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Black Cricket
A terrestrial, tied #10–14, a fall pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — August–October.
A black terrestrial dry tied on a standard dry-fly hook in sizes 10 through 14 with black 6/0 thread. The body is black foam or spun black deer hair clipped to shape; the wing is a black goose quill slip or black elk hair laid flat over the back; the legs are knotted black rubber or pheasant tail; and the head is clipped black deer hair. It imitates the cricket, Gryllidae, a terrestrial of August through October in water from 55 to 75 degrees, and it is carried in autumn, coming into its own in late summer and staying useful after the hoppers have thinned out. It is fished on small water, cast tight to the bank and landed hard, since a cricket that arrives on the surface arrives with a sound to it. The dressing is bulky and buoyant enough to take that treatment repeatedly, and it is fished for trout.
- #10–14Hook size
- terrestrialType
- FallSeason
- 1Hatch matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.
What it imitates
Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 10–14 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 6/0 |
| Body | Black foam or spun black deer hair, clipped |
| Wing | Black goose quill slip or black elk hair, flat |
| Legs | Knotted black rubber or pheasant tail |
| Head | Clipped black deer hair |
When to fish it
Late summer and autumn, cast at the bank on small water. Land it hard.
A fall pattern. The insects it matches are active august–october, in water from 55°F to 75°F.
Target species
- Trout
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
- Abb Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Abes Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 71.1°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Black Foam Ant terrestrial · #14–20 — Floats low, which is how a real ant sits. Small water, tight to the bank.
- Foam Beetle terrestrial · #12–18 — Black foam, a bit of flash on top. The most reliable summer dry on wooded streams.
- Dave's Hopper terrestrial · #8–12 — Deer hair and legs. The classic, and it lands with the right kind of thud.
- Foam Cicada terrestrial · #6–12 — Black foam body, orange legs, bright indicator wing. Big, ugly and fished with a deliberate splat.
- Foam Inchworm terrestrial · #12–16 — A length of bright green foam and nothing else. Cast tight to overhanging hardwood; the natural arrives from above, not from upstream.