Cicadas after 17 years

After 17 Years, the Northeast Is About to Be Blanketed by a Swarm of Cicadas. Time to tie some cicada fly patterns.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smar...201303-science

[jet]

i dont get the 17 years thing. the last time was 2004, and before that was when i was a little kid in the 80's. that would mean these came out in the 90's which i dont remember happening?

[On the fly]

It's the Smithsonian so it can't be wrong. And just when I thought the stink bugs were under control. Must be the end, fish hard and quickly you never know.

[Yak Fish]

i dont get the 17 years thing. the last time was 2004, and before that was when i was a little kid in the 80's. that would mean these came out in the 90's which i dont remember happening?

That's what I keep saying. It happened the year I moved to MD.

[HokieDJ]

There's different sets of of them that come up.

[jet]

true, but how come i cant find anything about this 1996 cicada? either way, its crazy how this bug lives for 17 years!

[frettr00]

I've never been fortunate enough to see these black ones up close. I used to catch the annuals as a kid; they're the dark green and black ones that come out every summer. Fair warning though, if you're in an area where a large amount of the brood emerges, once they die and decay they smell like Limburger cheese....

[On the fly]

Here is a site showing all the different cicada Broods and years they come out.

http://www.magicicada.org/about/brood_pages/broods.php

[ronaultmtd]

When they are out it is warm- I usually hear them when I am groundhog hunting Southern PA-late May, early June-

[HJS]

i dont get the 17 years thing. the last time was 2004, and before that was when i was a little kid in the 80's. that would mean these came out in the 90's which i dont remember happening?

Hey, I'm with stupid. (<--, sheesh, sounds like a T-shirt) The last BIG outbreak of 17 year cicadas in Maryland was 2004. I hit them bigtime at Prettyboy Reservoir on May 18, 2004. Carp were scarfing them up like orphans at a candy store free-for-all. On May 25, 2004 they were all over the rocks at Chain Bridge on the lower Potomac. Catfish were slashing at them as they floated downriver. On May 28, 2004, I caught a bunch of nice bluegills at Greenbriar Lake using Cicadas. At all 3 locations the cicadas were all over the place by the 1000s. To re-bait all I'd have to do is reach out anywhere and grab one off a bush.

There are several broods on the east coast that overlap somewhat, but the main brood for MD is still 8 years off (2021).

[ronaultmtd]

humm- I'll bet a donut hole that Snakeheads will go crazy for them this year if they are flitting around on top water

[DOGFISH]

I remember a few Cicada years. Once while fishing for smallmouth bass. The fish were just killing the cicadas that fell to the water. It was a feeding frenzy.

[manlystanley]

So, what type of lure's do you guys recommend. Does any of these work: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_...nid=2941120011

1/16, 1/8, 3/8, 1/2 Oz???

Best Regards.
Stan

[ronaultmtd]

Nope-just use top water big bug lures- In eastern PA in some of the limestone/chalk trout streams where lots of folks feed the fish with chunks of bread, the local fly fishermen have started making flies that look like pieces of sliced white bread- they just float them down stream and bam! big Browns and Rainbows kill the bread lures- same thing when we have big hatches of bugs- "match the hatch" is an old axiom in fly fishing-

[DOGFISH]

Ron is right, "topwater." Use a similar color.

I like the bread fly idea. We used to use a pellet fly, that matched what stocked trout would feed on in the hatchery. It worked on freshly stocked trout.