The Story Behind Rapala

Can a Bass Bait Designer Never Catch One

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