Get Ready for this Year's Cicada Hatch, with Dave Zielinski

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Bass, Fishing, Bonefish, Wilderness, Flyfishing, Trout, How To, Steelhead, Bluegill, Fly, Orvis, Sports, Salmon, Panfish, Education, Rosenbauer

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2025

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week my guest Dave Zielinski [39:53], author of the comprehensive book Cicada Madness, tells us when and where you can encounter this year's brood of periodical cicadas—and if you can't make that event, he'll tell you how to find waters that host regular emergences of annual cicadas, which are not quite as large but can offer spectacular fishing if your timing is right. All kinds of fish go crazy over the giant bugs, from trout to bass to carp-- even gar and catfish. Learn how to fish these flies, and how to tie them in this highly informative and timely episode that will help you plan this year's cicada expedition.

In the Fly Box this week, we have a good mix of interesting questions and tips from listeners, including:

What are your thoughts on drop beads for saltwater flies?
I am having problems with blood knots and leader sections ending up the right length.
On which Orvis rods will overlining help?
How can I get my fly deep enough to catch walleye on a fly?
A listener has various questions about fishing for striped bass on Cape Cod.
What line should I put on my new Orvis Superfine graphite?
Two fly-tying tips and a first aid tip from a doctor.
I am swinging 5 or 6 wet flies at the same time, all in line, and sometimes drop fish on the lower flies. How can I fix this?
How can you catch fish that are nearly impossible to approach in low, clear water?
Some great tips from a listener on how to stay warm when winter fishing.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing podcast.
0:14.2	This is your host, Tom Rosenbauer.
0:16.0	And this week, we're going to be talking about cicadas.
0:20.1	And yes, according to the expert, Dave Zelensky, cicada is the way to pronounce it.
0:27.3	At least we think it is.
0:30.5	Anyway, regardless of how you pronounce it, these are important bugs in certain parts of the country.
0:41.7	And they can create some amazing fishing opportunities.
0:55.6	And Dave has written a book called Cicada Madness, which is really the ultimate guide to finding out where these things are going to be falling into the water, what time of day to fish him, how to fish him, what flies to use,
0:58.1	what rods to use, all that stuff.
1:06.1	So if you want to try to catch one of these amazing bug falls, I guess you'd call it, because it's not a hatch, really it's not an aquatic hatch, and you want to catch trout bass carp gar even catfish
1:16.1	on a dry fly um this is your opportunity to um really experience something that only comes around
1:24.3	uh every 13 or 13 or 14 or 17 years.
1:30.4	I've had a lot of requests for a podcast on cicada fishing,
1:34.8	and I've never done it other than the occasional annual cicada on the Green River in Utah.
1:41.5	So Dave's the expert, and he's going to tell us some really cool stuff about these amazing bugs.
1:49.7	All right.
1:50.9	Before we do the flybox, I just wanted to give you some ideas of where you might want to go on a fishing trip next year.
1:58.7	I'm going to talk about one of the Orvis and Dorse Lodges
2:03.6	and an outfitter and then an independent guide. So the lodge this week is Camp Bonaventure.
2:10.7	And this is one of the kind of the grand old salmon fishing camps. It's been in existence for about 30 years.
2:20.5	Only takes 12 guests. And it's on the Bonaventure River, which is one of the clearest Atlantic salmon rivers in the world.
2:31.3	The water, you've probably seen pictures of this river. It just looks like, look like there's nothing there. It looks like there's air in the world. The water, you've probably seen pictures of this river. It just looks like, look like there's nothing there.
	...

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