Aaro A. Nuutinen’s book Suomen Sveitsissä (The Switzerland of Finland), published in 1932, was the first fairly detailed travel guide to Kuusamo. Nuutinen’s route in Kuusamo led from the parish village to Käylä, Kiutaköngäs, Juuma, Paanajärvi, Nuorunen, and Lake Kitkajärvi. Nuutinen also wrote stories about the people he met, local ways, and life in the backwoods in general. Paavo Ingervo photographed the journey with a small Leica camera, in which roll film was already used.
Stepping ashore from the boat in Jäkäläniemi, Vasaraperä, he stopped to look and marvel at a prosperous-looking house, behind which rose the woody Riihivaara hill, the lush, cone-shaped Naatikkavaara hill on its left, and many more hills rose around the lake, some even higher than Naatikkavaara, Riisitunturi one of them. Nuutinen stayed at Kitka for a long while, fishing for salmon and writing. Nuutinen fished with a long line and with lures. Among the best lures were Professor and Räsänen, the famous lures manufactured by Kuusamo Lure Factory for several decades, and still in use today. Farmer Jäkäläinen advised Nuutinen in the choice of the best lures,
”These are what the Kitka salmon bites, when the biting is good, those others are useless for salmon in this lake… and this professor should be bent a little straighter, like this, so that it will not toss about so much this side and that.”
The production of lure factory Kuusamon Uistin began in the back room of a laundry in the 1960s. The factory was founded by Paavo Korpua (pictured here) and Paavo Putila.
PHOTO Kuusamon Uistin