Succesfull trip to Teno

I heard a funny story the other day from a friend of mine.
He had been fishing at Teno river for a week last summer. He tried and tried but couldn't catch a salmon. That as such is not that funny, but he did caught something, a pike! That is funny. This guy travels 1000 km hoping to catch a highly valued, great fighting Teno salmon. Then he rows his ass to blisters trying to get salmon bite his bait. When finally something catches the excitement jumps to high heaven and early hopeful expectation of record salmon kicks in. But soon he realizes it's nothing but a pike! He could have gone fishing to any pond or lake near his home to catch a pike. And you never catch a pike from Teno...if that happens to you, your fishing mates will be laughing at you and cracking jokes on you for years to come :)

My first salmon

I caught my first salmon when I was 10...I think.
It was a half cloudy late June day. I had already been fishing for couple of hours on my home rapid Mantokoski in Utsjoki river. Then I felt a strong pull on the line and my heart rate must have jumped to 200. I realized right away that this wasn't a grayling or perch (the only fishes I had ever caught before that). I got the fish pretty close to me when the cover of the closed reel got off and the line started running as the fish started swimming away from me. I grabbed the cover and quickly attached it back. I didn't loose the salmon, it was still there.
After a while I was again preparing to "land" the salmon but then the crank of the reel was detached. Unbelievable! Luckily I was able to attach the crank and continue reeling the salmon in.
In the end I dragged the salmon up from the river and knocked it out with a stone. I was soooo happy, the smile definetly was from ear to ear. I immediately packed everything and almost ran back home. I was very proud to show my first salmon to my parents. The fish weight was 1,2 kg. That remained to be my record for many years.