Just a Brief
Visit
We were driving up Highway 55
in Norway, headed from Sogndal to Solvorn. At the time we
didn't know it but we were about to encounter a church
built nearly 1000 years ago. But this is a story about a
river, so I will move on to it.
I
was sitting behind the driver and as the road on which we
were driving began to climb, I caught a fleeting glance to
my right of a river far below us in a canyon. There were
wooden platforms in the river and my mind made an immediate
connection to fishing stories I read decades
before.
"The
Great Aaro Steeplechase-Course"
Learning
to fly fish for steelhead in the 1970s, one of the books I
got from the Seattle Public Library was by Charles Ritz, "A
Fly Fisher's Life." Published and revised several times,
the book is as entertaining as was Charles Ritz. Yes, he
was the Charles Ritz of the Ritz Hotel in
Paris.
When
I was living on casseroles and learning how to roll cast,
"A Fly Fisher's Life" was a window into a very different
world of fly fishing. One of the places that Charles
fishes, with its owner Nicolas Denissoff, was the Aaro, or
as the Norwegians spell it, the Åroy. I had stumbled onto a
legendary fishing haunt of Charles Ritz.
The
river is short and steep. In Ritz's time it might have
decended from Lake Halfso in a series of rapids, but from
what I saw it now emerges from a powerhouse and a big pipe.
It flows maybe a few hundred yards or so before it empties
into Sognfjorden. So steep its descent, it seems dangerous
for anglers and fish, so the owner constructed a series of
platforms in the river for anglers to fish from and
artificial "weirs" to break the flow and allow the salmon
to hold in the river's current.
--One
of the weirs
As
wild as it seems, it works. In 1921, a salmon of 4 feet
eight inches in length and 76 lbs was taken here. The owner
of the Walaker Hotel in nearby Solvorn assured me that it
was only the second largest taken in Norway. I'll take such
a second place anytime.
The
next day we had time for a brief visit. Just long enough to
get a feel for the place, but not too long to have the
feeling be tremendous disappointment that we would not be
fishing it.
The
wooden platforms and weirs were plainly visible, as was the
heavy current that makes the river a challenge. One can
assume that only the most powerful fish get to spawn here
so the river breeds a race of giants.
--The
Platform of Despair
Across
the river I could see the home pool and its fishing
platform named Despair, by the many anglers who could not
hold on to a big fish hooked on site.
I'd
like to fish it someday, but in the meantime, I'm saving up
for the trip. I daresay it will be dear. If you want to get
there before me, try visiting the website. Not a lot of
info there, but just enough: Åroy Gard.
--Looking
upstream as the river races towards
Sognfjorden
--Looking
downstream