The Cicadas are Coming…

Geez, I forgot I caught a lightning trout on a cicada. I also forgot I fished with you! lmao 2013 seems like a few years ago. whats 12 years considered? lmao

That was longggg before you became the internationally acclaimed angler that you are today! 😛
 
I was living in MD at the time and had great fun on the Gunpowder close to home and the North Branch Potomac / Savage river out in westerns MD.

Mark C
 
I still have a few cicadas tied up from the last time.

I do recall the last "hatch" of these, my wife was driving back to Pittsburgh from Maryland. She said it was so noisy they had to wait to chat until they were in the car. She said she could hear the tires crunch them by the hundreds.

When she got home I had to soak the bumper, mirrors, windshield and any part of the car that was facing forward. (The luggage rack cross bar was also a mess) After several soakings and a few rounds of pressure washing, I got 98% of bug guts off the car.

Anyway....the bad with the good.
 
I looked back through my photos and I have early to mid-June as being the "prime time" for fishing cicadas. 2013 saw an emergence in the Poconos/Harrisburg area and 2021 saw them in Lancaster/Lebanon County. With this emergence being a bit more west/northwest than those locations, I'd really bet on mid-June as being prime time. I've seen some trips advertised for the end of this month, and I just don't see that happening. Particularly with the cool and wet conditions keeping ground temps down.
 
Annnnd GO!!! 🪰 It really surprises me they're this early, but it is what it is!

 
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Annnnd GO!!! 🪰 It really surprises me they're this early, but it is what it is!

Yeah I was surprised by that - with a cool week and another 1-2 inches of rain it should be....interesting.
 
The population distribution of cicada in much of Lebanon County has disappeared in many places.
The northern forests, such as along Clarks and Stony creeks usually produce.
But a great deal of tree deaths and eliminations due to "developments" and invasive diseases has been reducing the populations over the years.
They need tree roots. That means they need healthy tree roots for all the years needed for each variety.

Also, dusk to early morning has seemed to be a good time.
This is a key time for them to crawl up a tree and shed the nymph shell.
I got some nice video of emerging from shell.
It takes a little time for the body to emerge, and the wings to unfold and then they crawl around until they dry and can fly.
It's dark by then.

I consider it to be similar with using mice patterns to replicate voles, which are nighttime food when they swim in the shallows along the edges and tail of pools.

But caught a lot more smallmouth than trout.
Maybe it's a stream temperature thing where the trout are no longer in the prime feeding places for cicadae in the places that had held trout earlier in the year?

But, despite their elimination with the great elimination of aged trees, I'm going along with the proposal that it may just take a little time for trout to become aware that it is a tasty bug!!!
 
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