C-Falls fly fisher recalls fishing in Estonia
Hilary Hutcheson’s work trip to Finland last year ended with a more than unusual fly fishing trip with an Estonian stranger.
Hutcheson, co-owner of outdoors marketing firm Outside Media and network television show Trout TV, shared the story at a meeting of The Flathead Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited last month. Hutcheson recently opened Lary’s Fly Shop in Columbia Falls and is actively engaged with Project Healing Waters and Casting for Recovery.
Hutcheson went to Helsinki, Finland last year to launch a new GPS watch. While she was there doing work for Outside Media, she knew Tallinn, Estonia was only 2 1/2 hours away. She had heard that Estonia is home to large native brown trout, but as far as she knew it was a legend. The country has only been open to U.S. visitors since 1991 when it became the Republic of Estonia. She had brought her fly rod just in case.
She talked her coworker, Holly, into extending their trip and taking a boat across the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn. After booking a hostel, Hutcheson instantly got on Facebook, searching for fly fishing guides in Estonia. All she could find was this man named “Jarko”, (silent J) who was touted to be the best guide in Estonia.
So, she called him and two hours later she met him, a 7-foot-tall young man driving a black sports car and wearing a gray wool sea fishing hat. He had tattoos up both arms and was chain smoking.
He said, “I’m Jarko, come with me if you want to fish.” She thought for sure he was using a line from the movie, “Terminator.” Going along with this Holly said, “You will not live if you go with him.” She then took a photo of Hutcheson to record her last known time and date.
But Hutcheson jumped in the car with him and they sped off into the countryside listening to loud Estonian death metal techno opera music. She started marking GPS points in her watch, just in case, when she realized that they had passed a beautiful bombed-out castle twice. She asked him if they’re going in circles.
“You have a GPS. I do not want you to come back here to fish,” Jarko said. That’s when she realized the universal truth — a fisherman will never want to give away his secret fishing spot. She realized she was perfectly safe with him because he was a real fisherman.
They ended up catching lots of brown trout in a beautiful, mystical stream with tall grass. She saw some bigger brown trout under the bank, but Jarko wouldn’t let her send out a streamer. He provided a meal of smelly herring and alcohol, no water. She spent the entire evening in his borrowed gear: extra-large waders and boots.
On the drive back to the hostel, she asked Jarko about his life. Turns out he was Jarko Jaadla, the senior officer of Estonia’s fisheries department.
Not only that, he created the department. The 29-year-old, who had always loved fly-fishing, went to college for biology, creating his own degree in fisheries. Now he is in charge of it all, both backcountry and oceanside.
Jaadla shared one piece of wisdom with Hutcheson. There are two kinds of fishermen, he said. The young ones bring energy, stoke and hope, and new ways of understanding fishery.
“The old guys feel it with their a@@ … They just know,” he said.
Hutcheson clarified that it wasn’t a mistranslation, that he didn’t mean “in their bones.”
She distilled it to mean that fishermen should be present in the moment by the water. Now, she cherishes the serendipitous experience of fishing in Estonia.
“The river is a gift. Be present,” Hutcheson said.