Cicadas

Testudo........As far as impact on fishing , trout eat 'em , i've seen this event 3 or 4 times and there are millions of them with half a million on the water. The nicest pattern i've ever seen was a woven body version , tied by that gal from the Netherlands Torill Korvu (sp?) They are a chunk of meat for a fish probably as much body mass as a crayfish , the last time it happened here locally , Bedford , there were several recipes in the paper for human consumption. I did not cook and eat any but apparently you can if you want.
 
There is a thread on these guys in the fly tying section with some good patterns.
 
Does anyone remember fishing this brood from 17 years ago and know where it will appear?

 
Ran into the "hatch" on the little J once. I actually walked back to the car, grabbed some tissues from the glove box and stuffed them into my ears. The noise was like some type of torture device. No doubt the fish eat them. PLOP on the water and then a huge splashy rise. Good thing I didn't have any flies bigger than a #16 on me. LOL.
 
Yup, ran into them on the Little J as well. I didn't really like the couple of cicada patterns I had with me, but I used the "soldier beetle" pattern in the swap archives here with great success.

It was like topwater bass fishing - slam the fly down as hard as you could, a couple of twitches, and wait for the fish to crush it. Lotsa fun!

Even the really big fish lost their minds over those things. They're a huge protein source when available.

We had a blast fishing near the railroad bridges when a train passed over them. The vibration of the trains knocked the bugs down onto the water, and it was like ringing the dinner bell. :)
 
^^ That sounds sweet^^ :-D
 
Here's a site with a map highlighting some historical data regarding the upcoming brood with projections for the year as well.

http://www.magicicada.org/about/brood_pages/broodII.php
 
great, thanks for the info guys. sounds like an exciting experience,
i can't wait to fish it!
 
Testudo,
The 17 year cicadas are spotty depending on where you live and it's not always clear where they will emerge. I have found the published "brood" maps to be inaccurate (at least in my neck of the woods). Here in Adams County, we had big emergences in 1987 and again in 2004 and I was able to fish the "hatch" both those years. However, it was not county wide. In the immediate Gettysburg area the trout streams had 'em and the fishing was good. Up on South Mountain, they did not emerge. My records from 2004 indicate that I first saw them on May 14th and that withing about a month they were gone.
 
Fishidiot wrote:
Testudo,
The 17 year cicadas are spotty depending on where you live and it's not always clear where they will emerge. I have found the published "brood" maps to be inaccurate (at least in my neck of the woods). Here in Adams County, we had big emergences in 1987 and again in 2004 and I was able to fish the "hatch" both those years. However, it was not county wide. In the immediate Gettysburg area the trout streams had 'em and the fishing was good. Up on South Mountain, they did not emerge. My records from 2004 indicate that I first saw them on May 14th and that withing about a month they were gone.
Click to expand...

Here in central PA, the distribution was also very patchy. In some places they were very heavy, and other places there were just a few, and in other places they just weren't there at all.

They seem to be more common where the soils are deep and either very fertile (limestone country) or at least moderately fertile.

The real rocky, thin, acidic soils types of places don't seem to have them.

 
Who wants to pick me up in the Philly Airport and let me sleep on their couch for a weekend and fish cicadas?

Round trip from Pit is only $250!
 
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