After 40 years of fishing across Canada, we decided it was finally time to host a derby of our own.

On this episode of The Fish’n Canada Show, Dean Taylor and Steve Niedzwiecki go head-to-head against Pete Bowman in the first-ever Fish’n Canada Derby. The battleground? The legendary waters of Whitefish and Manitowik Lakes, with Air-Dale Lodge serving as home base.

But this isn’t your typical tournament.

Instead of traditional weigh-ins, the competition uses modern catch-and-release technology through the Anglers Leaderboard app. Every fish is photographed, measured, and instantly added to the leaderboard, keeping things honest while ensuring every fish swims away safely.

The rules are simple: accumulate the most total inches using any of the four species available in these waters: walleye, lake trout, northern pike, and smallmouth bass.

There’s just one problem.

Dean and Steve are fishing from a fully rigged Princecraft Expedition 200, while Pete Bowman is left to battle the elements in a classic tin boat. Between changing weather, massive northern waters, and a few strategic decisions, the competition quickly becomes a battle of inches.

With giant pike, aggressive smallmouth, and a final showdown that none of us saw coming, this derby may go down as one of the wildest competitions in Fish’n Canada history.

So the question is… who actually won the Fish’n Canada Derby?