This fly came about in part from my frustration cicada fishing. Cicadas are huge flying insects that for a few months a year make fish go crazy. A fly fishermans dream right?? Sometimes.
Somedays I plop a cicada right into a run of water I had seen fish rising to the real cicadas a moment before, nothing.. I know what you are thinking, it was a bad drift, your line was too thick, not in the right spot. I’m sure there is a factor of all of these common problems in my lack of hits. The more I’ve watched cicadas in the water though, the more I’ve noticed two things, movement and thickness. When a cicada hits the water it does not automatically become a calm, dead drifting insect. No, they fight and flap their wings and struggle. They have little splashes, seemingly trying to swim towards shore with violently flapping wings. Also cicadas are not a long, slim bug like a stonefly. While a chubby chernobyl works much of the time, a cicada is far fatter.
With these thoughts in mind I modified one of Flymen Fishing’s ideas (a grasshopper popper) into a cicada popper (The Hopcada). It is a wrapped,, extended foam body, double barrel popper head, wings and some rubber legs (what good fly doesn’t have rubber legs??). This fly can be dead drifted along like a typical cicada dry , but also can be twitched (popped) throughout its drift to mimic the struggles of a big cicada in the current.
Ingredients:
HOOK: #8 Popper Hook
BODY: Orange craft foam
WING: White post yarn
HEAD: Orange Double Barrel Popper Head (x-small or small)
LEGS: Black and black/orange sili legs
DUBBING: AZ Dubbing Canadian Black
EYES: Green or red eyes to fit popper head
OTHER: super glue
Cut a 2.5″ strip of foam around 1/4″ thick 
Glue the underside of the foam and wrap forward, be sure to pull it off of the wrapping surface before it is stuck! 
Wrapped foam extended body 
Now we are ready for the hook 
Prep your popper head by getting a hole started for the hook placement 
Add a little more glue to the tag end of your foam and wrap over the hook. Hold tightly until bonded fully. 
Add thread wraps around the newly glued tag end of the foam to ensure it is firmly attached. 
Use a black permanent marker to darken all of the orange surfaces, do not completely cover, but cicadas are mostly black around here. 
Tie on post yarn about the length of the extended body. 
Add orange/black legs sticking straight out 
Add black legs on either side of the orange 
Finish off with a little dubbing around the legs and whip finish. 
Fish eye view 
A look at the popping surface 
Finished! Eye super glued in place and ready for some fish!
This fly is my answer to the bass and trout that need a little more motivation to make a trip to the surface. By more closely mimicking a struggling insect the hits should come harder as the fish is desperate to get the cicada before it gets away.
928 Fly Tying 