Cicadas are coming!!!

The Brood X, 17 year cicadas are popping out of the ground in certain areas around DC like in Potomac and Rockville, MD. The mass invasion could be as soon as tonight?! It’s a phenomenon of biblical proportions and the fish think so too. This will be my third cicada hatch as a DC area resident. Even as an 8 year old kid I was fishing the cicada hatch on the C&O canal. I can remember vividly as a cicada was buzzing around on the surface near Swains Lock with 5 or 6 big bluegill trying to tear it apart and just then a big snapping turtle moved in and swallowed him up. Then in 2004 I had finished college and still fishing around my old stomping grounds in Western, MD. The North Branch of the Potomac was on fire with fish so fat with cicada parts popping out of both ends. I swore to myself I’d be back in 17 years. The North Branch isn’t what it was back then when the hatchery was there supplying the needed nutrients to grow enormous wild trout but it’s still a fish factory. I’m taking some time off to fish the North Branch the first week in June. But the rest of the time I’ll be prying local waters around the C&O canal, Potomac River and area reservoirs. Reservoirs you ask??? YES!!! The gin clear water makes it an ideal scenario for sight fishing for carp. When you see a fish cruising around on his own or in a small school, they rarely can’t help themselves to a cicada. The action is fast, the fish are bruisers and you’ll think you’ve died and gone to dry fly heaven.