Cicada Madness!

[Guest]

I went fishing on Memorial Day to a tailwater that has our only trout fishing within a 1 hour drive. Up to that point I have been hearing and seeing these things for a few weeks, but nothing like this. Brookville, Indiana has to have one of the highest concentrations of these things and they were everywhere!!!! We make it down to the water and the stream was completely covered with cicadas....they were everywhere. I watched thousands of cicadas drift by making the biggest commotion you could imagine and with all that activity.....not one rise of a fish. I couldn't believe it.

 

This is no lie we had cicadas all over our waders, on our hats, clinging to our fly line and at one point I had several clinging to my fly rod when I was trying to cast....it was unbelievable.

 

We got there late afternoon and I gues there is a possibility that the fish had gorged themselves on these things or something because the fish wern't biting to say the least, we got skunked.

 

The worst part is I tried to take some pics of the madness but my camera's battery died when I was trying to take the first picture

 

For anyone who has not seen a cicada hatch of this magnitude your missing quite the experience

[Guest]

Doesn't sound like we missed anything.

 

You can have those noisy bastards. It's bad enough that they keep you up at night and then ruin the fishing on top of it. FTC

 

I wondered where you ended up this weekend. It would have been interesting to see if the trout actually ate them. Sounds like eat a few and they're done for the week

[Guest]

if it makes ya feel better, I have actually heard less cicadas then most years here. I haven't seen one even! I guess the hatch is about over also (from what i heard on the news), so maybe we got through unscathed or they did drown!

 

steve

[Guest]

I saw a few up north two weeks ago. I bet the rains are keeping them in the trees. During our float we noticed the birds swarming the trees making us believe the bugs (all of them) are heading for the trees to molt and the rains are keeping them there.

[Steeldrifter 0]

QUOTE (Shoe @ Jun 4 2004, 11:36 AM)

. FTC

Ralph you have such a way with words

 

Batts died huh will......arent you the one that says NO PICS THEN NO BELIEVE?

 

SD

[lanvaettir 0]

Sounds like the fish were full! I guess they ate the first waves of big bugs and then headed down for their favorite lie. I haven't seen a massive cicada hatch like brood X but the yearly cicadas we have here in Albuquerque are pretty big. A couple of them is all a big trout needs to be full for a couple days! Were the cicadas rafting on the water like midges or mayflies? That would be incredible!

[cornmuse 0]

Hello all;

 

New to this board, not new to FF, though. I have to chime in on this cicada discussion as I live in one of the high concentration areas. The rivers have been pretty much blown out since the emergence started, but the ponds and lakes are fishing fine. In fact, I had a hell of a day with carp on Wednesday. Big snouts breaking the surface everywhere and hoovering up screaming cicadas. It was like something out of a Steven King movie!

 

I had on carp on for 45 minutes or so. I rigged up for bluegill with a 5wt and 6lb tippet and nailed a pig of 30+ lbs. shortly after I started fishing. Ended up hooking six fish and landing one - a 30" grass carp. Amazing top water fishing experience for a fish that is rarely so careless about topwater feeding.

 

Some of the streams in sw Ohio and eastern Indiana have a bizarre trait - smallies tend to not look up till well into the summer. I fish Twin Creek a lot and find that, even in crystal clear water that is at best 4' deep, I need to use a sink tip and present a johnny darter, sculpin or crayfish imitation right on the bottom to interest them. Around August I have found they start reacting very aggressively to a fast worked top water bug or big streamer. Of course, YMMV.

 

That said, the bass and carp fishing on still waters has been phenomenal for the last two weeks. When the creeks come down a bit and stabilize (mid next week) I'll see if the smallies are interested in the orange-eyed bugs.

 

Don't know about your feelings, but I love Brood X!

 

BTW, I have some excellent macro shots of teneral adults emerging and mature adults if anyone wants to see what these fellows look like up close and personal.

 

Joe C.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Welcome to the site Joe and congrates on that big carp we have a decent number of guys here that chase those big boys.

 

Share any pics you may have.

 

SD

[Guest]

cornmuse,

 

Hey man glad to see another SW Ohio guy on the board. I have never fished Twin Creek but I have heard some great things about that area and plan on trying it out this year. Your right about the river levels they have been rough the last couple of weeks. I may try the Mad River this weekend for what I have heard it is at a decent level and fishing good.

[cornmuse 0]

Twin is a fabulous fishery. Difficult stream to get the full measure of. I was fortunate that I spent a LOT of time on it last year. In fact, I fished Twin about once a week from April through November last year. It has a surprising population of smallies.

 

The Mad is also a good smallie creek - especially near Wright Patt. That is also the section to fish if you are truly looking for better than 2 feet of brown trout. The fishing is tough but the rewards can be huge...

 

I'll try to get a pic of the big amur on the board here soon.

 

JC

[MIKE*A 0]

JC,

Are you talking about the "twin creeks" in Germantown that dump into the Great miami? If so. i have never fished those myself.......I live in Deweese park and spend most of my time on the Stillwater/Great miami. Used to hit the Mad over by Huffman and worked it on down to downtown. Never fished it much behind Wright_patt though I always thought the stretch between 235/wright patt looked pretty good.

 

Mike