Cicada Pattern

This particular pattern has been fishing pretty damn well for me lately, well actually the one in thepic has a modification or two compared to the one i've been fishing. it's certainly fishing better then the other cicadas that i have tucked away in my fly box. maybe that's because i haven't ever thrown any other cicada pattern then this one. in either case it has been sticking it to 'em. i found this pattern several years ago on-line when i first moved to utah. i don't remember what it is called and on this particular i made a couple of small adjustments. the legs, body and orange foam are done a little different then the original. i doubled over the orange foam to try and thicken the body a bit. here are the steps:

1. cut a long strip of orange foam and fold it over. tie it in at the front of the hook and wrap back almost to the bend. wrap the thread back and forth several times to make sure that the foam is good and secured.

2. tie in a long piece of black foam near the bend where you tie off the orange foam.

3. tie in a strand of orange floss, yarn or equivilant (i use yarn) just in front of the black foam.

4. i made another change with the body. the original was just taking a black marker and blackening the visible orange foam after it was tied down to the shank. i chose to make a dubbing body for a little more thickness and chose ice dub just to see if a little flash would make any difference in fish numbers. dub the body almost to the eye of the hook leaving a little space for later.

5. take the orange yarn that was tied in and rib the body and tie off.

6. pull the black piece of foam forward and over the body and tie off leaving the left over extending past the eye until later.

7. tie in a small clump of black krystal flash as an under wing

8. tie in a small clump of orange dyed bucktail and make an over wing. theunder and over should be about the same length.

9. tie in a small clump of white yarn or equivilant and cut short. this is just to aid in seeing the pattern on the water. it definately stands out to me when fishing it.

10. the legs are a little different in the pic as well. the pattern i've been fishing has the flat, stretchy, rubbery orange speckled legs. i ran out of that so i used round orange rubber legs and took a black marker and speckled them myself. 2 legs per side tied in on the sides of where the wings were tied in.

11. now take the black foam that should still be extending past the eye of the hook and pull it back and tie it off where the wings and legs were tied in. tied it off with either a 1/2 hitch of whip finish and cut the remaining black foam right above where you tied it off.

......i haven't fished this pattern with the minor adjustments but will in the next week or two hopefully with just as good if not better results then the original. the original is actually in the post below. if the ass is to orange for you, just take the black marker and blotch it up a little.