Rapala is a Finnish fishing lure brand founded in 1936 by Lauri Rapala, a fisherman who carved a balsa wood lure designed to imitate the swimming action of a wounded minnow. That design became the Original Floating Minnow, one of the most widely used fishing lures in history, and the wobbling swimming action Rapala pioneered remains the template for countless minnow-style baits. Each Rapala lure is still tank-tested to verify its swimming action before sale, a practice the company has maintained since its early years. The product range has grown to include the Shad Rap, X-Rap, CountDown, and Jigging Rap, along with fillet knives, scales, and other fishing accessories. Rapala is the flagship brand of Rapala VMC Corporation, a publicly listed company on Nasdaq Helsinki that also owns VMC hooks, Sufix fishing lines, and 13 Fishing. The group sells its products in more than 100 countries and produces millions of lures annually, with manufacturing concentrated in Finland, Estonia, and Indonesia. The company is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, and Rapala lures are credited with more world-record fish catches than any other lure brand, a claim the company has long used in its marketing.
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