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Big Trout with Small Fly  --Vol.1--

In Sweden

On August 31, 1996, Mary Anne and I finished our fishing of the year in Norway and the next morning we left for Sweden. Far from going to Russia or Japan, travel to the neigbouring country was similar to domestic journey. We did not need to hurry to pack up our things. We arrived at our destination airport in half a day.

Kalmar Airport lies in the south of Sweden. From there we drove north a little. The same plain forests that we had seen below us from Oslo in Norway to Kalmar boundlessly spread out on both sides of the road.
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The River Em is flowing under the national road.
As bank sides were thickly covered with trees, only a few anglers visited here.

When we approached our destination, the River Em, called Eman in the local name, I found a road sign "Monsteras". I knew that it was a place name but fancifully imagined that there was a monster in the river.

Then the road crossed a calm river surrounded by tall grass and trees. It was completely different from the River Gaula, which flowed among steep rocks. It was quite similar to the Chalk Stream in England or the Yukawa River in Nikko in Japan although it was a little larger than the latter two.

Making sure a road sign 'Eman' by the bridge, we drove into a path leading to the forest. The scenery of fairy tales boundlessly spread out on both sides. There were very old giant trees here and there. Their beautiful branches vividly told the age and riches of the forest.
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A small path is leading to the manor house through the forest.We might have missed it unless we had been very careful.

As we drove a little, a bright view suddenly spread out in front of us. An elegant white manor house appeared beyond a large garden. There was no nameplate. Unless we had been taught in advance, we might have missed it.

There was a river in front of the garden. The scenery was quite different from what we had just seen from the road. The river was wide and there were some fast currents here and there. We got off the car and walked to the river bank. We saw a small wooden bridge upstream. Somehow I had the feeling that I had seen the scenery somewhere. Before long I remembered that the same scenery had appeared in the book by Charles Ritz that I had read over 20 years before.
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The manor house of the Ulfsparre, commonly known as the White House.

Old Memories


When I was reading his "A Fly Fisher's Life" I was absorbed in fishing in Oshino and the Chikuma River in Japan. In that stage I enjoyed fishing yamame trout or char in the mountain streams with dry flies and also admired a good performance of wet flies in Oshino. Therefore, even after reading Ritz's books and going to Paris to ask for his personal advice, I had never dreamt of fishing salmon or sea trout by myself in the future.

Now I was standing in front of the River Em, which I had only watched in the book and read its fishing essays. Something hot welled up in my heart.
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Home Pool seen from on the bridge. The same scenery appears on the photo in Charles Ritz's book.

Some years before when I fished the River Spey and the River Tay in Scotland, I was also deeply moved to know that I was walking down the same path and fishing the same fast current as G.M.Kelson or Major Traherne. In the River Tweed I felt the shadow of John Scott and James Wright. When I was fishing Bemersyde Beat, my soul flew to the world of 140 years ago and I wanted to cast the Jock Scott in the same way as its debut days.

Those anglers were fishing heroes many years ago, while Charles Ritz was a person whom I had met and talked with. I thought of the passage of time and the wonder of fishing life.
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Mr. Ulfsparre's office was packed with antique tackles.

Coming back to myself, I found low water flowing in front of me. A shallow current lay between pools like tiny ponds. Pools looked rather deep but I was not sure because black bottom stones hindered my clear view. Green weed popped out of the fast current told us that there had been no rain recently.

There were several anglers in the pool. We watched their fishing for a while and headed for the manor house.

A man was waiting at the door to welcome us. He was Goran Ulfsparre, owner of the River Em.
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When we entered the White House, we had the feeling that we stepped into Eman history.

By the way, when Charles Ritz visited here for the first time in 1952, Gustav Ulfsparre, Goran's father managed here. Charles Ritz had to wait for more than 10 years to fish the River Em. Nowadays it was said even lucky anglers had to wait for more than 5 years. How lucky we are to fish today!

Before Mary Anne and I finished our greeting, Goran Ulfsparre took a book from the office bookshelf, as if he had known every thing. He said that it was a very precious book to him. It was "Classic Salmon Fly" I wrote in 1990. No more greeting or explanation was necessary.

He showed us around the manor house called the White House. Antique tackles, giant stuffed sea trout and salmon and their replicas were displayed here and there. The room upstairs commanded a panoramic view of a large pool called Home Pool. What beautiful and serene scenery it is!
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Trophies they won from generation to generation.Fish of the River Em, which were brought up in the Baltic Sea, were somehow humorous.

The River Em

After showing rooms, he took us to the river. Leaving the garden, we walked for five minutes through forest. Suddenly the sea spread out in front of us. It was the Baltic Sea. Beyond the sea we could see the land like a peninsula. It was a long slender island named Oland, whose shape was similar to the Isle of Vancouver. It stretched out to hide the mouth of the River Em, the heavenly river.
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Sea Pool lay where the River Em flowed into the sea. Pier Pool was upstream where an embankment was built. Famous Lawson Pool lay further upstream. Barrett Pool and then Ankar Crona Pool lay still further upstream, where river was meandering through the large rocks. Then we reached big Home Pool.

Passing a narrow bridge over the fast current up the Home Pool, we saw Pike Pool spread out, forming a hook-like shape. It was the largest pool in the River Em. The right bank head of this pool was called Old Man's Place because there spread out the plainest bank side in the River Em. Further upstream there was Island Pool with attractive flow.

As the Ulfsparre owned the river as long as 7km from the river mouth, their river still flowed upstream in their land. But the bush of the bank sides grew thickly upstream from where we passed the road. That looked like the Yukawa River in Nikko in Japan although the bush here grew more thickly. It seemed to be almost impossible to reach the river.
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Mr. Ulfsparre showed us around main pools.

When we came back to Home Pool, evening air hung over us. As I had expected, there were many anglers although there was none during the day. As sea trout were nocturnal fish, anglers came to fish from evening.

Mr.Ulfsparre suggested we should fish from now on, but I thought that it was dangerous for strangers to do night fishing from the first time in the river where wading seemed difficult. I decided to go back to our hotel earlier and to prepare for the next morning.
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Every pool has got signs of hiding monsters.

Our hotel stood 5 km before the river. I had made sure its whereabouts on the way in the daytime, but there was no one to answer in the hotel. Its restaurant was still close, either. I managed to look for a hotel person but he said no one stayed there during night. There was no restaurant nearby. Having exhausted with every possible means, we came back to Em to ask for help.

Mr.Ulfsparre was good enough to phone some restaurants but none of them was open. Finally he found a hotel with restaurant at Oskarshamn, 20km to the north and took us there. Thanks to him, we could get our supper at last.

-- To be continued --
2002/04/28  KEN SAWADA
Tranlated into English by Miyoko Ohtake