Cicada (Semi)

This one lives at the back of the box for most of the year. A cicada doesn't hatch in any sense a trout fisher usually means the word — the adult simply emerges from the ground and the trees once real heat has built up, and the only day that matters is the one hot enough and still enough to bring them falling out of bankside trees in numbers. When that day comes it's unmistakable: a heavy, clumsy flier hits the water like something dropped from a height, and the take that follows is just as loud, often from a fish that had shown no interest in anything smaller all afternoon. Don't let it just sit there once it's down, either — the natural keeps thrashing on the surface for a good while before it gives up, and a small twitch or two after the cast does more to sell a foam pattern than a dead drift ever will. One such pattern earns its keep for those few scorching afternoons in high summer; it has nothing to do on an ordinary day.

• East AsiaPresent

...