Anthony, Good to see your report after not hearing from you for a while. I noticed cicada holes in the ground along the trail past Farmhouse Run on June 2 and heard cicadas singing, although in the distance — not deafening like it was in cicada hotspots like Princeton. Saw none in the air, but I assume a few were flying about and perhaps landing on the water to be devoured by trout. On June 25, when you fished, I’m guessing we’d seen the last of the Brood X cicadas until 2038, so the fish that hit your overdressed cicada pattern were doing so out of some remnant memory from the recent hatch or just instinctively.
Mic Barna tried a #6 cicada pattern on June 7 at Blue Chair and had an experience similar to yours: “lots of takes but only one landed. I think it is such a big fly it is hard to get good hook-ups.” It would be interesting to see a big cicada pattern continues to draw strikes as the season progresses.
Between being away for 9 days and the current heat spell, June 2 was the last time I fished the club waters. Jim Merritt