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.
