(1998) What angler doesn’t know Rapala?
All anglers have certainly at some point become acquainted with one of Rapala's plugs. Abroad, I have often come across anglers who simply use the name Rapala instead of the word plug. From the smallest villages in Africa to Greenland, you can acquire Rapalas. Thus the name is chiselled into the world of angling.

The product is a life achievement of Finnish Lauri Rapala and the company headquaters is based in Vaaksy, Finland. However, not many people know that a fairly large part of the production actually took place in Ireland. On my trip to Lough Corrib, I was invited to visit the factory and get a tour by the factory manager, Martin Lydon.

This Rapala factory was located in Inveran, near Galway and Lough Corrib, in the west of Ireland. Here, the plugs are not completely fabricated from scratch, but arrive as pre-painted bodies that must be mounted, tested, packed and sent out into the world.

The tour we were given was in reasonable logical order of how the plugs find their way through the system and up to 18 people in direct contact with them. The first thing we were introduced to was the myriad of boxes of newly arrived virgin wobblers, and it was simply a sight for gods.
Any true angler like me would get heart palpitations over the contents of these boxes. The boxes were actually very reminiscent of herring or sardine boxes filled with a good days catch.

Then the trip went on to mounting and cleaning eyelets and painting eyes over two times. The most exciting thing about this was undeniably the sight of the painted wobblers left to dry. They were put in holders in rows on a kind of conveyor belt that was rolled forward as new plugs were added, after which the dried ones popped down into a box at the end. It was a glorious sight to see all these plugs marching away.

From painting, the trip went to punching and assembling the spoons; then mounting spring rings and hooks, and then the famous “bathtub” test. Every single plug is pulled through the tub, and if necessary, aligning the spoon to give it a perfect movement. I asked one of the test girls, with a couple of hundred plugs that had already been tested, how many out of all the plugs would expect to be discard, the prompt answer was: "None"

The last part of the process was packing the plugs with instructions and warranty papers. The product guarantee is extremely relevant, because with the insight I got from this high-quality production, I certainly have no qualms about praising Rapala's products.

Charlotte's last comment when we left the factory was dry: "The price for a Rapala plug is not bad at all, all things considered!”