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17 year cicada

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I heard a report on the news yesterday about the 17 year cicada going to hatch this year in the eastern and mid-eastern part of the country. I suppose we should have some cicada patterns ready (and some ear plugs). It's going to be quite an event they are saying and if it is anything like I have experienced in the past, there will millions of them everywhere on every tree and shrub and littering the ground. Every step will be crunching with the crushed carcasses of dead and dying cicadas for about 2-3 weeks.

 

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas for a cicada pattern? Since they only come around once every 17 years, I doubt that many of us have ever had the need to tie any. I think we should run a contest for the best cicada pattern and post them all here. What do you think?

cicada-brood-could-be-big-in-2013_65791_cicada-1.jpgcicada-2.jpgcicada-4.jpg

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Experienced this hatch two years ago. We call if the periodic cicada over in Missouri. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Mine were pretty simplistic. Size 8-10 on a Teimco 8-10 200R with an orange belly and a black foam backing and a krystal flash wing. Rock on, tight lines.

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We had them here in TN in 2011. They finally cut back on the generation on the Caney Fork toward the end of the hatch and I had some awesome fishing to big browns with this cicada pattern. Basically it is tied like a Steath Bomber fly with a a black body , black foam, and orange rubber legs and a Hi Vis wing on a Gamakatsu B10S size 2 hook. Pardon the look of the fly. This one had been fished and was a little chewed.

post-36744-0-30540600-1365945329_thumb.jpg

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Experienced this hatch two years ago. We call if the periodic cicada over in Missouri. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Mine were pretty simplistic. Size 8-10 on a Teimco 8-10 200R with an orange belly and a black foam backing and a krystal flash wing. Rock on, tight lines.

 

There are several different kinds of cicadas...some that hatch every 2 years... some every 11-13 years...and some every 17 years. I don't know if one is more numerous when they hatch than another but as you can see from the photos I found, they have red eyes that figure quite prominently on the 17 year cicadas. There were some photos that I found of the others too but they don't have the red eyes. Otherwise, they looked the same.

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we had a huge hatch of cicadas about five years ago it was crazy you couldn't go outside without getting like twenty of them on you and stuck in your hair. I tied a pattern just like a grass hopper I used 8mm black foam cut about twice the width of a hopper slit the bottom with a razor blade to hide the hook then segmented the body tied in krystal flash spent wings and orange rubber legs

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Yeah, there are many different species of cicadas - the ones that you hear the most about are the plain-looking bugs that have a 17-year cycle. There are always members of the brood that hatch early or late - then add in the 13 year bugs, and the annual species, and you can count on the fact that there's always gonna be some serious buzzing going on every summer. In Virginia, the season starts early and lasts a long time. I think the reason everybody fishes here is that people can't wait to get out on their boats and get away from the infernal racket. I couldn't hear myself think in the yard last year, and I shudder to think what it's gonna be like if there's a big 17-year brood this year. Linda like living with a massive power station behind the house.

 

In Judith Dunham's "The Art of the Trout Fly," there is a woman who ties some big bugs for big trout, mostly from deer hair, that are really nice. They mostly imitate moths, etc., but I'd imagine a similar fly with a sculptured deer hair body and hackle/buck tail/calf tail wings wound give you a nice buoyant fly that would be dead ringer for a cicada. McGnat's foam bug looks like a real killer as well.

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we had a huge hatch of cicadas about five years ago it was crazy you couldn't go outside without getting like twenty of them on you and stuck in your hair. I tied a pattern just like a grass hopper I used 8mm black foam cut about twice the width of a hopper slit the bottom with a razor blade to hide the hook then segmented the body tied in krystal flash spent wings and orange rubber legs

Let's see it!ph34r.png biggrin.png

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here is one I tied using orange foam black sharpie markers white flashabou red seed bead eyes and orange and black centipede legs

 

 

 

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That should work very well. Nice tie. Some species are all black underneath like the ones we had. Grab one as soon as possible and tie to match the underside. I gave some of my pattern to friends I fished with and just about every fish we showed it to took it.

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