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The Evolution of Rapala Fishing Lures

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Rapala fishing lures have been on the market since 1936 and are almost always a staple lure in any angler's fishing box. The original Rapala fishing lures were hand cared out of native balsa wood and cork in Finland by an avid fisherman named Lauri Rapala. Mr. Rapala noticed how fish tended to move towards and bite aggressively at injured baitfish, and he designed a lightweight lure that would move through the water with the same presentation as an injured fish, creating the ideal lure.

The first Rapala fishing lures where experiments, and fashioned out of easy to access materials around the home. The cork and wood was covered with simple tin foil, and the result was even more strikes by large fish thinking they were hitting on injured fish. Photography negatives were melted to make a clear coating that would both waterproof the Rapala fishing lures as well as protect the tin foil covering. The results were amazing, even in a part of the world were fishing was a daily event.

Originally all Rapala fishing lures were made by hand and tested personally by the originator of the lure. As the demand increased more people were hired, but the same attention to personal detailing and hand made trademark action was still in every Rapala fishing lure sold. Even today all Rapala fishing lures are tested in a tank before being sold to ensure that they have the correct injured fish movement in the water.

The original Rapala floater was the only Rapala fishing lure on the market from 1936 until 1965 when several other lures were introduced including the saltwater floater and the balanced jigging lure. In 1974 a jointed diver was introduced to the line and the shad lures were added to the product line in the 1980's.

Since 1999 there has been at least one new version of Rapala fishing lures to hit the market every season. Rapala fishing lures are sold in over 140 countries around the world in sporting goods stores, as well as being sold globally through the internet. There are over twenty million Rapala fishing lures sold annually and these numbers only reflect new lures sold through retail outlets. Rapala also introduced several other fishing gadgets such as a fish and fillet knife in 1964 and a hand held digital weigh in scale in 1989. Normark, the company owning the Rapala line also sells rods, reels, tools and other fishing accessories.

Rapala fishing lures are some of the best in the world, and are still largely made and tested the same way that Lauri Rapala made his first lure out of his home in 1936.