The Cicadas are Coming…

I have to say the last time there was a big central PA hatch I went fishless. And was less than impressed with fishing cicadas. I drove down the valley at Spruce Creek (Union County) and then along White Deer. Cicadas everywhere and a tremendous hum through the valleys. Lots of Cicadas on White Deer and nary a rise.

I traveled across the state forest roads to Penns Creek. Cicadas humming the whole way. At Penns there were large mats of cicadas on the water and, as on WD, not a single rise. I cast a few on top. (I had come prepared with a couple dozen cicada flies.) Tried sinking a few as drowners. Not a single hit. Didn't see a single rise. Either at the Cherry Springs stretch or the Poe Paddy stretch.

Went on to Spring Creek. There a few were humming and flying around. It seemed they were just starting in State College. Again a few on the water but no rises and nothing interested in my offerings.

I decided to visit Steve at FlyFisher's Paradise shop. He told me there wasn't much action on cicadas so far. I picked up some of his flies to add variety to my collection.


Next day I repeated the same path, Spruce Run, White Deer, Penns, and Spring. Again, mats of cicadas on the water and no fish action. I wasn't disappointed as that massive hatch covering miles and miles of forest is an amazing experience in nature. But I didn't even see a rise in two days on streams.

I still have a bunch of those flies but I'm not really going to expend much energy to try fishing the next hatch.

Hoping others have better luck with this one.
 
I think I'm most excited to see just how badly the Youtubers and other social media clout chasers ruin the periodical cicada hatch of 2025 with their main character syndrome. Just remember folks, the world 17 years ago was a lot different than it is now.
 
In my early teen years before I started really fly-fishing, me and my brother would catch live cicadas and impale them on a bare hook and fish them on fly rods. Usually we twitched them very aggressively to create ripples on the water the way they bugs did when they crash landed on the surface. We definitely caught some fish doing that but if I remember we caught more smallmouth bass and large fall fish than trout.
 
I'm hoping to get into some carp fishing during cicada time. During one of the previous cicada episodes I stopped at a creek just to take a look and carp were swimming near the surface right out in the current in the middle of the stream and chasing down and inhaling cicadas off the surface.

It was an amazing thing to see, but I didn't have my fishing gear along. I went to the same place the next day, but the weather had changed to cool and rainy, so I saw no carp hitting cicadas at all.
 
Tabasco-Joe said:
I have to say the last time there was a big central PA hatch I went fishless. And was less than impressed with fishing cicadas. I drove down the valley at Spruce Creek (Union County) and then along White Deer. Cicadas everywhere and a tremendous hum through the valleys. Lots of Cicadas on White Deer and nary a rise.

I traveled across the state forest roads to Penns Creek. Cicadas humming the whole way. At Penns there were large mats of cicadas on the water and, as on WD, not a single rise. I cast a few on top. (I had come prepared with a couple dozen cicada flies.) Tried sinking a few as drowners. Not a single hit. Didn't see a single rise. Either at the Cherry Springs stretch or the Poe Paddy stretch.

Went on to Spring Creek. There a few were humming and flying around. It seemed they were just starting in State College. Again a few on the water but no rises and nothing interested in my offerings.

I decided to visit Steve at FlyFisher's Paradise shop. He told me there wasn't much action on cicadas so far. I picked up some of his flies to add variety to my collection.


Next day I repeated the same path, Spruce Run, White Deer, Penns, and Spring. Again, mats of cicadas on the water and no fish action. I wasn't disappointed as that massive hatch covering miles and miles of forest is an amazing experience in nature. But I didn't even see a rise in two days on streams.

I still have a bunch of those flies but I'm not really going to expend much energy to try fishing the next hatch.

Hoping others have better luck with this one.
Click to expand...
not your fault. I experienced the same for the first week. I went away on a business trip for 8 days. When I came back the fish were now taking them like crazy. I think they just need to learn they can eat them. Gees, maybe the were afraid at first. The buzz and commotion on the top probably spooked them.
Which brings up another question I have pondered.... who was the first human who looked at a lobster and said, yeah, I'll eat that.
 
Seriously, it only takes a few cicadas a day crashing into the stream over a few days to turn the fish on to them. It' doesn't have to be the flurry of activity that IS a reality. I mean, larger terrestrials work and how many size 10 insects are in the water at any instant? Isonychias and march brown flies will bring up trout and often you only see a few of those over a span of time watching the stream.
I dug up some remaining flies from 17 years ago, reminding myself of the pattern I tied and used after many episodes of tying and fishing trials. I remember back then settling on a tie after a bit more than a week. I have a few nice Montana foam cutting dies now. Tying might ammount to stamping out 4 or 6 mm black foam, a bit of orange thread, wing material, super glue and BAM! Cicada fly ready to fish!
 
nymphingmaniac said:
not your fault. I experienced the same for the first week. I went away on a business trip for 8 days. When I came back the fish were now taking them like crazy. I think they just need to learn they can eat them. Gees, maybe the were afraid at first. The buzz and commotion on the top probably spooked them.
Which brings up another question I have pondered.... who was the first human who looked at a lobster and said, yeah, I'll eat that.
Click to expand...
In the early days of cicada-mania the cicadas are making a lot of noise, but not many are falling onto the water.

Then later on their behavior changes and many more of them are falling onto the water. That's when it's best.

Even later than that the fishing can fall off because the fish get glutted, i.e. stuffed full of cicadas and lose their appetites, and in some places there are too many people slapping down fake cicadas, making the fish cautious.
 
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