Fly Fishing With Cicada Patterns

    This evening, I rode my bike to my favorite stretch of the North Fork of the Rivanna to do some fly fishing. I haven't had much luck this year on the river with cicada patterns, but I decided to give them another try. My cicada pattern is very basic, a beetle made out of craft foam with cactus chenile wrapped under it to give it a more "buggy" look, as well as cutting down on the amount of spinning it does in during casting. 

       I immediately caught a couple fallfish, a river chub, some bluegill, and a smallmouth within 15 minutes of my arrival. Just as I was preparing to have an incredible day on the river, I spotted two huge largemouth, one I would estimate to be 4lbs and the other at least 6! They were spawning with a 2lb male, and I spent TWO HOURS throwing every fly I had at them, but they were obviously too occupied by the birds and the bees to eat... I hope they stick around though, I will be back for them! I continued fishing for the last hour or so I had until it was time for me to head home. I can't fish til dark because the road between the river and my house is pretty dangerous to bike on at night. I ended up catching 3 river chubs, a longear sunfish, a green sunfish, a smallmouth, 16 redbreast sunfish, 13 fallfish, and a largemouth. 80 percent of those fish were caught on my cicada fly, so hopefully the action stays like that for a while! Thanks for reading!

Nice Fallfish caught on a #8 foam beetle

Pretty dramatic erosion from the crazy flooding that happens on the North Fork, that bank is roughly 18-20 feet tall here.

 Average size smallmouth on the North Fork. This is the first one I have caught on a cicada pattern this year.

                     This is what I believe to be a longear sunfish...Please correct me if I'm wrong!