Looking to try a cicada bait. Opinions?

[lifeofRiley]

I fish a few small rivers with a lot of bugs around. I want to try a cicada type bait and see how it works. I believe there's three out there, the megabass grand siglett, savage gear 3d cicada, and one by duo realis. Has anyone tried any and have opinions on which one I should try? From what I know these are all wake-type baits, and that is what I am looking for. A small river topwater.

thanks in advance.

[Drakestar]

Haven’t done a comparison, but I like the Duo Realis one because, on top of the steady splashing retrieve, you can also just soak it. It has silicone legs that idly move in the water as it drift, and you can split the body and replace them with feathers instead for additional subtle action.

[Slazmo]

Cicada type lures get an absolute flogging here in Aus. Basically a mainstay food / lure of any Bass / Bream fishers tackle box.

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A friend and I as kids caught cicadas in the mangroves and floated them unweighted in the mangroves at high tide while sitting in the trees, and caught big Bream years ago; now it's all migrated to lures / for ease and knowing that your bait won't fly off on you... As for the Aussie Bass, it's the same just really small tight rivers and precision casts and walk them back really slow - always a good memory with the acrobatic surface strikes especially of an afternoon glow and a storm brewing.

Siglett and the Pompadour Jr amongst many as options - not a fan of the soft body lures as they tend to give up after a few fish... Just trawl a couple Aussie pages and retailers and you'll see what we have as options in comparison.

[Cal]

...for ease and knowing that your bait won't fly off on you...

[Sore Thumb]

Tiemco soft shell cicada.

[Slazmo]

...for ease and knowing that your bait won't fly off on you...

The real fun was trying to ballance up a mangrove tree, hold your rod and tackle and then extract a noisy blighter out of a 2 litre Coke bottle with the neck cut off and inverted into the bottle body (as to be used to trap them into the bottle)...

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Hence you'd get a cicada lost every so often, mind you it was an epic chore to get them in the first place... You'd also realise that you'd have to break a wing to that they wouldn't take flight mid cast.

[Cal]

[Hogsticker2]

Good stuff

[goldrod]

...for ease and knowing that your bait won't fly off on you...

The real fun was trying to ballance up a mangrove tree, hold your rod and tackle and then extract a noisy blighter out of a 2 litre Coke bottle with the neck cut off and inverted into the bottle body (as to be used to trap them into the bottle)...

IMG_20200823_131308.jpg

Hence you'd get a cicada lost every so often, mind you it was an epic chore to get them in the first place... You'd also realise that you'd have to break a wing to that they wouldn't take flight mid cast.

Your rather brave.
Those things are frightening. Makes me jump out of my skin

[Slazmo]

Your rather brave.
Those things are frightening. Makes me jump out of my skin

From memory that one flew into my face at night - they can't hurt you in any way they just suck resin from trees. They're excellent fresh bait for the rivers, just a worm hook through the shoulders and a gentle placement will see results every time. But as mentioned they're very hard bait to collect.

[goldrod]

Your rather brave.
Those things are frightening. Makes me jump out of my skin

From memory that one flew into my face at night - they can't hurt you in any way they just suck resin from trees. They're excellent fresh bait for the rivers, just a worm hook through the shoulders and a gentle placement will see results every time. But as mentioned they're very hard bait to collect.

I see them when they come out of they shell from and they can’t fly but they make all that noise. I’m not even going to clutch my man card. I’m terrified of them. I grabbed a snake out of my buddies pool no issues but this insect nope!!

Back to the topic,
In nature do they just land on the water by accident and bass get them?
I can believe that they vibrate the heck out of the waters surface cause make those wings vibrate when I see them on the ground

[Slazmo]

Yep, if you could replicate that buzzing (with a stationary lure) you'd be on the money.

Our Aussie Bass love anything that crawls across the top, or even just twitches. You can see the fish race out and stop under the lure - prequalifying it before the aggressive "boof" strike.

If you've seen any winged insect hit the water, a cicada is 1000 times more noisy on the surface.

[lifeofRiley]

How do those bass taste?

[Slazmo]

How do those bass taste?

Quota of 2 per person, per day.

But for the sake of conservation I tell everyone that they taste like old leather sandles and the creeks they're in are full of glyphosate from upstream. I personally have never eaten one - they're too handsome and an Australian icon to kill, plus the creeks have had a hard time over the years and the fish have been pushed hard / stressed.

[rando]

Our Aussie Bass love anything that crawls across the top, or even just twitches. You can see the fish race out and stop under the lure - prequalifying it before the aggressive "boof" strike.

I sometimes throw the MB cicada for smallies in Midwest, but instead boof strike, it is typically slurp from the surface.
Now that I think about it wopper plopper gets the same slurp, but take showerblows or other walking baits and you have explosive blowups.