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The Cicada Report: How to Tie a Project Cicada

Learn how to tie Curtis Fry's Project Cicada pattern—plus fishing tips from the expert himself

By Ryan Chelius


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The highly anticipated Cicada hatch is underway in southern parts of the country, and anglers should start seeing fish of all species come to the surface to feed on these big bugs. In other words, now is a good time to fill your fly boxes with various cicada patterns. One of our favorites—for everything from trout and smallmouth bass to carp and pike—is the project Cicada Cofounder of Fly Fish Food and well-known fly-tier Curtis Fry developed the Project Cicada to improve on his already popular Sickada pattern. The result was a more well-balanced fly that is easier to tie and offers a more realistic presentation in the water. It has become a popular choice among anglers fishing terrestrial bugs all across the country and one you should carry this spring for the co-emergence of Brood XIII and Brood XIX. While you can purchase Project Cicada flies on the Fly Fish Food website, you can also take a stab at tying some yourself.

How do you tie it? Luckily, Fly Fish Food has a step by step YouTube tutorial (see below) to walk you through the process. We also put together the full list of materials that you’ll need for this pattern. If you can tie a bunch of these bugs, you’ll be set for when clouds of cicadas start singing and falling into rivers, lakes, and ponds during the next month. Here’s how to do it.

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Project Cicada Materials

  • Hook: Fulling Mill 36040 Streamer Stripper – 4

  • Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed Thread – 6/0 – Fl. Orange

  • Body: Fly Tying Foam – 6mm – Black

  • Body (alt): Rainy’s Cross-Link Sheet Foam – 6 mm – Black

  • Wing: Hareline Thin Wing – Light Dun

  • Over-Wing: Para Post Wing Material – Dark Gray

  • Over-Wing: Para Post Wing Material – Fl. Orange

  • Wing Cover: Bug Foam 1MM – Black

  • Wing Cover (alt): Rainy’s Cross-Link Sheet Foam – 1 mm – Black

  • Legs: Speckled Centipede Legs – Medium – Speckled Orange

  • Eyes: Maxima Chameleon Leader Material – 30 lb

How to Tie Project Cicada

 


Tying Tips From the Expert

In the fly tying tutorial Fry walks through each step in detail and offers tips along the way. While everything you need to know to tie this bug is in the video, Fry gave me some additional advice. “The hook is the biggest part of making the fly land correctly—hence the use of the streamer hook,” he said. This allows the bug to land right-side up every time for a better presentation on the water. Fry recommends using a size 4 Fulling Mill 36040 streamer stripper hook.

He also emphasized the color of the fly. Different regions of the country experience different color and shade variations of cicadas. Fry recommends matching the colors of your flies to natural bugs in the area. “Burnt orange rather than a hot orange is my preference most of the time.” If you aren’t sure what the cicadas in your area look like, start with burnt orange and go from there.


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How to Fish Project Cicada

Fry specifically developed this pattern to better match the silhouette of real cicadas, whose wings often go askew on the water. He also designed it with a bit more heft so that it makes a bigger splat when it lands. He emphasizes the importance of “a good splat” to entice strikes. Other than that, Fry tends to fish it with tip-heavy lines like Scientific Anglers or Rio Grand, so it is easier to turn the fly over while still allowing for it to make a splat on the water. He says that these lines float so well, it is easy to give it a mend mid-drift and continue with a good presentation.

Other than Fry’s Project Cicada-specific tips, the best piece of fishing advice we can give is to find the bugs and spend time on the water. Once the hatch starts in your area, it should last around two weeks. You’ll want to start fishing once the bugs take to the air and start singing. Then, they should start dropping into the water, hopefully creating a feeding frenzy. With any luck, you’ll be standing there, fly rod in hand and with a Project Cicada fly ready to go.



Jig and Shiner are the Ticket at LOW

Posted in Lake Of The Woods- Rainy River- Rainy Lake
May 05/14/24, 06:37:01 PM
Written by lakeofthewoodsmn
Views: 110
On the south end... This year's MN Fishing Opener weekend was not only great weather wise, the walleyes and saugers were caught in good numbers. A main fish gut hauler working with a number of resorts commented it was one of the most productive opening weekends he has seen based on the amount of fish guts collected after the weekend.

The goto presentation was a jig and frozen emerald shiner. Emerald shiners are a staple in LOW and walleyes love them. Other minnows worked also, but emerald shiners are a favorite of anglers for good reason.

Four Mile Bay held good walleyes in 12 - 18'. Not a surprise as the walleye bite on the river during the spring season was good and as of late, sturgeon anglers have been reporting catching walleyes on sturgeon rigs.

The Lighthouse Gap area, Morris Point Gap and just in front of Pine Island held nice fish in 12 - 15'. Across the south shore, 18 - 22' was holding good numbers as well. As you can see, there are lots of fish around.

A quarter ounce jig in gold, glow white, pink, orange, chartreuse, or a combo of these colors tipped with a minnow worked well.

As a reminder, the limit of walleyes and saugers is a combined limit of six fish, up to four of the six can be walleyes. All walleyes between 19.5 - 28.0 inches must be released. One fish over 28.0 inches can be kept. The possession limit in MN is one daily limit of fish.

On the Rainy River... Some nice walleyes were caught on the river this weekend, although most anglers hit the lake. 10 - 15' of water was the norm.

Sturgeon fishing on the Rainy River has been excellent. The catch and release season continues through May 15th and then closes until the keep season starts up again July 1st.

Up at the NW Angle... Some nice walleyes were caught in 18 - 25 feet of water, a little deeper than anticipated. Points were good as were areas with structure. The morning and evening bite was best.

As water continues to warm, go to spots for walleyes will be neck down areas, shoreline breaks, points and bays.

The goto presentation was a jig and minnow.

Lodging, fishing packages, small boat guide trips, charter trips and summer trips are available at www.LakeoftheWoodsMN.com/Lodging.

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