ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230043
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
The two guys on Smith Mountain Lake were bass fishermen to the bone: riding in a $30,000 bass boat, wearing shirts with enough tackle decals for 10 miles of of highway signs, semipros and serious.
Fish for carp? You've got to be kidding. They'd rather burn their BASS membership cards first.
But when the angler in the next boat had his fishing rod shattered by a 13-pound carp last weekend, the bass boys suddenly were bending over their tackle boxes looking for anything that would match the cicada flies the carp were sucking in.
Cicada flies?
They are back. Never mind there were swarms of them on Smith Mountain Lake last year, and they weren't due to return for another 17 years; after all, they aren't called 17-year locusts for nothing.
The big bugs are chanting along wide stretches of the shoreline, especially in the lower reaches of the lake. Most anywhere you can find them they have turned the fishing upside down, transforming old buglemouth into a surface feeder. The change is comparable to Clark Kent going into a phone booth and emerging as Superman.
Last year, when the cicadas were gone and the carp once again became their old bottom-mucking selves, some fishermen with a bit of gray on their temples lamented that they would be in their 70s when the bugs returned to activate the carp.
So this spring's unexpected encore of the whining cicada choirs is sweet music to fishermen smart enough neither to despise nor ignore a carp, or squander time apologizing for trying to catch one.
And why not catch them? They are bigger than trout, fight as hard as bass or stripers, and when they are feeding on cicadas you can use light spinning gear or - better yet - a fly rod and have the drag on your reel put to a test. Beware of weak lines or even weak rods, least that snapping noise you hear attract new converts to this sport. This is the steer roping contest of fishing.
Last year, the fishing lasted through the first couple weeks of June, which brings up the No. 1 carp-cicadas fly caper tip: Go as soon as you can. You have no assurance that the old 17-year pattern won't set in again.
Following your ears is one of the best routs to cicadas-carp fishing. The male cicadas are the noise makers, something they do to attract females. When they grow weak and fall into the water they establish a banquet table for carp.
When using a fly rod, most any type of popping bug, deer-hair bug or woolly worm will do the trick. Popular offerings for spin-fishermen include the Teeny Torpedo, Rebel Crawfish and small jigs with plastic tube-type tails. A few fishermen even use live cicada flies for bait.
A 10-pound carp has a mouth about the size of a quarter, so you must keep your lures small. At times, a carp can be maddeningly selective, moving up to your lure, even slurping at it, then swimming away at the last second.
For the most fun, quietly cruise the shoreline looking for surface feeding carp, watching for their swirls and wakes, and casting your lure to them, like you would a tailing bonefish or rising trout. You'd best do it with care, because a carp can be exceedingly wary at times. Use your electric motor to stalk those last few yards.
Don't waste effort on a reluctant striker. Move onto the next fish.
There are plenty of these bewhiskered characters, so why not take advantage of them? Maybe you'd better bring an extra rod, just in case.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 linesby CNB