DYP winners

[Greenhorn]

The 2021 DYP derby was successful and what a great bunch of guys, gals, and kids that participated in the derby. After 10 years of running the derby and not managing to finish in the top spot, Dean Dennis (Homewrecker) and his partner Kevin Camara (AnFishfil Thinking) landed the biggest salmon of the derby. The 5.81 lb fish came early in the morning and the fish held the top spot all day long. I guess now that Dean does't have to run the derby, he has time to work with his partner on how and where to land the winning fish. I want to wish the winning team a heartfelt congratulations! With the talented fishermen entered in this derby, it was a well earned win.

I think all of us enjoyed the teams that partnered up with their kids to fish the derby. These are some great fishermen and women already and will certainly challenge us old timers when they become old enough to draw a fishing partner for the DYP.

After the derby, many of the participants met at the Converse Bay boat launch and shared some food, stories, and good natured banter. Also, a door prize was drawn and a first time participant to the DYP, Mike Santos (Mike8484) won the door prize which was a beautiful salmon print. Mike recently moved here from Colorado and his partner, Kyle Smith (Kyle Smith) helped him catch not only his first salmon, but his first northern and first smallmouth. (maybe even another species in there as well)

I was fairly busy running around trying to pull everything together, so I didn't get any pictures. If any of the other members of the forum took some pictures from the derby, either fishing with your partner, or at the pot luck after the derby, please post them for others to enjoy.

Thank you all for a clean, respectful derby. I look forward to the 2022 DYP and maybe even a 2022 kids derby.

Jeff (Greenhorn)

[Greenhorn]

I had so much to say about the derby, I forgot to thank my partner Matt Bilodeau (Reelax). He hosted me aboard the Reelax for the first time. What a fantastic host. We didn't have one of his legendary lunches aboard that boat because of the pot luck lunch after the derby, but we had some lively discussions talking about everything from equipment to tactics and in-between, we boated quite a few salmon also. To me, this is what makes the DYP such a special derby.

Jeff (Greenhorn)

[Smelt_seeker]

Thanks so much for hosting and all the work you put into it. We boated a bunch of fish and yes even took some time to get mike some other fish. Super fun day! Great to meet new fishermen, one passion of mine is to get new people out there and teach them how to catch fish. I’m sure mike and my self will fish again soon.

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Contrats Dean and Kevin for your winning fish.

[Reelax]

Thanks Jeff for takin the time to run the DYP this year... sure great to see so many smiles and interested cold water fisherman... Dean really slammed it home with the early morning call with a very high bar to beat....congratulations guys!!!!! here are some pics Dean sent on and also some from our trip.

Fish on!

[AmFishFil Thinking]

Thank you so much to Greenhorn and Homewrecker for making this tournament possible. It really gives new inexperienced cold water fishing people like myself a chance to learn from the seasoned experts. It also gives us all here a chance to meet each other in person.

I also want to thank my partner Dean for the fabulous times on the Homewrecker. We fished the weekend before this and this weekend. Dean is a very kind, funny, expert knowledge and teacher. Thank you also for letting my wife and son aboard too as they love to go fishing. I also found out that no one starves aboard the Homewrecker. OMG amazing food. We felt like we were on a fancy charter boat.

I learned so much from Dean incuding vertical blades, cheaters and lead core line. None of which I had used before. Dean decribed how presentation is the key. He explained that the blades look like a ball of bait and the lures are stragglers close by to get picked off.

Right off the bat, we caught a 3.6 lbs salmon that we thought was going to make a run for the tournament. It was amazing that fish was caught on a cheater and scared the crap out of me by jumping out of the water right next to me on the boat. I thought I could reach out and grab it on its way down as it was that close. Little did we know that there was a bigger one close by and hungry too. The first one was caught on a blue and silver lure that Dean made himself. That was amazing and inspirational to us as we have been making our own lures as a family and will try them out in a family lure tournament next weekend.

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Then, Dean caught a nice laker on one of the planner board lines. He knew it was a laker as he said it felt like a tire reeling in.

Shortly after, the other down rigger line fired and the fish took lots of line. Initially, we thought it was a laker because it felt like a tire and did not jump. Dean was ready with the net. As it got closer to where we could see color, the excitement started. Dean shouts, "Big silver pig!!!!". Right then, we all knew that he meant a big salmon. I asked Dean why didn't it jump since it was a salmon, Dean responded, "Because it is fat like you and me." hahahaha. This was also caught on a cheater. The lure was a speedy that Dean doctored up with blue tape and an eyeball. Another homemade lure. Amazing.

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A few boats nearby called to see what we got. My son answered, a "Big big big one". They said, "Nice answer". However, it was true as we were busy getting them fresh water and didn't weigh it yet. It was amazing only 6 am and we had 2 big salmon in the box. I had been starting fishing at 7 am. Now I know that I am missing the best part of the bite. After settling down, we weighed it 5.8 lbs and called it into Matt and Greenhorn.

We had a great morning with Dean catching another salmon and some more lake trout. After 10 am, all the bait balls disappeared. We then ventured to Split Rock, Whalens Bay and Thompsons point with no luck.

We had a great time at the cookout meeting everyone. I also felt like a car enthuziast at a car show looking over the Reelax boat at the cookout. Our son had a baseball game soon so we had to split early.

Thanks again everyone.

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[homewrecker]

Well it took 10 years to get my name on one and it was that old Camara luck that did it! Thanks to my magic crew the Camara’s and to Greenhorn for taking this derby into the future as I Reelax a little more.(pun definitely intended) Had a blast.

[Dilly Worm]

Congrats to Homewrecker & AmFishFil_Thinking on that prize-winning salmon !

Thank you Greenhorn for putting the DYP together this year ! My partner, who from now on wants to be known as "Basscatcher" and I had a great time. We caught nothing except lakers but had a lot of fun doing it. We fished from about 6:45 right up to 2 pm to give ourselves every chance possible for a salmon, and for a moment thought we had one at 5 minutes to 2 as we were trolling past Garden Island at 3.1 mph... but it was just another laker that pulled line out extra fast.

Here's a couple photos from our boat:

First fish of the day

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Here's the Honeybee MP-6 that caught most of our fish, along with a sample of what the fish preferred to eat

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[Crayfish]

Congratulations, Dean and Kevin! What a nice salmon you guys caught. I had a great time fishing with Karl, Ancient Mariner. We didn't land any salmon, either, but went 10 for 13 on lakers. Enough action to keep us pretty busy. Caught some nice clean fish, too, which is great to see.

Thanks a lot for putting this together, Greenhorn! It was nice to meet everyone at the potluck afterward and put some faces with the names.

[Mike8484]

What a fantastic event. My partner Kyle and I had a banner day with multi species brought to the net (salmon, Smallmouth, Largemouth, Perch, and Pike). Most of the day was spent trolling which was an area that I was very unfamiliar with. Kyle was not only a fantastic teacher but an awesome steward of the fishery. Action was steady trolling for salmon most of the day. It was really cool to see the sheer number of fish we saw on the finder including some enormous bait balls. All in all a fantastic time. Some days you go fishing and some days you go catching. Although the grand prize fish alluded us it was very much a catching kind of day. Thanks so much to all who helped put this amazing event together.

[The River Rat]

Hallelujah Homewrecker and AmFishFul_Thinking on a slammer silver pig! We all knew this day was coming and with authority! Regret missing such a friendly, helpful, exciting event and "FIN"nomenal (pun intended Deano) cook out afterwards with such great sportsman. Controlled Chaos and I heard the news while we were fishing in a Lake Oneida Walleye Trail event held out there in upstate NY somewhere, had are share of good times, but wasn't anywhere near the atmosphere of fishing with and around you guys. CONGRATS CONGRATS CONGRATS again Team Homewrecker

[raz]

Nice going Dean and Kevin!
CONGRATULATIONS on the WIN!

[TUnamas]

Dean, That had to feel better than driving home with a truck-bed full of alligator stew! And I'm hoping you've got some Karma left for this season, at least into June!

[Detritus]

Ha, late to the party again I guess, just finding this thread.

Just wanted to thank Greenhorn again for putting this on this year, and to thank everyone else for letting us participate this year as a family team. I know it's not DYP, but, we still felt like we were in a legitamate derby for the day. We were pretty successful to for us, considering it was a late start, and only running four rods. We still boated a salmon.

We had fun talking to Homewreaker on the radio, and also at the launch. I agree with Kevin too, it was fun to check out Reelax up close in a T shirt, rather than the other few times when there was tons of snow on the ground.

Sorry we couldn't hang longer at the cookout, we had to run to visit with family. Great group of people though. We look foreward to the next time we meet out on the water.

This weekend though, we'll be out on the inland sea the whole time, aboard Strike Three, and the Dumpster. Camping at Burton Island. If anybody's up that way on the radio, give us a shout on 68.

[AmFishFil Thinking]

Hi Detritus,

We will be camping at the most southern tip of South Hero at Camp Skyland this weekend. Going to try our hand at the salmon lessons taught to us by Homewrecker in the inland sea on our own boat. Going to launch at Apple Bay around 5 am Saturday. We will give you a shout.