Greetings everyone,

So I have read through several reports stating that this might be a banner year for cicadas especially in the Midwest. Has anyone fished cicada patterns, or had success fishing while imitating this insect? What does your setup look like when fishing this? I would assume it would be a similar leader setup used for fishing poppers to bass or bigger stoneflies for trout. What flies do you uses? Do fly patterns need to float high on the surface or sort of sit in the meniscus with spent wings? I have read the nymphal stage is mainly under ground, so that may not bear relevance in a fishing situation. Thanks in advance for your responses. I cant wait to glean some wisdom off of those who have fished this insect.

Mike

17 years ago I was not fly fishing as much but I was fishing a lot.The hatch was epic on the south side of Chicago and surrounding suburbs. Took my sons to some local ponds and small lakes.Every fish ,even catfish and bullhead were feasting on the surface.If a BOW was built more recently such as a retention pond etc.There may be no cicadas.They live in tree roots until they emerge.So you need an area where the trees are more than17 years old.

If you are looking for a simple cicada tie, try AZ Foam Cicada found on Youtube. Pattern is from New Mexico if I remember right. I tied some on #10 hook either black or green foam sheet for the body, sili legs: barred olive green for legs, yellow booby eyes which I colored red(could not find red). The black ones have worked better for me than the green. You could vary the colors to better match the cicadas in your area.

I have fished them for brown trout in a small lake. You can fish them blind but your catch rate goes up if you can fire a cast within a few feet of a rise. A nice "splat" is helpful as long it is not too close. A nice, warm, sunny, windy day is best, as the cicadas are more active then and blown on to the water. Once the fish are keyed in on them, a fly will take them even a couple weeks after the actual insect is gone. Once they are on the water, they float flush and are not getting back off the water. So with trout, at least, on still water the takes are rather subtle considering the size of the fly. If fishing blind, would think a sporadic short movement of the fly to attract any nearby fish.

I would think panfish and bass would gobble them up whether there was a cicada hatch or not. I can remember as a kid in PA using the occasional annual one we caught or found for bait, they are pretty hard to catch.

Now you just need some 18 to 20 year old fish that remember the last epic emergence!

WCBlakeslee:

If you are seeing them every year you are probably seeing the "Dogday" or annual cicadas which are larger and around every year versus the periodical cicadas which are smaller and emerge in huge numbers every 13 or 17 years.

The patterns for either are interchangeable even though the annual cicadas are larger because fish don't get particularly selective when a bug that big drops in the water...

Great story. I remember their song fondly from having grown up back east, but was not a fly fisher then.

We have a number of annual cicada species out here, but they are not nearly as numerous, and they don't sing loudly.

I stand ready and hopeful with size 8 Granato's Chubby Muffin Cicadas

I caught a few on Rainy’s cicada imitation last year. I saw a few shells on the tree I dropped my gear off at and figured I’d give it a shot. Same spot fishes well with chubby Chernobyl ants.

Just a few years ago, we had a huge blight of those things and so I got all excited and tied up several nice cicada patterns and yet, I had only a very mediocre response to my flies at best. I have no idea why they weren't more productive.