![]() 1959 - Normark is established and starts distributing Rapala lures in the US.1959 - Ron Weber purchases 500 Rapala fishing lures to sell out of his sporting goods store in Minnesota.1959 - Ron Weber takes a fishing trip and is first exposed to a Rapala by his fishing partner who out fishes him with this "Finnish Minnow".1936 - Lauri Rapala carves his first lure.“Suddenly, where there were no fish, there were fish galore.” During a frustrating Canadian fishing trip in the summer of 1959, Weber’s fishing partner pulled out an unfamiliar lure and tied it on his line. Ron Weber, a young Minneapolis-based fishing tackle sales representative, had heard rumors of a prolific “Finlander plug” and was eager to try one. These lures slowly began to make their way around a few tackle boxes in America planting the seeds to future success. Finns who immigrated to or visited the United States also helped to create a Rapala lure pipeline. Athletes participating in the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympic games picked up lures from a shopkeeper who had begun stocking them following a vacation to Lake Paijanne. The Rapala family lures made their way to North America by various means during the 1950s. After the war, Lauri and his family began manufacturing the lures. In fact one story claims that Lauri out-fished some of his fellow soldiers who were using dynamite to "catch" fish. During World War II, w hile serving in the Finnish army, Lauri would use his lure to interest his comrades by out-fishing them. As word spread of this great new lure and his abundant catches, so grew the reputation. Legend has it that Lauri Rapala sometimes caught 600 pounds of fish a day with his new lure. After much trial and error he was able to duplicate the wounded motion in an artificial minnow. But most importantly, the lure he was creating would perfectly imitate the action of a wounded minnow. Melted photographic negatives were used to make the protective coating. Tinfoil from chocolate bars formed the lures’ outer surface. ![]() Using a shoemaker’s knife and some sandpaper, he created his first successful lure from cork in 1936. Lauri Rapala realized that if he could craft a lure that mimicked the movements of a wounded minnow, he could catch more fish and earn more money for his family. And what he saw was how hungry predatory fish would dart into a school of minnows and attack the one that swam with a slightly off-center wobble, over and over again. As he fished the waters of Finland’s Lake Paijanne, he quietly rowed and watched. It was during this time when Lauri Rapala made an observation of simple genius: big fish eat little fish, especially ones that are wounded. In hopes of boosting his fishing income and cutting down on the time and effort spent re-baiting hooks, Lauri began thinking about an idea of an artificial lure. Lauri Rapala pieced together a living for his family by working as a lumberjack in the winter and commercial fisherman in the summer. The 1930s was a period of widespread economic depression. ![]()
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