fishing.

Matt: That's a cool program. Something a little, you know, we've been working on it.

Matt: It'll be new for me this year.

Matt: Just a chance to kind of get out of town while our smallmouth are creating the

Matt: next generation and take some pressure off of our smallmouth fisheries and do

Matt: something that's firing pretty hot at that time.

Marvin: Yeah, very, very cool. Well, listen, I want to let you rest your voice so that

Marvin: you have an easier day on the boat tomorrow.

Marvin: But, you know, as I always say, folks, you owe it yourself to get out there and catch a few.

Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.

Matt: Thanks, Marvin.