Fishing tips. The Rapala revolution

The first artificial lures are born.

    The North Americans and Rapala. The Legend  begins.

-- Lauri Rapala history.          www.rapala.com

Although, as we have already mentioned, the deserved merit of the invention of the first artificial fish in the world is owed to Ernest F. Pflueger and other North Americans 50 years earlier, we must not undervalue what Rapala obtained, since at that time, and due to underdeveloped communication systems, these new innovations were not known, at least to him.  


With  his  rudimentary  tools, a shoemaker's knife and sandpaper, he carved the shape of a thin and small fish of approximately 9cm on a cork that he used for the fishing lines. To cover it he used the golden or silver paper from the chocolate or cigarette packets and for the exterior seal he melted previously washed photographic negatives. 

His  following  step  was to cut the low  part  of  the  fish, making a wide enough crack to introduce a wire frame that integrates into the oval of the mouth and the ovals where three triple hooks were placed. Extraordinary. He had the fish ready. But then the problem came. Having the fish tied to the fishing line, when he retrieved the hook from the shore or from his boat, it was dead, it did not move, it did not do anything, it was swept by water surface.

www.theanglingcentre.com

You can watch this video about the rapala world:




The second big discovery. The bib.

We will fall into previous comments to do justice. In some models of North American crankbaits of the XIXth century, they had a metallic bib in the low part, behind the mouth. The American inventors knew by intuition that this obstacle was producing water movement, but they were not conscious of the real revolution that the bib involved. They worked with the props to generate vibration and water splashes much more, but they did not manage to imitate the sinuous movements and flaps of fish. Follow reading in the book.

The invention of the bib created by Lauri Rapala, was brilliant...

This obstacle (the bib), placed to block the uniform rectilinear movement of the fish, achieved a unique vibration that imitates the one that the fish makes with its movements and flaps.

The effect produced by the movement is very simple. As shown in the drawings on the previous page, central figure, we note that the water represented by the horizontal arrow crashes head-on with the bib causing the fish to turn sharply to one side. The line continues to pull the fish causing it to return to its original position and, once again, to turn to the other side. All this happens in a split second. Amazing!

Thanks to this design and its simplicity, it is possible to change the depth of swimming and the the vibration rhythm, only modifying the dimensions and the inclination of the bib. Longer, more depth. More inclined, more vibration.

His magnificent artificial fish was such a success that it rapidly spread over Europe and North America.

     

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