Repurpose a Cicada fly???

[Steeltrap]

Ok....so I have a few Cicada's that I tied up....and I won't need them for another 18 years I think?

I was considering trimming down the black foam bodies and perhaps tying in some Marabou for a tail. Maybe some turkey feathers and make it look like a hopper? Don't know what to do with the Crystal Flash wings other than cut 'em off.

Any ideas you have would be of great help!!

 

[Bamboozle]

I still have my cicadas from the Brood X emergence 17 years ago that was a waste of time for me like this past one…

However, fish don’t know there won’t be another Brood X emergence for 17 years, so I used them since for bass & panfish (they work just fine) and as a reminder that if I am around in 18 years from now to NOT believe all of the hype about the next Cicada emergence… ;-)

 

[D-nymph]

Interesting. This last hatch was some of the most thrilling dry fly fishing in 20 years for me. Sight fishing to rising carp 5 to 20 lbs all day long, over 3 weeks time, was unbelievable. I hope the 2024 hatch in Central PA will be just as good.

 

[stecal]

Those Cicadas look like they would be great Bass Bugs as-is.

 

[dryflyguy]

The cicadas will be on central PA streams in 2025 - only 3.5 years from now.

They don't go bad.
Why not keep them?

I still have plenty from the last big emergence in 2008, that I used last June in south central PA.
Two different broods

And I fished a third brood in western PA just a few years ago

 

[JeffK]

Just keep them as others have suggested.

However, in many places in NJ and the Lehigh Valley cicadas are disappearing at an alarming rate. A few wooded hills near me still had the billions of cicadas as usual, but in most neighborhoods they are gone.

 

[tomgamber]

cicadas sporadically hatch every summer just not in the huge numbers when a giant brood goes off. bass and other fish will eat them. if you can hear cicadas, why not? Nothing more fun that top water.

 

[Steeltrap]

Well, you have talked me into keeping them. I'll give 'em a try when the circumstances seem to be right. Ya just never know!!

 

[shakey]

Fortunately my cicadas were repurposed October caddis, because I never saw any cicadas.
Perhaps you could go the other direction?

 

[laurelrun]

I plan to plop a few on the water anyway this summer and see if the fish have good memory. The hardest part about the emergence for me was finding them on water. I had hoped to chase carp with them, so tied most on big hooks. I found a great stillwater where the panfish were all over them. Had I used a smaller hook I would have caught 100 bluegill. Instead I only caught the fat or overly aggressive ones and several decent largemouth. Once I found them on a limestone creek, I had some amazing trout action. In fact it was the only "good" dry fly hatch I fished last year. Keep 'em. They already look very hoppery.

 

[JerryC]

Mine, fortunately I only tied four, are going be added to my bass box. As already mentioned, most wooded streams in the area have a hatch of the annual cicada. I know the Wissahickon has them and they do end up in the water. I caught my best smallmouth out of the Wissahickon using one I had tied up for the previous 17 year hatch. The only reason I knew the bass was there. The day before I had been fishing the area, and one of the annuals had crashed and burned and floated by me. About 30 feet downstream it disappeared in a huge swirl.