Day three of looking for a wild tiger trout has Benny P camping out of his vehicle and finding fish he didn't expect.

Which is better? Fly fishing with nymphs or using live bait like night crawlers and meal worms? Find out in this fishing video... the answer might surprise you! So before we get too far into this video I’d love to hear which technique you think is going to be more effective? I think the results of this video may surprise you, or maybe not. I’d also like to set some of the ground rules for how I fished with each technique. I basically decided to make it even I’d switch back and forth between the live bait and the fly rod for each hole. So as I walked up the creek the first hole would be fly rod, second live bait, third fly rod, fourth live bait, and so on. Essentially trying to give both the fly rod and the live bait and qual shot. I also tried to fish the live bait and the fly rod similarly, in that I used a worm and sinkers for live bait and nymphed with the fly rod so I’d be targeting the same fish, essentially allowing the fish to choose what they wanted to eat. So as you can see the fly rod and the live bait went fish for fish, which happened for the rest of the day. I couldn’t catch a fish on live bait after I had fished it with a fly rod, but I also couldn’t Catch a fish on the fly after I had already fished it with live bait. I think the fly rod slightly edged out the live bait, but that was purely because it was easier to throw it In some smaller pockets as I was walking up the creek. At the end of the day It seemed like both techniques were totally interchangeable in their effectiveness. I actually enjoyed the fly rod better just because I didn’t have to deal with putting on a worm every time I caught a fish and I seemed to have caught some larger fish on the fly, but that could’ve just been luck. So what did I take away from this day of fishing? The first thing is that using a fly rod, specifically nymphing, is one of the most effective ways to trout fish bar none. We tend to think of fly fishing as making it more difficult on yourself, but if you take the time to get good at casting, making good drifts, and learning what bugs the fish are eating then it is just as effective as using live bait, even for stocked fish. I think we forget that fly fishing exists because trout eat bugs, and you can perfectly imitate the bugs the fish naturally eat with a fly rod, which just isn’t nearly as effective on a spinning rod if you even consider it possible. The other thing I learned is that if you’re going to drift live bait you should have a much longer rod, similar to that of a fly rod. This would have dramatically increased my ability to get good drifts and fish current seems more effectively with the worms. The pros to a spinning rod is it’s just flat out easier. I was 10 years old and could catch trout on worms on a spinning rod, in fact that is some of my earliest memories of trout fishing. Whereas fly fishing takes time to get good at. In other words if you don’t have much time to fish, or only fish a few times a year, a spinning rod and live bait is a cheat code. You can just throw out a worm and even without knowledge on how fish use the water you can catch fish because it’s live bait. Whereas getting good at using a fly rod may take 5 years of practice, with several of those years resulting in very few fish catches. So I totally understand why spin fishing with night crawlers is so popular among kids and adults who don’t have a ton of time to throw at learning a new skill. It's also worth noting that nightcrawler far outperformed the meal worms to the point where I threw them out and gave up on them. I’d also like to say that these were stocked trout, so it’s possible that a wild fish might be more willing to take the live bait just because they know what a worm is. But then again the biggest fish I caught on this particular day I still caught on the fly despite the fact that I threw a worm for half the day. I think one thing is for sure and that is if you plan on catch and release you shouldn’t throw live bait, it’s just so risky and could kill a lot of fish. I had to be super careful while I was fishing and totally prepared to keep fish if I had too. I think at the end of the day there are a lot of moving parts and excuses you can give to both sides. So the real question is… what do you think is better? The fly rod or live bait? Thanks for watching. #fishing #flyfishing #troutfishing #nature #outdoors #youtube #debate #vs #sports

Follow along with Signature Tyer Devin Olsen, owner of Tactical Fly Fisher, as he prepares for the 2025 World Fly Fishing Championships in May. This year he and Fly Fishing Team USA with be traveling to the Czech Republic to compete with 32 countries from around the world—Including Howard Croston and Team England. In this video we follow Devin as he does some practice for the event on two different rivers, where he dives into wading tactics, his rod and leader setups, and the skills he refines before an event. In this video he does a lot of micro leader euro nymphing, using both single nymph as well as dry dropper setups. A lot of the venues they'll be fishing are heavy, pocketed rivers, which suit euro nymphing tactics well. In this video, he also dives into how he chooses the right hook to tie all his flies on, and what goes into testing different hook models for his needs at fly fishing competition he enters in. If you're new to the world of competition fly fishing, we'd love for you to check out our series with Howard Croston and Team England, which we released this year. It features a few cameos from Devin Olsen, too: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNtGtoQcIvvypeaHkith3t7N8mTTbCpJt Devin Olsen started fly fishing at age 9. He started competing at age 19 and made Fly Fishing Team USA when he was 21 years old. He has competed in 13 consecutive World Fly Fishing Championships with Fly Fishing Team USA. He has earned a bronze individual medal and silver and bronze team medals from these championships and numerous medals from competitions in the United States. In addition to his competition experience, he's the owner of Tactical Fly Fisher. He has also produced three instructional films Modern Nymphing: European Inspired Techniques, Modern Nymphing Elevated: Beyond the Basics, and Adaptive Fly Fishing. Finally, he is the author of the book Tactical Fly Fishing: Lessons Learned from Competition for All Anglers and Stillwater Fly Fishing: Competition Inspired Strategies for Everyday Anglers. Devin is a wealth of knowledge and experience, and we're honored to have him as one of our Signature Tyers. If you want to purchase Devin's Signature flies you can ask for them at your local dealer, or buy them below. US: https://www.fullingmill.com/Products-US/Devin-Olsen-US?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Organic%20Social&utm_campaign=FMFF%20Flies&utm_content=2025%20FMFF%20Preparing%20for%20World%27s%20with%20Devin%20Olsen%20YouTube%20May UK: https://www.fullingmill.co.uk/Products-UK/Devin-Olsen-UK?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Organic%20Social&utm_campaign=FMFF%20Flies&utm_content=2025%20FMFF%20Preparing%20for%20World%27s%20with%20Devin%20Olsen%20YouTube%20May Check out Devin's YouTube channel!  @tacticalflyfisher3817  Make sure to follow us on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/fulling_mill/ You can also learn more about him and his business on the Tactical Fly Fisher Website: https://tacticalflyfisher.com/ Subscribe to our channel to see more videos like this: https://www.youtube.com/c/FullingMillTV?sub_confirmation=1 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:44 Devin shows us his fishing gear and how he stores it 00:01:35 What goes into packing for the World Fly Fishing Championships? 00:05:28 Visiting the Tactical Fly Fisher Office and Warehouse 00:06:13 What's in Devin's traveling fly tying bag? 00:11:49 Heading to practice on the river 00:13:46 What fly fishing tactics are Devin practicing? 00:17:00 Preparing for hard wade fishing in the Czech Republic 00:18:16 Why fish euro dry dropper tactics? 00:19:48 Bouncing your dry fly 00:20:11 How do you decide what hook to tie your flies on? 00:21:48 Devin lands his first trout of the session 00:23:57 Devin switches to a single nymph setup 00:24:10 How does hook shape effect your fly pattern? 00:29:05 How water temperature effects trout 00:33:07 How do you present flies in cold water? 00:34:22 How to wade safely in bouldery rivers 00:35:38 How will fishing conditions be in the Czech Republic? 00:38:33 What skills is Devin trying to refine for World's? 00:43:11 Practicing on a second river venue 00:44:25 Practicing hooking, fighting and netting trout 00:48:25 Devin talks about his net setup 00:51:39 Switching to a double nymph euro nymphing setup 00:55:02 How much can you prepare for rivers that are different than what you have locally? 00:58:36 How has competition fishing effected the sport of fly fishing as a whole?