Cicadas

[OlyphantLacky]

Is it this year when the Cicadas are in PA?

 

[tomgamber]

I think they are a little more localized than to be able to say in PA...we had them in parts of SWpa about 6 or 7 years ago...

 

[MKern]

I think there are cidadas every year, just not in the huge swarms like every few years.

 

[OlyphantLacky]

I was just doing some seaching for info in these buggers and what i found out was this year is the ones that hatch every 17 years.and there is also 13 year ones.here's the page i found it on

http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Periodical/Index.html

 

[shakey]

this issue of fly tyer has an article on cicadas that led me to believe that this is the big year.

 

[Padraic]

There's a good article in the HBG Fly Fisher's book (Limestone Legends) about that. It gives maps of all the broods of the 17 yr locust hatches.

Here's an article from DCNR. Note the text to the right of the map at the bottom. It gives the counties that can expect 17 yr locusts in 2008.
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/leaflets/pcicada.htm

I remember seeing these things falling into Clarks Creek the first year I was fly fishing. Of course I was helpless to try to imitate these bugs. But just watching it was awesome. It looked like sharks tearing apart seals. The cicada would fall in the water with a big splat and start buzzing around. The trout would rush over and watch the thing for a few minutes. One would tear off a wing or a leg, then the rest would start hitting it, dragging it under and letting it go. They were too big (apparently) to swallow. But they would keep trying to tear the things into pieces. OH, the carnage!!!

 

[tomgamber]

Here's the MAP
from your article...you can see where its not happening this year in western pa...thats about where it happened 6 or 7 years ago.

If you've never experienced it its really cool. I was doing a news story on something (rafting flows I think) in Ohiopyle. My reporter and I stopped at a look out on the way home for a weather shot and I asked her to get out...as she got further from the car she could finally hear them...I told her to look up and she let out an amazingly loud scream and high tailed it back in the car...What she saw was every inch of branch and every inch of leaf above her just absolutely covered with Cicadas...they were practically roaring...I though it was cool...she didn't.

 

[dryflyguy]

Tom:

Did the Yough river fish get on to them that year? And did you try fishing them?
I was biking below Ohiopyle in early summer that year, and heard them buzzing in the trees. But I never saw any near the water. Then I went away on vacation, and never had a chance to try fishing them.


Olyphant:

This is definitely the year they are hatching, but I believe it will be mostly in the central portion of the state. There is some discussion about them and patterns to use on the FFP site right now

 

[tomgamber]

dryflyguy wrote:
Tom:

Did the Yough river fish get on to them that year? And did you try fishing them?
I was biking below Ohiopyle in early summer that year, and heard them buzzing in the trees. But I never saw any near the water. Then I went away on vacation, and never had a chance to try fishing them.

don't know...actually had a real job back then and didn't fish the Yough much...the only ones I saw en mass were on top of the mtn...might have been fun to find out though...

 

[tomgamber]

Depending on when they emerge and looking at the map above..perhaps at the jam we'll find out...I think it'll be a little later though...

 

[brookie]

I cant wait to see these things hit the water, if it happens like they say it could, fishing will be pretty sweet!

 

[shipnfish2006]

If this years brood is anything like the brood in 2004, I can't wait! I might have to schedule some vacation for a week after they emerge. I've never caught so many trout in a 2 week span on such a large fly before. Definitely one of those things you never forget.

 

[MattBoyer]

Ship, the brood in '04 was brood X, which is the most widely distributed, but brood XIV, which is this year, gets pretty thick in some spots in our area, if I remember correctly. I think I remember not having any in Williamstown, but going to the river in Millersburg they were everywhere. I remember '96 was crazy in Clark's valley. There were so many of them, and every time you would bump into one they'd fly away screaming. Sometimes I would scream as well. Scared the hell outta me. They are harmless, but freak you out when they hit you. They are the absolute clumsiest fliers that I have ever seen, bouncing from tree to tree to Boyer to creek. Then they would get mashed. I actually bought some cicada patterns online, but it turns out they were a New Zealand pattern, so they're gray, but I think I might take an orange highlighter to the wings this year and a black sharpie to the body. I think they might be the coolest bugs ever.

Boyer

 

[troutbert]

According to the PSU site, Brook XIV is due this year.

Adams, Bedford, Berks, Blair, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Cumberland, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, Mifflin, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Tioga, Union, and York Counties; last emerged in 1991.

Here’s the link:
http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/periodical_cicada.htm

I remember this from 1991. This is the BIG one.

It can be very good, if you hit it right. That’s the big if. The fish hit the bugs hard in the early part of the hatch. Later the fish seem to get glutted.

The bugs will not be in every part of the counties listed. Even when they are on a particular stream, they are not on the whole length of the stream. Sometimes they will be in a watershed up on the hills, but not down near the creek.

Often they will be very heavy at one spot, and 5 miles away there will be none.

On a cold morning, they’re not active, they wake up after the sun warms them. And sometimes there are a lot of cicadas at a stream, but the stream may have very few trout left in June.

So, it’s not all that easy. You have to do some scouting around, and asking around, to find a stream that has both trout and cicadas in it simultaneously.

It’s not just about trout, though. Bass and carp eat them too.

 

[Padraic]

Funny thing about the locusts (and cicada). They are almost empty. They have a huge chamber in their bodies to create that buzzing sound. So the fish learn that they are not as filling as they look.

Cicadae do not cluster as densely as the periodic locust. So the cicadae is not an important insect for typical fishing. Not when you compare it to one of these periodic emergences.

 

[jerseygeorge]

I had an awesome time on the last brood down in Maryland (2004?). Fished big hunting creek and tagged over 35 fish in about 4 hours. Just had to slap the big foam cicada into the water and the trout went nuts. I still have that fly, all chewed up. Thanks for the post, I will chase those things down. When the trout are keyed in on them it is awesome.

Also, that year my friend Pat who invited me down saw a nice brown hanging out next to a rock. Pat threw in a ciccada, it drifted by, and he munched it down. Pat threw in 11 more cicadas, yeah he ate an even dozen! After that he would just come up, look at them, and go down.

Most of the fish that we caught felt very "lumpy" from all the cicadas in their stomach.

The fly is very large, and you do miss a lot of fish because of the hook size, but boy is is fun.

 

[MattBoyer]

I like to fish for natives in the fall after a cicada year. I think I've caught some of my fattest wild/native trout on those years. It's like a years worth of nutrition in a few weeks, and I've noticed a decent spike in holdovers as well, weather notwithstanding. I can't wait!

Boyer

 

[Wmass]

Cicadas have always fascinated me. Can you imagine that these uggly bugs sit under the ground for 17 years and just eat and get fat, waiting for "the big day" when they are instinctively supposed to hatch. After hatching they just fly around for a few weeks and mate, then they just die. Crazy to think about.


ALSO--- Not to gross you guys out but some people actually collect cicadas during the hatch and eat them. Apparently they are a delicacy to some in the Maryland, Virginia, and DC area and they are best cooked in a little butter. Frankly, I'll stick to a nice steak thanks.

 

[Acristickid]

When is the hatch time? May and June? One of the links above mentions they are all but gone in July. When I think of locusts etc.. I think later in the summer.

Wmass- yuck!

 

[PaulG]

This is great news, I've been waiting for a hatch of these big guys. My friend tied me up some a couple of years ago, great lookin pattern, and I never got a chance to try them.

Many years ago, I ran into a hatch of them on Clarks, had a lot of fun fishing them, and watching the trout eat those big flies!

PaulG