By Tim Romano

Cicadas might be annoyingly loud, but I know they bring huge trout to the surface on rivers like the Green in Utah and the Colorado at Lees Ferry in shadow of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Bass also love them and I'm sure they suck them down all over the east coast. And now there's a way to see realtime info on when cicadas will start flying around—using data provided by you.

WNYC, a public radio station in New York, is promoting a crowdsourcing project call the Cicada Tracker, where people can create a temperature sensor and report their findings to the station when things start to warm up. WNYC will then map this data on the cicada hatch in the Northeast and share it online.

Here's how WNYC explains the project:
Back in 1996, a group of baby cicadas burrowed into soils in the eastern U.S. to lead a quiet life of constant darkness and a diet of roots. Now at the ripe age of 17, those little cicadas are all grown up and it's time to molt, procreate and die while annoying a few million humans with their constant chirping in the process.

We know that when 8 inches below the surfaces reaches 64 degrees F those little buggers will be everywhere, but we don't know when that'll be. That's why WNYC is asking "armchair scientists, lovers of nature and DIY makers" for your help to predict the emergence of cicadas.

I'd like to thank my friends over at The Flyfish Journal and NPR for alerting me about this project. I'm thinking we should ask WNYC to bring their project West too. Get a scope of cicada hatch for the entire U.S. Oh, and while they're at it, we should ask if they can figure out a way to crowdsource some info for the salmonfly, caddis, and green drake hatches as well.

What says you? Think it's possible? What hatch would you like crowdsourced? 

Photo from Wikipedia.

Comments (7)

from Koldkut wrote 11 weeks 2 days ago

How about crowdsourcing trout stocking....nothing beats fishing for the bigger preds.

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from clinchknot wrote 11 weeks 2 days ago

crowdsourcing trout stocking? Why can't I understand that one Koldkut??

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from Koldkut wrote 11 weeks 2 days ago

Because you have trout crammed so far up your ego that trying to fish for a predator that eats trout is unfathomable, you should try it sometime...the big and toothy are fun to catch, it's like hunting the hunter.

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from clinchknot wrote 11 weeks 1 day ago

We need to find a decent swamp somewhere, and stock it with these trash fish, and keep you off our clean, pristine trout waters. I fished in low, clear water today, viewing snow capped Mts., and eagles perched in trees watching my wife, and I land a good 30 Westlope Cutthroats, and brown trout on size #18 and #20 midge soft hackles today. And not one of these ugly predetors around. The predetors were the big brown trout we caught.

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from SwampWise wrote 10 weeks 5 days ago

My cousin had a brood of the guys hatch under his porch a couple years ago. We filled 6 cricket buckets to the brim and took off to the lake. I was kind of disappointed, the fish just didn't like them as much as the sawlegs and mayflies.... Speaking of mayflies, I'd leave my tackle box at home if these guys stuck around all summer.

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from clinchknot wrote 10 weeks 3 days ago

Swamp..Where would you keep your flies if you left your tackle box at home? Do you tie flies? And what kind of flyrod do you use?

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from cosunlover wrote 7 weeks 6 days ago

I would like to see the Tracker for the Cicada and Salmon Fly nation wide. I think Field and Stream should take this on.

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from Koldkut wrote 11 weeks 2 days ago

How about crowdsourcing trout stocking....nothing beats fishing for the bigger preds.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from clinchknot wrote 11 weeks 2 days ago

crowdsourcing trout stocking? Why can't I understand that one Koldkut??

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Koldkut wrote 11 weeks 2 days ago

Because you have trout crammed so far up your ego that trying to fish for a predator that eats trout is unfathomable, you should try it sometime...the big and toothy are fun to catch, it's like hunting the hunter.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from clinchknot wrote 11 weeks 1 day ago

We need to find a decent swamp somewhere, and stock it with these trash fish, and keep you off our clean, pristine trout waters. I fished in low, clear water today, viewing snow capped Mts., and eagles perched in trees watching my wife, and I land a good 30 Westlope Cutthroats, and brown trout on size #18 and #20 midge soft hackles today. And not one of these ugly predetors around. The predetors were the big brown trout we caught.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from SwampWise wrote 10 weeks 5 days ago

My cousin had a brood of the guys hatch under his porch a couple years ago. We filled 6 cricket buckets to the brim and took off to the lake. I was kind of disappointed, the fish just didn't like them as much as the sawlegs and mayflies.... Speaking of mayflies, I'd leave my tackle box at home if these guys stuck around all summer.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from clinchknot wrote 10 weeks 3 days ago

Swamp..Where would you keep your flies if you left your tackle box at home? Do you tie flies? And what kind of flyrod do you use?

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from cosunlover wrote 7 weeks 6 days ago

I would like to see the Tracker for the Cicada and Salmon Fly nation wide. I think Field and Stream should take this on.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

Post a Comment

 

All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.