River fishing: Single rod set up for small stream versatility

A quick insight into a favourite set up for when I only want to carry one rod on a small stream . This system allows a quick change between a single dry and a single nymph with minimal compromise. You can nymph longer range with a floated sighter or come tight and Euro style at shorter range .

[@emilleum48]

Howard, you are amazing in how you are presenting this information, remembering that you fished international competition with so much success, I am just enamored on how you go through your fly and line changes. I am still struggling with knots and tying on my flies at the river. It has been wonderful when I had a guide with me, knowing that with my shaking from chemical and radiation exposure from combat and limited eyesight that they are always will ING to help. I wish I had just a fraction of your experiences and on-stream knowledge, thank you, MSG Leum

[@nickjackson5360]

An excellent "lock down" series! I've learnt so much from you Howard. Hope you will keep the videos coming. Thanks!! 👍

[@stephenvarga1494]

Great ideas Howard. This saves a lot of time and carrying 2 rods.

[@Strontyum]

Howard, a quick thank you for designing the Shadow and Zephrus SWS. Such beautiful rods :) Please keep making rods with feel and close-distance ability.

[@santiagolesta]

Great tips as always. Expecting more !!!

[@markredman9683]

Keep them coming these are some of the best videos out there a big thumps up

[@paulhughes7079]

Brilliantly instructional video Howard.

[@theheronknowsprimewater1035]

Thanks heaps this does sound like a great way to quickly change methods. Should be great on a few of the streams I fish.

[@neilmason158]

Great Video Howard. My style of fishing shorter rods

[@petermcleod7322]

Nicely done Howard...👏

[@alexargyros7186]

Thank you, Howard. This is, indeed, a neat idea.

[@MrBrysie]

Thanks Howard, useful tips, cheers.

[@philipvankampen3394]

Thanks always for the great content! BTW : Saving up for the Shadow :)

[@ibana8449]

Good stuff Howard.

[@TB-zh9pe]

Good video. Your nymph caught trout in this video is a visual answer to my question about lining trout that I posted on your traditional nymphing video. The 3 weight line and long leader make very little disturbance on the water. I started trout fishing with a 6 weight rod, then went to a 5 weight, then a 4 weight, now back to a 5 weight. I have always been skeptical of rods under 4 weight. However, I can see the utility and versatility of a 3 weight rod. I moved to a different state almost 2 years ago, and my home river is now a crystal clear freestone stream. It requires more refined tactics than what works in the milky limestone streams where I used to live. I believe your ideas will help.

[@patches152]

Euro nymphing rods in particular are much stronger than the line weight would have you think. The tip is very soft and the butt is very stout so makes a great combo for fighting larger fish. Heavier rods are nice for shooting line or turning over big flies, but 90% of the time for western trout I'm just using my euro nymphing rod. I'm in California and fish all over the west fwiw.

[@richardc6932]

Just found your website and am absolutely enjoying the videos. Your fishing tips and gear setup are educational.and appreciated.I have a always been a fan of Hardy and their quality gear.👍🇨🇦👨‍🦳

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

Thanks Richard .

[@Jon-qr9vq]

Hi Howard - great video and thanks for taking the time to post this one and the others in the series - very much appreciated! Do you have a WF line you find pairs well with the Ultralite LL 9'9" #3?

[@Transblucency]

I watched you cast that first dry fly into the space between those low hanging branches and felt a pang of despair when comparing how I cast. Then I read your bio and felt a lot better. Great tips, by the way. I am very much dedicated to small stream fishing and a versatile approach like the one you take here is perfect for how I fish.

[@andrewreilly1793]

Superb. Thank you.

[@trevorgreen2370]

Thanks for sharing.

[@imchrisme5514]

Howard is that skilled he can throw a dry fly into a Trouts mouth when it comes up for air! 😂

[@allkite]

Hi Howard, great video and thank you for posting! Would you be able to share the formula for the leader you're using in this video? Been looking for a solution like this to carry one rod occasionally - would be super helpful and very much appreciated :)

[@mefjuflaj3925]

Howard, You are my great inspiration, decisively! Could you tell the brand of the fly line You've used in this video ? A lot of health for You and Your loved ones! Greetings from Polska.

[@kirbylambert3852]

I found your net rigging video thanks when making your own leaders are you using a blood knot and what is a good substitute for the copolymer

[@michaelschrot8148]

Hi Howard, Great Video.Could you Show us your leader formula.

[@MrMarkysparky]

Excellent video Howard thanks for sharing it what is the make up of the hand tied leader

[@cmi78]

I like this Gary Borger Uni-Body Harvey style leader: www.garyborger.com/category/equipment/leaders/leader-design/

[@HalfInsaneOutdoorGuy]

Rather than looping my line around my pole like that I took a piece of flat wire about 3 mil wide with snaps on it and a bit of velcro to hold it to my rod, I can snap it off and put it in my bag and when i wanted to nymph I jsut snap it back on and use the velcro to hold it in place.

[@47flyfisher]

Howard, Thanks for sharing your tips and tricks. This worked for me this morning, at least with the upstream nymph. I don't think I've ever seen a formula for a 16' dry fly leader, except for a French leader. Is this something you could share with us, or do you prefer to keep it secret? Thanks, Harold.

[@michaelmckenna14]

I dunno if this helps but I like to make and try out different leaders using maxima chameleon and ultra green as my testing materials before using more higher quality stuff. I've made a 15ft leader that starts with 15lb chameleon in 6ft, 12lb in 2ft, 10 in 2ft, 8lb 2ft of ultra green, and use 1ft of 7, 6 and 5lb of hardys copolymer. Its somewhat based on a joe humphreys/George Harvey dry fly leader.

[@pauldeaville9735]

Excellent once more Howard. Is the leader make up based on the original as in FF&FT? Thanks.

[@gavanhennessy4624]

Which edition of FF&FT?

[@andrewmcgaha9629]

Howard, need your help my good sir. As an avid Rover enthusiast, I have a penchant for the finer things in life. The UL LL has really caught my fancy. I think I'm looking for a unicorn, but want to be able to dry and nymph as you did in this video, but also try ESN. I think I can get by a little shorter than usual ESN length due to very long arms, so I'm willing to compromise and give up some of the function of a dedicated ESN rig. Sounds from this video like you could do all 3 with the 9'2". Would the 9'2" or the 9'9" be a better choice. The target will be hunting for Native Brookies on very small freestone streams in the Great Smoky Mountains.

[@stu1379]

What’s the 16’ leader that you tie please? I’ve just got a 9’ greys stream flex 3# for fishing the coquet and Derwent and tried a 16’ borger style leader out but sometimes found it didn’t unfurl nicely

[@stevegoodchild409]

Hi great stuff Howard where did you get the knee pads from please Kr Steve

[@kirbylambert3852]

mind sharing how you attach your net

[@byte-a-bit493]

Great stuff as usual Howard. What’s the chances of you doing a vid running through your new chest pack set up? Cheers mate! 👍

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

Jason McPhee hi Jason, I will as soon as I’ve worked the bugs out , it’s pretty close to being right .

[@byte-a-bit493]

Howard Croston cool! Thanks mate, looking forward to it.

[@luckyguliver]

Could you clarify what sort of grease do you use? BTW very useful tips. Thanks

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

It’s either a home made 50/50 mix of Preston innovations bristle grease & Mucilin or the JMC coloured grease .

[@andrewmcgaha9629]

Hey mate, love your content thus far. I read in another video that you went back to the WJ pack. Neither the WJ, nor the Simms you have in this video are available any more. If you had to replace your WJ pack, have you given any consideration to what you would use (that is currently available)?

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

Tricky- JMC do a copy of the WJ but I wasn’t keen on the shape of it as it’s not quite as neat / low profile as the original. I’m dreading my WJ finally giving in .....

[@jimcastillo8950]

Hello Howard, do you ever float your sighter? thank you........

[@flybye74]

Very nice Howard

[@jimcastillo8950]

Hello Howard, do you prefer using weight forward lines or euro level line? I assume your using mono tippet line. Do you ever use flurocarbon tippet? Thank you for the videos.......

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

For this set up it’s a WF , my out & out Nymph set up is a level Euro line . I use both Fluro & copolymer depending on the application. Thanks Hc

[@dadlawnlife1328]

the way you switched flies in under 30 second while standing in a river made me feel bad. Dang that was fast!

[@skitteryoh9949]

Great video. If you only have a nymphing rod can you use a floating wf line on it?

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

Depends really on the rating/ specific rod & the line your trying to use but yes there will definitely be combinations that work

[@skitteryoh9949]

@@howardcrostonflyfisher9227 I have a greys 6ft 3wt with a 3wt wf line and as I bought into the trend of small/medium river means small rod but there are many larger parts of the rivers I fish and I was wondering if I bought a 3wt 11ft nymphing rod could I use the reel and wf line for dry fishing from my old rod on the nymphing rod and use the extra spool I have for a euro nymphing line when I want to do some nymphing? Thanks again for the reply. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question cheers. Im planing on selling the 6ft rod after I get the nymphing rod but dont want to part with the reel or line

[@Inkwaziflyfishing]

Just a query, if you are hand tying the leader why not use a coloured section instead of using the grease? Wouldn't that make it as easy and perhaps less messy? Like the trick with the line over the rod butt. Thanks for sharing.

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

Inkwaziflyfishing you can if you want - just takes away the ability to set the indication in relation to deep of water in front of you and I don’t particularly like a coloured section of line in my dry fly leader .

[@peterlaidler3895]

Easy to see why your the World Champ Howard. What rod do you use?

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

peter laidler Hi Peter , I only use Hardy rods except when testing competitor product as part of my job . Usually I am using equipment one cycle ahead of current available models.

[@TradLimePlastering]

Hi Howard , great video and another tool to add to our river techniques armoury. Please could you give details of the make up of the hand tied tapered leader? The lengths of line used and what breaking strains . Also what knots do you like to use? Kind Regards Mike Robinson.

[@sommerpetter]

4:55 Why did he cast so many times shortly after another? Isn't he afraid of spooking the fish?

[@rakyat47]

Fly fishing ❤

[@fieldsman3307]

Is there a reason you didn't wet your hand before holding the fish ?

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

My hand was wet as it went into the water to release the fish . It’s also very small in places - film was shot somewhere I could fit the camera man in .

[@Bumblebee76]

What class is your rod?

[@sebastianthener6348]

he said 3 in the beginning

[@rockomiro]

Hi Howard why are knots in leader so important?I'm like yours videos thanx

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

MK gybsy channel couple of reasons - as explained in the video when short range fishing it reduces the leader sliding back with light flies , hand tied tapers can also be better modified to your preference/line /rod for dry fly work .

[@rockomiro]

@@howardcrostonflyfisher9227 many many thanx for replying am enjoying your videos watching over again learning of you am have streamflex 10 ft 3w and 4w greys and hardy reels and hardy Demon sintrix 330 spinning rod you have been following your advert on KZbin thanx Miroslav from Newcastle

[@fieldsman3307]

Nice informative video Howard but a small stream it ain't lol

[@rodgie84]

Or just use a indicator?

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

You could , wouldn’t be my preference for a number of reasons some driven by the competition rules I fish to, and some driven by practical ones.

[@johncarrigan5530]

Where do you stand on the whole Fluorocarbon vs alternatives debate? ALot of people only use the fluorocarbon for nymphing because its suppose to sink.

[@FordyGoesFishing]

Show us your gadget......:)

[@MrMarkysparky]

😂🤣

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

No

[@FordyGoesFishing]

@@howardcrostonflyfisher9227 Is it only a little one?