I will admit, I am a bona fide cicada junky. 2008, Brood XIV, emergence in central PA did that to me. It started at the tail end of the drake hatch on Penns Creek and after chasing wild trout into the middle of the night on coffin fly spinner falls. I was nymphing a run the next day and watched a guy nailing big trout on what looked like a huge dry fly. When I passed him he said fish were starting to take the cicadas, though only the first ones had began emerging. He was an old timer and said it would only get better. He was right.
I scurried back to my tent and mobile tying station and whipped together the ugliest looking foam mutation onto a size 5 Alec Jackson Spey hook (which was the largest hook I had on me). Guess what? I spent the next two days catching some of the largest and smartest wild trout in the stream...in the middle of the day.
the old man was right, it only got better and after spending a month of pure fly fishing joy, I was forever changed
I've been waiting for Brood V since 2008 and hoping that it would hit Western PA. You can imagine my delight when I started seeing the tell tale 1/4" holes drilled out of the ground, ready for the big emergence!
