Spring 2019
®
L aR u a rpi al a
nev S e tor r y b c y K au EN gh D t U a KE bass:
part 3
page
46 46
Y
ou don’t have to be a great bass
angler to have a great impact on
the sport of bass fishing, and
that’s exactly what this series
is all about … but we take it a step further. Not only do you not have to be a great bass angler, you don’t have to be a bass
angler at all … nor it is necessary that you’ve
ever caught a bass! This time we look at a
man who built a tackle empire. His company’s
baits have probably caught as many bass
as any other in the world … but there’s no
evidence that he ever caught one himself.
LAURI RAPALA (1905-1974)
Lauri Saarinen was born on November 27, 1905 in Sysmä Parish in the village of Rapalanniemi on an island in the middle of Lake Päijänne in central Finland. His mother
was unmarried at the time and already
Lauri Rapala
had two children. She made ends meet by working as a maid and net mender. As you might suspect, Rapalanniemi was a fishing village.
About the time Lauri was nine or 10, Finns were required to register with the local government. Anyone who did not have a family name had to adopt one. The man who filled out the form for Lauri made a mistake. Instead of writing down his family name, he wrote down the name of the village where he was born. Thus, Lauri Saarinen became Lauri Rapala.
The turmoil of World War I, economic uncertainty and the challenges of living in rural Europe with a single mother meant that Lauri received sporadic schooling during his youth. At about the age of 10, he began