Plague of Locusts Coming

[greenghost]

They're coming to SW PA this year. Get out the cicada fly-tying recipes.

 

[afishinado]

Thread in Entomology forum > Yinzer Hatch

 

[shakey]

I ALWAYS GET EXCITED ABOUT THEM,THEN,ALWAYS MISS THEM.

 

[Prospector]

I was on a wild trout stream last year when the locusts were falling in the water and giving their last wiggles. The trout were fighting over them but none could actually eat one. It was like a person trying to eat a whole ham in one bite.

 

[troutbert]

Carp go crazy over cicadas.

If you have the chance, check that out.

 

[dryflyguy]

troutbert wrote:
Carp go crazy over cicadas.

If you have the chance, check that out.

I did just that - on bald eagle creek during the last cicada emergence there - in 2008 I believe.
Huge carp were cruising around the slow pools sucking down the big bugs. And I started playing games with them. Casting my pattern close to one, and waiting while it lumbered it to it. Then jerking it away at the last second just as it was about to eat it.

Of course, I was a little slow on the draw a few times. And hooked a few of the brutes.
Didn't really want to catch them. But gotta admit that they put up a whale of a fight!

 

[Dave_W]

greenghost wrote:

They're coming to SW PA this year. Get out the cicada fly-tying recipes.

Exciting news.

I still have some cicada flies left over from the last time they were here in central PA. They're fun to tie.

If you're a SWPA FFer who doesn't tie your own flies, send me a PM and I'll send you some cicadas.

EDIT: My cicada flies have found new homes.

 

[RLeep2]

When I was a kid, I used to do the cruising carp thing during inchworm time on the creek I grew up on, the outlet of a small natural lake. I only ever landed 2 or 3 and destroyed 2 Western Auto brand (Revelation) fly rods.

Like hooking a school bus..

 

[mcwillja]

any good fly tying tutorials for cicadas?

 

[DaveS]

A pan fish popper will work. This doesn’t need to be difficult.

 

[troutbert]

RLeep2 wrote:
When I was a kid, I used to do the cruising carp thing during inchworm time on the creek I grew up on, the outlet of a small natural lake. I only ever landed 2 or 3 and destroyed 2 Western Auto brand (Revelation) fly rods.

Like hooking a school bus..

What kind of inchworm pattern did you use back in those days?

In more modern times (1990s) I've used sinking chartreuse cotton chenille inchworm patterns for carp in an area of stream that has very little current.

I'd let the inchworm sink right to the bottom and just lay there. They are so bright colored that you can see them on the bottom.

Then a carp would wander by and vacuum it up. I was surprised that this worked, but it did.

 

[Maurice]

troutbert wrote:

RLeep2 wrote:
When I was a kid, I used to do the cruising carp thing during inchworm time on the creek I grew up on, the outlet of a small natural lake. I only ever landed 2 or 3 and destroyed 2 Western Auto brand (Revelation) fly rods.

Like hooking a school bus..

What kind of inchworm pattern did you use back in those days?

In more modern times (1990s) I've used sinking chartreuse cotton chenille inchworm patterns for carp in an area of stream that has very little current.

I'd let the inchworm sink right to the bottom and just lay there. They are so bright colored that you can see them on the bottom.

Then a carp would wander by and vacuum it up. I was surprised that this worked, but it did.

I bet he says deer hair....before the green weenie, we tied them in deer hair and they were actually called green inchworms.

 

[RLeep2]

Herter's World Famous light green chenille. Pretty fine, probably equiv to what would now be called size SM. Awful stuff. You had to make extra wraps because the fibers kept falling off the chenille thread.

There were a lot of downed trees in the creek and a lot of it was shaded by a mixed oak/maple canopy. When the inchworms were on, the bluegill, crappie and a few largemouth would set up on them near the downed in-stream cover. I'd get maybe 5 fish per fly before it came all unraveled and I had to put a new one on.

The carp were only in the first big pool below the outlet of the lake (LeBoeuf).

I never weighted any of the flies and if the fish wanted them, they never got much of a chance to sink. They were looking for them and generally, most of the takes were on the drop.

It was a great place to grow up. Only 100 yards from my back door...

 

[elonDO]

Here are some patterns I have tied:

http://www.completefisher.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7431

http://www.flyflinger.com/cicada.php

https://flymenfishingcompany.com/blogs/blog/fly-tying-the-double-barrel-cicada

 

[dryflyguy]

After checking out the cicada mania website, it looks like this brood is gonna be confined to a pretty small area of western PA:
From Pittsburgh north to I-80. And stretching eastward to around Indiana.
Missing the Laurel Highlands area

 

[troutbert]

dryflyguy wrote:
After checking out the cicada mania website, it looks like this brood is gonna be confined to a pretty small area of western PA:
From Pittsburgh north to I-80. And stretching eastward to around Indiana.
Missing the Laurel Highlands area

Cicadas don't like infertile soils. They probably never occur in the real mountainous areas in the Laurel Highlands.

I've seen this here in Centre and Clinton Counties. The cicadas are thick where the soils are good. Where the soil is thin, rocky, and acidic, you don't find cicadas.

 

[dryflyguy]

troutbert wrote:

dryflyguy wrote:
After checking out the cicada mania website, it looks like this brood is gonna be confined to a pretty small area of western PA:
From Pittsburgh north to I-80. And stretching eastward to around Indiana.
Missing the Laurel Highlands area

Cicadas don't like infertile soils. They probably never occur in the real mountainous areas in the Laurel Highlands.

I've seen this here in Centre and Clinton Counties. The cicadas are thick where the soils are good. Where the soil is thin, rocky, and acidic, you don't find cicadas.



[/quote

Actually, they emerged in the Laurel Highlands two years ago - although they were very spotty.
I remember driving in certain areas - seeing and hearing them. Then suddenly, it got quiet and I'd see none for awhile. Then suddenly, I'd start seeing them again.
You're soil fertility factor would certainly help explain why that was.

I did find fishable emergences of them along certain sections of Laurel Hill and Dunbar Creeks - and the Yough River

 

[turkey]

SRC and Lake Arthur?

 

[greenghost]

turkey wrote:
SRC and Lake Arthur?

Yes. Neshannock, too.

 

[dryflyguy]

I'm also thinking they will be east a bit - buffalo, mahoning - and maybe loyalhanna creeks