Monday was the day of the Facebook gathering in Port Hope. For those of you that did not read my last post, click here. I met up with Nick, Luke, Mikey and Pat at Tim Hortons parking lot sometime after 12. Unfortunately a few others were unable to make it, or maybe were afraid of the rain? 🙂 From there we introduced ourselves, gathered our belongings and set out on our mission for fishin’. I really did not know what I was in store for, but quickly felt very comfortable with the group of anglers I was about to spend the day with. They cracked jokes as we made our trek through the woods to the Ganaraska River, helping me along the way since I do not yet own hip waders! It was quite the journey!

As we arrived at the destination spot that Mikey picked out, Luke set up his spare rod for me to fish with. I used a 10’5″ noodle rod, with a spinning reel rigged with 8 pound test fluorocarbon main line, 4 pound test fluorocarbon leader, split shots, slip float and finally, the roe! It was a different technique that I really enjoyed learning, and I saw more salmon than I had ever seen in my life in that river – it was incredible. The river was about 2 and a half feet deep with perfect visibility, and I could not take my eyes off those fish!!

A few hours into the day, and I successfully hooked up with my very first salmon ever – a chinook! Here is how it went down:

WHAT A FISH!! Definitely a highlight in my life reeling in that monster! Here are a couple of photos thanks to Nick and Mikey:

I would like to express a HUGE thank you to Nick, Mikey, Luke and Pat for helping me land my first salmon, and my personal best fish! It was great to meet new friends, try a new style of fishing out of my element and make a fantastic memory! Can’t wait for my next Fishbook experience!

Here are the photos I took: