Brood X Hatch of 2021
The legendary Brood X was being talked about more and more, the deeper we were in to the spring season. We loaded up the boat and Raptor at 4am, and adventured down to Walkerton IN to experience this once in 17 year hatch.
The route.
Fishing a new river can be a bit difficult and when you travel over 3 hours to get there is definitely pressure to move fish. I found the boat launch based on overlaying a Brood X hatch map and google maps. So, this was a huge guessing game.
Scouting river spots.
The plan was simple, pick up my fishing partner Jake on June 12th and travel 183 miles south to the Kankakee river. The truck was loaded at 4am and we were on our way. The majority of the drive was uneventful until we got close to our destination. The route that google directed us to was gated off, so we had to back track a bit. We cut through a farm but that ended up being a one lane road that had a dead end with railroad tracks that we could not hop with the truck. After reversing down this one lane road surrounded by woods, we ended up finding a entrance to the Kingsbury Fish and Wildlife area.
Cutting through a farm road.
When we got into the Wildlife area we could instantly hear the buzz of the Cicadas, even over the roar of the straight piped Raptor. It was a constant roar of hundreds of thousands of cicadas, and it was deafening. After driving for a few minutes we saw a few signs referencing what the wildlife area was in its past life, the Kingsbury Ordinance Plant. This plant produced cartridges, mortars, and shells for World War II and the Korean Conflict. We found some shelters that were used during testing, the doors were 1/2” steel plating, and the walls were solid concrete, and buried into the sides of small mounds. This was a great way of being able to visualize the amount of power that these explosives have.
Jake in front of one of the testing shelters.
When we get to the boat launch it is apparent the launch is not used very often. It was a dirt hill that was pretty steep and slippery. We back the boat in and rig up. So the river, its chocolate milk and only 20 feet wide…. Neither of these details were shown on google maps. We venture on.
The river was covered with dead and dying cicadas. They were in the air, on trees, branches, and continuously landing on me. I learned, do not wear natural colors when fishing a hatch like this, the fish will think you are a tree. Jake had a white shirt on and only a butterfly landed on him. We went up river a ways and began to drift back down while casting our flies. Fish were scarce but were eating cicadas. We continued casting, laughing, and snacking. Then we started to see carp turning over and hitting cicadas which turned this no fish trip into a carp sight fishing trip. Cast after cast and no reactions from the carp. I started to think that it was the flies, not the fish. Then it happened. I casted in front of a carp and it rolled over and sucked my fly from the surface. I set the hook! There was weight on the line, the rod bowed over, then the fly popped out of the carp’s mouth…. That was it. That was what the trip was for. 1 hit that was lost. we ended up catching a few small bluegill next to a culvert pipe when we downsized the cicada flies. All in all, this was an amazing trip, and we can not wait to hit the next big hatch.
Chris Hernet
Hand tied Cicadas going out the door as customers prep for the emergence.