The Beauty of Fishing

Everything moves so much faster these days that we have less and less time to pause and enjoy our beloved hobby. Do we always have to catch bigger fish—or can we enjoy fishing in other ways too? Is it possible to recapture the joy of childhood even as an adult?

A friend of mine—one of the country’s most famous big-pike anglers—said not long ago that young anglers still have time to hug their lures. That’s when I admitted it to myself. I’m a lure-hugger. Almost 40 years old—and a lure-hugger.

Even though it’s great to be out fishing, it’s sometimes nice to retreat to the man-cave, pull the spinner box out of the green shoulder bag that always comes along the riverbanks, and check that the hooks are razor-sharp. And of course they are. The “checking” is just an excuse to handle those jewelry-like spinners once again.

Beat-up jerkbaits aren’t as fun to fondle. Nor are soft baits rigged with huge hooks and slashed by pike teeth. Hugging is reserved for spinners, spoons, and small plugs—friendly, traditional lure types.

30 Years of Kuusamo Memorie

I got my hands on my first Kuusamo Uistin catalog exactly 30 years ago, in 1985. I was turning ten and had just started getting excited about fishing. Two years later, in 1987, came the real awakening. I began keeping a fishing diary and saving the Kuusamo catalog each year. Years later, as a young adult, I hunted down the missing editions too. Counting this booklet, I now have as many catalogs as the years I’ve lived: forty.

One of my favorites is the 1977 catalog with a painterly cover: an outer-archipelago skerry, a wooden boat, and a spin fisherman. The image is beautiful, but even more important than the picture is the feeling it conveys: an unhurried atmosphere—something that’s hard to grasp in today’s bustle.

We have ever-faster cars and boats, ever-faster and more powerful broadband and mobile connections—and yet we’re in more of a rush than ever. Less and less time to pause and enjoy the beauty of fishing: the waters, the landscapes, the fish.

Instead of a spring measured in numbers of trophy pike, my best seaside memory comes from the trip when, for the first time in ages, we beached the boat on the shore of a familiar island, spread lunch on the rocks, and started with a break. We’d stocked our boxes with Räsänen 7 cm spoons in different colors and slowly worked our way around the shores. The size and number of fish weren’t anything to brag about, but the feeling and the scenery were head-spinning. The memory still is.

 

To Autumn Lapland

Another favorite is the 1984 cover, where a beautiful trout has been released onto ground drenched in autumn colors. Such a strong visual whole doesn’t need giant fish beside it to leave a permanent mark on an angler’s mind.

Our most sensorially striking fishing moments in recent years have been in Finland’s northern “arm.” Autumn trips at the peak of fall foliage have been crowned with fine catches—fish taken on spinners that best match the tones of dark-tinted pools. For example, the legendary Loimu spinner, the red-copper Volframi (R/BL/C-C), and the dusk-hued Kuf (BLU/FR-C).

Into a New, Good Era

The very fact that Kuusamo Uistin publishes the traditional Angler’s Guide every year makes me tip my fishing hat. I admit I browse it online more often than on paper, but the strength of a printed catalog lies in the memories to come. The internet leaves few heirlooms. Thirty years from now, no one will remember what some fishing website’s front page looked like in 2015.

Although many things may seem like they were better “back then,” two clear improvements stand out when leafing through the catalogs. In late-1970s photos, the masters of their day—true to the times—are shown holding big pike by the eyes; nowadays those fish more often get to live on. Selective harvest has become more common, meaning we take a reasonable amount of table fish from medium sizes. A large fish being released is a far more magnificent sight than giants lying on the rocks—or worse, hanging by the eyes. My friend Mika’s ten-kilo pike taken last autumn on a brown (BR/R/B-B) Hauki spoon is one of many big fish that were allowed to swim away.

The second major improvement is in lure color palettes. In my first catalog in 1985, there were seven colors of the Räsänen 7 cm. Now there are around forty different, ever-more-intriguing combinations. The Räsänen is an essential part of any lure-hugger’s collection. Each year new colors find their way into the Räsänen box—even though the old ones would surely do. And that box gets opened and admired often, for no reason I can logically explain.

One of our biggest Räsänen favorites is last year’s newcomer BR/B-C, which we nicknamed “mulled wine.” It’s such a gorgeous color that we’re tempted to try it everywhere. Honestly, we even wanted to hang one on the Christmas tree.

 

Text and photos: Niko Satto, Fishing Journalist and Chairman of the Suomen Haukiseura