I saw that an old neighbor, and a real fishing hero, passed away in the last couple of days.

Ron Weber

Ron Weber talked Lauri Rapala into letting him produce and sell his Finnish products in the US. Lauri, who remained in Finnland, was a relative to my grandmother. Ron and his wife's cabin on the Brule River is very near to several of counsins' homes, and very close to where my Finn grandparents homesteaded near the Brule, on the south shore of Lake Superior.

I met Ron a number of times as a teenager and in my early 20s. In those days, there was an outfitter in Duluth, named Rocky Teller, who owned a sporting goods store and who did a weekly TV fishing show. I guess I was about 10 or 11 when I was introduced to the Rapala knife through Rocky Teller. About that time, we started using the original Rapala lures. It was through Rocky Teller and Ron Weber, in Rocky's store, that I learned how to quickly filet and skin virtually any fish, even a Northern Pike.

R.I.P Mr. Weber. Condolences to Mary Ann and family.

The Original Rapala lures are the ones that I remember having the most success with. Floating silver/black, roughly 2 1/2" to 3" long.

R.I.P. Mr Weber!

Rapala lures are still today one of my most fished lure varieties...and I have several of the filet knives. RIP

Same here!

I still have a bunch of the original lures and several are covered with NP and WE teeth holes.




RIP....

Best thing for WE!

I used the traditional floating ones starting when I was about 10 years old which would have been in 1967. They were killer on bass.

On a funny note I was trying to catch 12 inch brook trout on the ones that were about 4 inches in length on a little lake in Massachusetts. The trout would come up and nip on them but I couldn't catch them. The water was so clear I could see the trout. It finally dawned on me they were too big for the trout and I started to use live bait and started catching them.

What can I say? I was only 10 years old and fishing by myself.