Cicada

R

RLeeP

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Sep 18, 2006
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I'm soliciting patterns for the Periodic (13, 17 year) cicada and would welcome any ideas from the assembled.

It appears the areas I fish are about to be over run with these things and while my utilitarian sense of fly tying tells me I can probably do ok by just tying a bunch of over-sized hoppers with black bodies, I've not fished through one of these events and am curious as to anybody's experiences who has.

Here, supposedly is the bug in question:

http://betterlawns.com/images/cicadas.jpg

Thanks!
 
It's cicada time again?

All I know, is the trout were like piranhas over the damn things. I never saw so many 6 inch brownies taking bite sized chunks off a bug before.

I don't have a pattern, but I've seen a few out there that use black and orange foam.


edit: Where's your area? From what I see, they aren't coming to PA until next summer.
 
I tied some for the last hatch in PA about three years ago. Here is my pattern.

Hook: #8 2XL streamer hook
Body: Dark brown chenile. (thick)
Palmer hackle: Orange (trimmed to 18")
Wing: Deer hair ( as long as the body)
Hackle: Brown & Orange.

Its kind of a fat stimulater.

I can say the fish were not really on them when I fished it. We caught fish but not many till we put on a caddis.

Of course the Ciccada were not on the water heavy either.

Maurice
 
I would tie a Chernobyl ant with a deer hair wing. Easy and probably effective. Use black and Orange foam and brown hackle. Just an idea.
 
The periodic ones were suppose be this area a couple of years. It was sporadic, some areas were overwhelmed by them, others didn't see a thing. I was in the latter. So all the flies I tied will hopefully work next time they show. I tied three types based on actual size of the bug. Orange and black deer hair with orange legs and orange marabou tail. A solid foam one, tied out of 6 mm black foam with orange legs and the orange marabou. I added rattles to a couple of them. I also had a gurgler in black and copper foam, pumpkin and copper legs with burnt orange marabou over copper flash. This I use when the annual summer cicadas are hitting the water and has been a really good fly though more for bass than the trout.
 
If you saw Planet Earth on the Discovery channel (a fantastic series) there was a segment on the 17 year cicadas in the northeast. Every animal imaginable was just gorging themselves on the things. But it's true that the much anticipated cicada fly fishing extravaganza was kind of spotty in PA. If they are in the water, though, I'd bet that the fish will be loving them.
 
I developed a pattern that was really effective during this hatch. I tied up 4 of them and 3 of them got snapped off. The other is sitting in my room with teeth marks all over it from the amount of trout that had it in its mouth. I caught bass, trout, crappie, perch, and rock bass on this fly... I cant wait only 14-15 years to go for us!

My pattern went like this.

Hook: #6-#8 2XL Streamer Hook
Legs: 2 Pieces of rubber string tied in criss crossed.
Body: Long piece of foam wrapped around the hook to for the body.
Wing: Flashabou under Mostly Orange with some black Deer Hair.
Head: A piece of red chenille tied with two ends hanging out to form the eyesand then wrap another shorter piece of foam around to form the head.

These things floated like corked and held up pretty well under the amount of fish I caught on them. I fished it with 4x for trout and 3x for everything else. I had 2 bass snap me off cause 4x wasnt enough. If you want to see a picture I can take a picture of the last one i have.
 
That's interesting, Shipnfish..

What colors were the body, flashabou and the rubber?
 
Sorry about that I was typing too fast and forgot to add the colors I used. The body and head were black foam, when I wrapped the foam I wrapped it firmly so there was no movement in the foam after it was wrapped. The flashabou was pearl because it give the same glimer/sparkle that the wings of the ciacada gave off and the orange and black deer hair provided the actual filler color. For the rubber I used black because it was what I had, but I think a rust or orange would appear more life-like. Only one of my flies got chewed through the foam and it was after 20-30 browns grabbed it, so I repaired it using glue and I ended up snapping off after catching several more on it.

Good luck!
 
Here are a couple patterns for cicada.

HOOK: Mustad 93831. #10-8 3XL
BODY: Black polypropylene rope, tied to form a slightly extended body.
UNDERWING: A few strands of Krystal Flash.
WING: White calftail, dressed sparsely, extending slightly beyond the hook bend.
HACKLE: Gray deer hair, dressed bullet-head style.
LEGS: Two brown rubber micro-filaments. Tie one on each side of the body where the bullet-head tie-down is made, to form two long rear legs and two short front legs.


HOOK: Mustad 94831, #10-8 3XL.
TAIL: A dozen fine black moose mane hairs.
UNDERBODY: Black foam.
BODY: Peacock-colored (or black) Kryslal Flash chenille.
WING: Medium-size bunch of white calftail, tied to extend slightly beyond the hook bend in Trude style.
HACKLE: Grizzly.

Have photos of them if you want them.
 
you know whats funny... fly fishing on the brain. I read this thread the other day, and went home. My wife told me to get some laundry out of the dryer, so I went down and got the laundry out. Inside the dryer was a sandwich bag, must of gotten in the wash some how. Well after it went through a rinse and dry cycle it came out all crinkled. Looked perfect for a cicada wing! I plan on tying a few just in case I run into the bug one of these days. Just an idea.
 
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