I was sharing some top water plugs with my nephew Chase at a Memorial Day Picnic and I was really pushing two of my favorites, the Arbogast Jitterbug and the Hula Popper.

Chase is just starting to show an interest in fishing and is entering college in the fall. He’s young enough that he can readily learn the sport of fishing and I am glad to have another potential fishing partner in the upcoming years.

When I tried to explain the use of these lures, I was trying to explain how they worked in attracting fish. Generally, I left it with this explanation, some bug causing a disturbance on the water always gathers the attention of a hungry fish.

After Chase took off for home, my wife wanted to show me a collection of cicada shells that were collecting on a utility pole. This was the start of the 17-year Cicada emergence of Brood VIII that truly only comes above ground once in 17 years.

Cicadas spend most of their life cycle underground feeding on tree roots and such. Then Mother Nature tells them it’s time to reproduce and out of the ground they emerge by the millions. It is estimated by scientist that an acre of woods can have as many as 1.5 million of the insects emerge.

May and June will be the time in our area and the brief, but flourish appearance of the cicadas will be over.

It’s sort of funny when you think you have a new idea and you find out later that its been around longer than you think …like Cicadas for fish bait! Those top water plugs that I was touting to my nephew were absolutely imitations of these types of critters and I know how effective the lure is, so it makes sense that the real deal would be even more effective.

The Cicada doesn’t bite or sting, but has a really buzzy and vibrating wing action. You can pick them up by holding them with your thumb and pointer finger under the wings and onto the body.

A coffee can will hold quite a few for bait and if you cast them, they will stay on a hook long enough for bass, perch, carp, trout and other fish to hit them quickly.

This brings me to another thought process about the short usefulness of the Cicada hatch, once every 17 years!? Apparently, the broods are located in different parts of the state and there are 10 identified broods with our local brood being brood number VIII.

We could follow the hatches as they occur in different years or we could use top water imitations or maybe try a different approach. Maybe you could gather species of the 17-year Cicada and preserve them somehow. I’d have to do some research on it, but my inclination is to vacuum pack them and freeze them in small batches of 10 or so.

It may seem crazy, but you could literally have all the fish bait you wanted with minimal cost and effort. Of course, I would try it out before I did a zillion of them and explain to the lady of the house why there are big bugs in her freezer … oh well!

One good thing about the hatch is that the wildlife is really taking advantage of the Cicada hatch, everything from turkeys, bear, fish, raccoons and all protein eating creatures are getting plenty of free and easy meals. I think the turkey broods will really benefit by the emergence and it is at the right time for the young turkeys to make full use of the insects.

Look at the Cicadas as a once in a long-time opportunity and take advantage of the bounty from nature!

Fishing Record

A new Pennsylvania fishing record has been set out of Lake Erie by a 73-year-old Venango County man.

Keith Miller of Cranberry caught the 40-inch, 31-pound,13-ounce fish out of North East while fishing with friends on Lake Erie. He broke the former record by nearly two pounds and will have the fish displayed at Poor Richards Bait Shop.

In the other end of the state, Jeff Bonawitz of York County was fishing with friends on the Susquehanna River when he tangled with a new state record for a Flathead Catfish. The fish weighed in at 50 pounds, 7 ounces. After weighing it in and a round of pictures, the hefty catfish was released back into the river unharmed.

Until we meet again, try out the 17-year Cicadas for fishing and check those fish out for new state records.

The PF&BC has a listing of all the record fish and who caught them and where on their website, print out a copy and put it in your tackle box … you may be a record setter and not know it!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle