Presidentit erämiehinä

Presidentit erämiehinä – presidenttien matkassa eräpoluilla ja kalavesillä
Leena Hiltula, Jukka Peltonen, Anne Uotila-Laine
Suomen metsästysmuseo, 1992

Several of the Finnish presidents were enthusiastic fishermen and huntsmen.

On May Day 1921 President Lauri Relander together with his fishing group caught 32 salmons and trouts altogether and in May 1926 the catch was almost 53 kilos of fish. The president got 17 trouts and one grayling.

President Urho Kekkonen was also well known as a fisherman and a huntsman and his catch was impressive. In 1958, when fishing on Tana-river, he got salmons of 12,5 and 21,3 kilos in weight. When travelling abroad there was always time arranged for fishing and hunting. On Amazon River the catch was an arapaima of 45 kilos in weight and in Kamchatka the catch was a king salmon of 21 kilos in weight. In winter 1975 President Kekkonen and the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf were on a hunting trip together in Janakkala and the catch was 640 pheasants and one magpie.

C. G. Mannerheim was well known for his tiger hunting travels in India and Nepal. In late Autumn 1936, at the age of almost 70, Mannerheim travelled to Nepal where he spent 68 days. During the journey his catch was four tigers, the biggest man-eating tiger, 3,23 meters in length.