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Post 02 Jun 2021, 19:00 • #1 
New Member
Joined: 10/20/20
Posts: 8
Location: North Carolina
Has anyone been lucky enough to fish the Brood X hatch this year? I’m in North Carolina and have been looking for public trout waters in Virginia or Maryland ( driving distance for me). I’ve had difficulty finding any fishing reports on line that at least give me a river to go and try. Would love to try and fish this hatch for a couple days . Missed them in ‘04 and I’ll be 60 next time they come around. Thanks


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Post 02 Jun 2021, 20:05 • #2 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 09/18/09
Posts: 5561
Location: Relocated to the Drought Stricken West.
The time to start fishing them is during "spinner fall" the bugs are are still emerging, but there are plenty out now. This fish should be starting to key in on them soon in D.C.


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Post 02 Jun 2021, 21:03 • #3 
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Joined: 04/20/07
Posts: 8920
Location: US-ME
Please explain further, as this isn't a "hatch" I'm likely to get to fish, but the excitement sure sounds interesting. Mayflies have the "spinner"/spent-wing stage, last in their life cycle, which includes two winged stages. But cicadas don't, nor lay eggs on/in water. Is it the mating swarm that gets referred to generally as "spinner fall," that puts a lot of them on the water, similar to what we see in the northeast with the alder fly (sometimes called "zebra caddis" or some such, although technically it's not a caddis)?


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Post 03 Jun 2021, 11:01 • #4 
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Joined: 12/05/06
Posts: 2089
Location: US-PA
The "Death Drop" might be a more accurate term. Like mayflies, the "adult" cicadas are called imagoes. After singing in the trees for a while seeking sex and finally getting it, they weaken and "fall" into the water, not unlike mayflies or even people for that matter... ;)

If there are trees over the water you plan to fish, a day or so after mating is completed is when they start to drop. The full process from emergence to death takes about a month.

You can get adults on the water before then since they do fly around a bit exploring or mate hunting. They are all over my property at the moment...


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Post 03 Jun 2021, 11:19 • #5 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/16/05
Posts: 2537
Location: Georgia
Haven’t really fished it, but a couple of weeks ago, heading up a slope, I thought I was having car trouble, but it was just the cicadas in the trees, creating a droning buzz; apparently, a couple sheriffs’ offices have gotten calls about somebody’s burglar alarm going off, and I can see (hear?) why. Haven’t seen any activity along streams, although I did scoop this out of a side pool yesterday.

FWIW, bigger dries (10-12 stimis and trudes) have worked on these streams, but that’s pretty much what I’d fish these days on these streams, no matter what.


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Post 03 Jun 2021, 11:58 • #6 
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Joined: 05/22/16
Posts: 1760
Location: SJC
I remember cicadas fondly from having grown up back east, mostly in northern Virginia. As a kid I was interested in entomology for a time, and looked forward to seeing periodic and annual cicadas during the summer.

Out here in CA I've seen their moulted exoskeletons on trees very occasionally, but I generally don't hear their song in the summer, at least not as well as I remember it from back east.

Sorry, not really fishing-related :)


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Post 03 Jun 2021, 12:28 • #7 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 12/05/06
Posts: 2089
Location: US-PA
What I can tell anybody who is new to a periodical cicada emergence and specifically the Brood X emergence; if you are anticipating fishing nirvana in an area because it showed up on a regional map someplace, expect to be surprised how spotty the emergence actually is.

My property is loaded, however I only have to travel a short distance in my county to find NONE. This is repeated everywhere they emerge and they travel feet, not miles so expect to find them 17 years from now in the same places you did this year.

The best advice I can give anyone is don't expect fisherman to give up known locations gleaned 17 years ago through research or dumb luck. Instead look for emergence dates on the 200 websites out there on Brood X, note if there is any SPECIFIC geography given and research if there are any streams in that SPECIFIC geography that interest you.

Here is the sneaky part...Google that geography (town name) and see if there are any businesses as close as possible to the streams that interest you, Call those businesses to ask them if they have Prince Albert in a can or some other unrelated question and casually ask them if they are hearing the "cicadas," which of course everyone knows about because it's been all over the news.

If they say yes...BINGO, you MAY have the information you need!

Figure prime time will be a month AFTER the first reported emergence date. If you have the ability to reconnoiter now, if you don't hear what almost sounds like a car alarm going off in the distance or up in the trees, look elsewhere.

Good luck!


Last edited by Bamboozle on 04 Jun 2021, 10:11, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 03 Jun 2021, 12:48 • #8 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2327
Location: US-IL
We had a minor emergence last year.I have been told that trees transplanted into different areas can contain cicadas from the root ball.When we have our major emergence it can be spotty.Lots of subdivisions or other areas that have been developed scrape alot of dirt off the surface.People that use grub control on their lawns may get none while the house next door will be covered in them.Our next emergence will be 2024.The last time even ctfish were coming to the surface mid day feasting on them.I am told it can be the best carp flyfishing there is.We get a lot of the annual variety every year and they can be quite loud on hot days.I do remember them crashing into the water constantly the last time they were around.The fishing was very good as most fish were looking up.


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Post 03 Jun 2021, 13:07 • #9 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 12/05/06
Posts: 2089
Location: US-PA
I do grub control on my property yet I have a zillion so I doubt that has an effect.


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Post 04 Jun 2021, 16:03 • #10 
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Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2327
Location: US-IL
Something is causing some properties to have none while others are overwhelmed,They do seem to mostly emerge under trees and bushes so there is that.I may run into my cousin's husband who is an entomologist at a wedding in a couple weeks.Not just his profession but a total bug geek.


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Post 04 Jun 2021, 20:34 • #11 
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Joined: 12/05/06
Posts: 2089
Location: US-PA
I guess I have to wonder why people assume that the emergence of ANY insect will be everywhere in a given geography and when it doesn't happen, assume there is some man-made reason...

Many mayflies appear on one creek in a watershed but not others.

The latest invader in my neck of the woods, the Spotted Lanternfly is gangbusters in one township and absent in others.

Japanese Beetles are heavy in a neighboring county and sparse in mine.

I don't even have as many squirrels as my buddy does on his property.

Brookies here, brown trout there...

It's just the way it is because of differing conditions.


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Post 05 Jun 2021, 21:47 • #12 
Master Guide
Joined: 06/07/12
Posts: 865
Location: US-CA
Odonata wrote:
I remember cicadas fondly from having grown up back east, mostly in northern Virginia. As a kid I was interested in entomology for a time, and looked forward to seeing periodic and annual cicadas during the summer.

Out here in CA I've seen their moulted exoskeletons on trees very occasionally, but I generally don't hear their song in the summer, at least not as well as I remember it from back east.

Sorry, not really fishing-related :)


There are a few here in Sacramento but not many. I hear them sometimes but it’s practically just individuals, not a giant brood in volume. Some years when I have been back east in the DC are the noise was shockingly loud. Funny - until I saw this thread I never thought of the fishing implications. I guess there aren’t enough on an every-year basis to get the fish to really key on them the way that big trout go after salmon flies on some rivers in Montana?


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Post 06 Jun 2021, 08:37 • #13 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 09/18/09
Posts: 5561
Location: Relocated to the Drought Stricken West.
Here around DC the periodic Cicada is in full swing and some of the fish are keying on them. However I saw a cicada struggling on the surface of my favorite pond for over 3 minutes before the fish got him. I think you really need to be in an area with trees over running water where the fish can hang out in the shade and pick the bugs off as they go by.

The annual cicada (black and green without the red eyes) seems to work that way too and is fishable in August when not much else is going on.


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Post 06 Jun 2021, 11:28 • #14 
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Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2327
Location: US-IL
When i was kid growing up in Chicago the emergence,it is not a hatch,these things have been living under ground fo 17 years,was full scale.They were every where on everything.Covering the schools,stores etc.They return in 3 years.I probably wont be around for the one after that.


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Post 06 Jun 2021, 11:58 • #15 
Guide
Joined: 01/31/18
Posts: 221
Location: Holly Springs, NC
I just talked with my dad who lives NE of Baltimore and like Carl said, he said they were out in full swing and has remains on his car. I was up there a few weeks ago hoping to see them, but it was too early. I wasn’t in the area during the last two emergences and the one before that I was only 5. He said during the last emergence, he watched with some humor while the small trout were coming up trying to get them down. He’s been at the beach the last couple of weeks and is hoping to get out this week in MD or PA.


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Post 08 Jun 2021, 17:53 • #16 
Master Guide
Joined: 04/12/18
Posts: 457
Although I've seen a couple of left-behind exoskeleton molts on the spruce trees in my yard, I've never seen an adult cicada in my lifetime where I live in northeastern NY.

Image

I sometimes hear the loud buzzing of one or two in the summer and that's about it. I think the first place I saw an adult was in Maryland when I was in the Navy.


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Post 08 Jun 2021, 19:12 • #17 
Sport
Joined: 12/18/15
Posts: 95
Location: Annapolis, MD
I've been on the Gunpowder a few times and have yet to see a cicada on the water, although you can hear them back in the woods. The fishing has been sub-par and a gentleman I was talking to theorized the fish were feeding at night. In past hatches the fishing for carp and bass has been excellent.


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Post 09 Jun 2021, 10:11 • #18 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 12/05/06
Posts: 2089
Location: US-PA
I can tell you one thing about the Brood X cicadas which are ALL over my property, if their "buzzing" is any indication, they are active all night unless it gets very cool or rains.

If that equates into becoming available food after dark it makes me wonder what bruisers might take a well placed imitation?


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Post 14 Jun 2021, 15:36 • #19 
Master Guide
Joined: 01/04/18
Posts: 397
Location: Belair Maryland/Swanton Maryland
Brood X has been a big deal to me ever since I was a little kid growing up in Maryland.

I was born when they emerged in 1970 .
Heard the Epic stories from all the bass and panfish anglers my pops was friends with describing how crazy it would get.
I was a teenager and fished it in 1987 Live lining cicadas for giant bluegills on a few farm ponds I had access to at the time.
Fished it 2004 as a new father with rebel cricket hoppers on my ultralight on tree lined tidal creeks For Bass .
This time around I’m fishing it as a middle aged Dude “On The Fly”
To mark this very special occasion in my life I had a Heddon Mk4 rod rebuilt and customized to fish the Brood X season with.


Startled Life as a well preserved lightly fished Heddon Pal Mk4 Model #8455

8ft 7wt with “controlled flex action”
These are the Later/crisper actioned rods but still are Somewhat full flexing.

After an extensive phone/email consult with Matt @ Proof fly fishing To sort out the hardware
I went with snake brand 10mm and 12mm Stripper Guides

Also Replacing the Og snake guides with upsized snake brand guides with the ECOting for better shootability . Matt’s insight and advice are an invaluable resource and I’m thankful he’s a member here on FFr

Since I’m a child of the 70s/80s I love gaudy Disco wraps.
Give me some underwraps, some Mylar and a bunch of spirals And I’m a happy camper ..

Decided on some thread colors that represents an eastern cicada so went with a Copper/brown underwrap that represents the cicada’s old skin/shell/exoskeleton
Then the dark taupe/greenish/black wraps are the cicada’s body As they start green then go to black After molting and drying out.

Then the red spirals represents their eyes.
When they molt some specimens eyes will be red before they turn orange. And since red is my favorite color red it is..

The blank and cork were in great shape and need just a lil cleaning up. The Allen reel seat is super bright and shiny which matches perfectly to the Daiwa 732 reel I’m using.

Had a custom American Walnut butt cap Machined and installed to replace the plastic Heddon cap.

This rod will cast any 6/7/8 wt line you line it with.
I’m currently using some Wright&Mcgill
WF8 floating line With an 8ft 12lb Test Orvis fluorocarbon leader to throw these big bushy Rainey’s super-cicada flies
Rod is performing even better than I expected
The accuracy I’m able to achieve even with the bushy fly on 8wt line is amazing.
I’ve put the cicada into some tight windows with this rod.
The brood has been peaking in the last week and the sound is just gargantuan in some areas.

Fish are finally starting to key on them since they are now falling from the trees on some waters.
Our lil dog Harley Has been keying on them for a few weeks now. Lol

Going to concentrate on fishing waters where the sound was most deafening .
May take a trip to some bigger lakes/reservoirs in search of some BIgUNNS.

May the Brood be with you
Ottobahn


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Post 17 Jun 2021, 11:26 • #20 
Guide
Joined: 04/29/16
Posts: 188
Location: Hoot Owl Yards, ATX
Ottobahn,
That is flipping awesome!


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Post 17 Jun 2021, 12:23 • #21 
Master Guide
Joined: 06/07/12
Posts: 865
Location: US-CA
How cool is that - thanks for sharing (the rod AND the fishing)


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Post 18 Jun 2021, 13:29 • #22 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/19/14
Posts: 3925
Location: USA - Illinois
Elkton, MD Monday June 14, 2021 Yummy!



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