Small still waters: Basic fundamentals & thinking.

A few thoughts and pointers for fishing stocked small still waters , particularly in the winter months.

[@waynedavies5569]

Hi Howard, Thanks for sharing great tips and technique’s for small Stillwater fishing. Your thinking and explanations on how you approach each step for your fly fishing are so useful… I’ve learnt so many things from your videos, best regards, Wayne 😀👍

[@christopherkerrdidge4017]

Great video thanks so much very helpful looking forward to seeing more 😊

[@lawrenceseddon7366]

A really enjoyable and informative presentation Howard, thank's for sharing, hope you are keeping well.

[@MarkBarter]

Great video, very helpful, thanks

[@JohnRitson78]

Whatever happened to this channel, as it seems to have died a death? I found it by chance, and it helped me somewhat, then I find all the videos are three years old.

[@SimonC194KFF]

Great advice, Howard. Thanks for sharing.

[@paulgriffin419]

Great video and excellent advice Howard. Hope you're keeping safe and well mate.

[@lindsayiflyfish]

Sound advice Howard, stay well pal.

[@MrMartinzx13]

Thanks so much! Very helpful!

[@mikekennedy4549]

Hi Howard, great video as usual. Do you see any point using the sweep type lines from the bank?

[@markjones4031]

Brilliant thanks for the tips

[@roby8347]

Great video Howard I have been fishing for years but struggling to find the depth to help me catch fish all the time when I go out fishing

[@christopherkerrdidge4017]

I always struggle too

[@peterlaidler3895]

Dear Howard, sorry to back-track to the river video you posted several months ago, but would you consider demonstrating how you tie up your own leader? I found the quick change between dry fly to nymph very interesting, Although I don't fish still waters, I find all your topics enlightening. Thank you

[@stevenkemp5387]

Hey Howard, super helpful video, thanks. I had a question about finding depth with the midge tip. Do you use beaded flies on the point often and do you switch between brass beads and tungsten? I don’t have a great degree of confidence in tungsten nymphs or buzzers in Stillwaters unless I’m over very deep water as they sink so quickly that I have trouble gauging how deep they’re fishing and if I’m just hanging up on the bottom.

[@simonlenton4063]

Always nice to hear your advice. Now the burning question what make model and distributor did you get your fly tying light from. Please put me out of my misery can't find anything like that. Expensive I'm sure and probably foreign but it certainly looks like it works.

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

Amazon - about £80 , no model name on it though and I can’t remember the brand but I’m sure there’s still similar on there .

[@simonlenton4063]

@@howardcrostonflyfisher9227 thanks for the reply

[@shannonyork5300]

Howard, as always thank you for sharing your knowledge. On larger, perhaps deeper, stillwaters, do you still find you use a D3 (for the reasons you mention in the video) more than a faster sinker? Thanks. Cheers,

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

Di3 then di5 are probably my two most used sinking lines .

[@shannonyork5300]

@@howardcrostonflyfisher9227 Ok, thank you. Cheers,

[@bertkarlsson4467]

What tippet size would you use when fishing a big streaking caddis size 8 dry fly, in a stony, medium sized river for 3-4-5 pound brown trouts? Can i use a 4x for that or will the leader not be able to present the quite big dry fly accuratly? Cheers

[@pauldalby8549]

What still waters are fishing well in the Manchester area? Btw good info thanks

[@michaelmckenna14]

When u say that u use the midge tip to fish very high what would that setup look like ? Recently bought a midge tip and struggling with it.

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

Depends but typically between 5-8ft to the top dropper then flies around 5-6ft apart , I change spacings a lot depending on how I’m fishing and how the fish are feeding , with the midge tip you can change the point fly from a Fab or booby if fishing high to a tungsten buzzer etc if wanting to fish deeper . It’s a very versatile set up .

[@michaelmckenna14]

@@howardcrostonflyfisher9227 I recently fished my first competition a few weeks ago and used the midge tip the whole time, beat my personal best twice in one day and came in joint 6th with a few other people so Yeh it's very very versatile.

[@michaelmackie9434]

Do you think depth is more important than fly choice also if fish are coming short giving nips&pulls how do you convert into positive takes?

[@howardcrostonflyfisher9227]

100% . If you think about it in an extreme scenario if the fish are cruising at say 10ft and your fishing an acceptable fly but 9ft above or below them your chances are much lower than fishing the “wrong” fly at the right depth . Obviously there’s lots of factors at play but the wrong fly fished well in most cases will win out . Poor take conversion- nips & pulls can be down to a lot of factors and depends on what method your using but when pulling quite often a drop in fly size or a change in how your fishing can help - ie faster or slower retrieve or a “rip & stop” type retrieve can all help , generally if I’m getting non- committal takes I will keeping changing things until it’s fixed including the flies .

[@trevorluft6032]

Spring summer tactics for small Stillwaters?