4-Tips to Fly Fishing the Brood X Cicada Hatch
Like the premise of some 1960’s B-Monster movie, millions of Cicadas crawl from the ground each spring for their combined chorus to deafen all thought, while their little crunchy bodies cover every tree, house, and road. With more than 3400 species of cicada, these 1-2-inch-long invertebrates don’t do much for the first 13-17 year of their lives burrowed underground, but as soil temperatures reach 64 degrees Fahrenheit, these chatty insects offer fly fishers across North America, Europe, and New Zealand some of the best dry fly action they will ever experience! Reported in every newspaper and news program, this year marks the hatch of the Brood X cicadas and it is going to be epic! Here are a few tips to help you take full advantage of this spring dry fly fishing bonanza!
Heavy Tippet – Both trout and warm water species hit cicadas like a ton of bricks, so if you don’t want to be tying on new flies constantly make sure you’re use 2-3x leader and tippet.
Fish near the Trees – From the roots to the branches, the life and death of the cicada is tied to the trees. When fishing cicada patterns you are going to find fish much more eager to feed on these big bugs when fished in wooded stretches and where branches overhang the water.
Make it a Double – When fish are keyed into abundant, high calorie food like cicadas you don’t need a complicated fishing rig; give the fish what they want! I’ve found that one of the deadliest setups during this hatch is one dry cicada following 18-20” with a second dry cicada as a dropper!
Time to Move – Like other terrestrial insects, when cicadas are unfortunate enough to land on the water they paddle and struggle in an attempt to reach the shore. In order to mimic this behavior, give your flies some gentle strips and taps to add some more realism and help seduce the strike from reluctant fish.
If you hear cicadas chirping from the trees this spring that means they are on the menu! Hatches this epic only happen every 17 years, so make sure you have a couple cicada patterns locked and loaded in your fly box this spring!
Fly of the Month
Pattern: Foam Cicada
Size: 4-8
Among the largest of terrestrial trout foods, the Cicadas will emerge from the soil each summer to chirp through the summer nights. While present in modest numbers most years, the Cicadas will burst from the soil in almost plague-like proportions once every 13 or 17 years, making the trout go into a manic feeding frenzy! Most commonly found throughout the central and Eastern US, you will also find an epic Cicada hatch on the Green River in Utah. This versatile pattern will prove equally lethal (in a catch and release sense of the word!) on both cold water and warm water species of fish.
Dry/Wet: Dry
Fly Category: True-Fly Pattern
Family: Terrestrial
Species: Cicada
Life Stage: Adult
