By: Marshall McDougal
For all you dry fly junkies that love throwing big foam flies to rising trout, there is a special phenomenon going on this summer that is going to truly blow you away. In 2024, the Brood XIII and the Brood XIX Cicadas will be emerging at the same time. Why is this rare? These bugs have a 17 year and 13 year emergence cycle so they only ever come out to play together every 221 years and this is the year for it!
Overview of the Cicada
Cicadas are a fairly common insect. For those that live in the South, we have all heard the familiar buzz of these males in the evening as they sound an alarm and attract mates. Every year they show up in waves for an annual hatch. Over 3,000 species of cicadas fall under the annual cicada category which means that they hatch periodically and multiple variations can be seen emerging every year. These hatches typically are smaller in size with less bugs and are sporadic. So what makes this year’s hatch special? We will see a Brood hatch this year which typically produces more numbers of cicadas and can be targeted in a certain region. Not only will it be a Brood hatch but we are also fortunate enough to have two of the fifteen brood cycles emerging at the same time – the Brood XIII(17 years) and the Brood XIX(13 years).
Life Cycle
The life cycle of brood cicadas is spent mostly underground. Females can lay up to 400 eggs during their emergence. These eggs will hatch anywhere from 6-10 weeks later in the form of a nymph. The cicada nymph will burrow in the ground to feed on the liquid of plant roots. For the brood cicada, these nymphs will spend the majority of their life in this stage before molting and emerging. Depending on their subspecies, they will emerge every 13 or 17 years to mate and lay eggs for the next generation of broods. Typically a brood emergence is triggered as the ground temperature starts rising and we can see activity in these bugs as early as when the soil temp hits 65 degrees F. Adults after emerging, breeding and laying eggs will typical dye off in 4-6 weeks leaving us anglers a little over a month to target rising fish with big foam cicada patterns!
Brood XIII – 17 Year Cycle
These broods will have a heavy concentration in the MidWest when we see them pop off this year. States like Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa will see the majority of this emergence but Missouri and Indiana could also see a few of these guys around this summer. The XIII is the smaller of the two periodic cicadas in the emergence this year so fishing a slightly smaller pattern will be more effective for matching the hatch.
Brood XIX – 13 Year Cycle
The larger of the broods will be hatching a little further south and through the SouthEast with some overlap in states like Illinois and Missouri. The majority of this hatch will be seen in Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois with some sightings in Georgia and Alabama. With this being the larger of the two broods, throwing a bigger foam fly should attract more bites.
The When and Where
MidWest and SouthEast
There’s an app for that! No seriously, they have made an app that reports cicada emergences and it is going to come in extremely handy this year. Cicada Safari is what avid cicada enthusiast use to track these emergences and I have found it to be worth the download as you are getting real time data of where and when people across the country are seeing these bugs hatch. The US Forest Service has also come out with an emergence map for the Brood X that you can take a look at below. This is a rough estimate based on where the last emergence occurred.
Liebhold, A. M., Bohne, M. J., and R. L. Lilja. 2013. Active Periodical Cicada Broods of the United States. USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry
When to Expect Them
Cicadas typically emerge during the late spring and into the summer. The driving factor behind this is going to be ground temperature. These nymphs bury themselves up to 8 feet into the ground so they are well below most states frost lines. As the upper ground temperature starts to rise, these bug become more active. The experts say the magic number is 65 degrees F. Once the ground above these insects gets above this mark, they will start to emerge.
Gear Recommendations
Being able to sling the larger patterns to rising fish requires a little extra backbone in your rod selection. My recommended setup is a 6wt paired with weight forward floating line. A 9-foot rod will work just fine but a 9’ 6” or 10’ rod can help with mending your line as well as fishing from a raft should you be taking a guided trip or bringing your own. For fly line, the Rio Elite Grand has always been my go-to for big foam dry flies and I really enjoyed throwing the new Bank Robber from Rio that has been specifically designed to turn over and accurately cast bigger bugs. If the trout are not super picky, a 2X – 7 ½’ leader would be a great option. Step down to a 3X if you find the fish shy away from your fly. Adding an extra 18-24” of the same size tippet will help extend the life of your leader as well as provide some extra distance from your fly line to the fly on spookier fish. Should the 3X leader still be an issue, try tapering down to 4X tippet – This is the absolute smallest I would go when throwing larger foam flies like a cicada!
Rod: Sage R8 Core 690-4 or TFO LK Legacy 06 90 4
Reel: Sage Spectrum 5/6 or TFO BVK II
Line: Rio Elite Gold WF6F or Rio Premier Bank Robber WF6F
Leader: Rio Powerflex Trout Leader 2X
Tippet: Rio Powerflex 3X
Conclusion
This is a once in a lifetime occurrence for two Brood X cicadas to be emerging at the same time. The next time we will see this will be in the year 2245 so if you’re looking for an epic trip this summer, find some rivers where this emergence is happening and go chase some hungry fish! If you are looking for flies for this hatch, we will be dropping a small batch of cicada flies at the end of May specifically for this hatch. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us via email or Instagram!
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