Author’s note: the other fishing buddy featured in the photos is named Chris. He’s a prospective FATC member and a law professor from Kansas City (and a hell of a nice guy). I hope it’s ok to include him (he got his personal best 22” brown and was really happy).
Cicada Evolution
Since early May, I — Al Harper — and other FATC anglers have been lucky enough to capitalize on the ongoing Missouri Cicada hatch. It’s been an historic event and it’s yielded the kind of catches I normally don’t experience regardless of tactics or degree of tenacity. But as word about the phenomenal hatch has spread, and fishing pressure has increased at places like Montauk and the Current River, the bite has evolved.
While still successful, I noticed big differences on my latest float down the Current on 6/5/24. One difference was a shift in where the fishing was best: away from places easily accessible to more anglers. In high pressure areas trout were much more discerning in taking cicada flys. A few weeks ago a trout that would smash a fly with abandon now swam under the fly and gave it a careful look, often refusing it.
Dan Stag, who had a couple of successful floats recently, pointed out that having more than one cicada fly to offer can help induce a strike.
Another change is that trout seem to take a cicada fly more readily in faster water. Presumably this is because they have less time to examine it. Credit to Matt McClure for this revelation.
Yet another change is the way a fly drifts on the surface. While conventional wisdom dictates the fly should sit on the surface in a nice, pristine manner, a fishing partner I was with began having success with a bug that was partially submerged!
The other thing that seemed to be going on was the nature of the strikes. Basically the ratio of strikes to successful hooksets has changed, at least, that is, in high pressured areas. One theory that could help explain this is that the trout, having now seen a lot of cicada flys (or even having been caught by them) are changing strike tactics. While this may initially seem outlandish, my close up observations from the vantage point of standing up in a drift boat revealed that, at least in some cases, nice trout were violently bumping (some might say “head bumping”) my fly to gauge it’s reaction. Of course, my reaction was to attempt a hook set. I would come up empty and from the fish’s viewpoint the bug he was interested in was suddenly gone. Occasionally a follow up cast would be reward me with another chance, but usually the game was over.
One thing that hadn’t changed this trip was the necessity of having a natural or realistic drift. Drag or pull on my fly exerted by the current or through inattention on my part almost certainly resulted in a refusal.
I hear various opinions on how long the hatch will last. And I had planned to also see what the cicada bite was like on the Niangua River, but heavy rain over there fouled up that effort. I hope these observations, while not scientific, help some FATC cash in on this incredible hatch.
