An Introduction to Crickets
Crickets are active insects along Montana Rivers during summer and fall. They are less frequently encountered by both angler and trout than other terrestrial insects like ants, hoppers, and beetles. Cricket imitations can be highly effective later in the season when trout become wary of hopper and other large dry flies.
Characteristics of Crickets
- Crickets are medium to large in size with rounded heads, long and thin antennae, and their wings bend down the sides of their body.
- Their back legs are longer and stronger than the other two.
- Most crickets are brown, but some are black and some are even green with whitish wings.
- The males chirp by rubbing their front wings together
Overview of the Cricket Lifecycle
- Crickets have incomplete metamorphosis where young hatching from their eggs look like adults but without wings.
- They will then molt each time they grow until reaching adulthood. They’ll survive the winter as eggs primarily, but some survive as immature adults.
- Eggs are laid in summer and fully develop by fall. They then enter a winter dormancy, and at high elevations, egg incubation can last an extra year. They then hatch in the spring when the soil temperature reaches 40 degrees. Adults then emerge from June through September.
5 Top Cricket Dry Fly Patterns for Fly Fishing in Montana
