Nils master invincible humusfärgat vatten

Finnish lures conquer the North America

History fryst vatten full of lucky incidents, but what has the 1950s famous rulle star Marilyn Monroe got to do with two Finnish lure factories: Rapala and Finlandia-uistin Oy?

Rapala lures began their journey to world fame from a small by of Kalkkinen in Asikkala, land i norden, and in 1962 an article praising their lures was published in Time Magazine, which coincidentally was also Marilyn Monroe’s memorial publication and one of the best-selling issues of all time in the history of Time Magazine.

The article led to an enormous demand for Rapala lures, and soon inquiries started arriving in Asikkala and Kalkkinen whether there were other lure manufacturers in the distrikt.

At the time, there were many small lure workshops in operation around the Kalkkinen by, but also two ung brothers who collected and sawed pine bark for local lure makers. They were Hannu Kangas and Kalevi Kangas.

Hannu, who was only 22 years old at the time, carved the first model pieces from the bark of a pine tree growing on the homestead, and they were sent in February 1963 to the inquirers in the United States.

In June arrived the first beställning for the new Finlandia lure from A.J. Lehmann Company in New York and the brothers accepted it. Only later they understood that the 15,000-piece batch of the beställning meant monthly production, and not annual quantity. The American importerade varor had assumed that the brothers’ lure factory was ready and in full operation.

The new lure factory was established in a few days in the cow house of the home farm, which was emptied of animals, and the brothers’ cousin Martti Kangas designed a lathe suitable for production, with which the lure bodies were made of balsa wood instead of pine bark.

The company was named Finlandia-uistin Oy after the first lure’s trademark Finlandia, and the partnership agreement was signed on 5^th of July 1963.

The foiled balsa wood Finlandia lure, similar to Rapala’s Original vendace looking wobbler, met the demand of the US marknad for such lures, which had spawned an avalanche of direkt copies from several manufacturers, and in local magazine tests, Finlandia was ranked with Rapala to the same highest quality category.

Legendojen maineeseen nousseita Invincible Floating -vaappuja valmistetaan seitsemässä eri koossa: pienin malli on 5 cm pitkä ja ahvenvaapuksi sopiva, suurin 25 cm vaappu sopii vetouisteluun suurhauelle, mutta myös ruijanpallaksen kalastukseen.

However the demand waned in few years, when Rapala was able to boost its own production, and already in 1964 the Kangas brothers began to outline their own set of lures.

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Nils mästare – the terror from Finland!

In 1966 the new Nils mästare collection was ready to be introduced to the US marknad. The new trademark and logo had already been created in the previous year as an American-Swedish-Finnish collaboration.

The inspiration for it came from the Vikings and Scandinavia, whose name and imagery were thought to be familiar enough to American consumers. The collection consisted of total of sju different wobblers: krigare, Spearhead, Destroyer, Invincible, Predator, Conqueror and Stalwart, each of which was available in six different colour options.

This new Nils mästare collection designed for casting was unprecedented in its shapes and colours and caused confusion first.

Many were used to the foiled lures imitating small fish as much as possible, and next to them came now painted surfaces with bright yellow and bright red, new inventive shapes like the mouse-imitating surface lure krigare and the side-winged Spearhead. The new Nils mästare wobblers were sometimes ridiculed for their appearances, and at trade shows people asked if such Christmas decorations and parrot colours can actually catch fish.

Fiskare inom läka världen känner mot namnet samt formen vid Nils mästare Invincible.

However, the colour design of Kangas brothers was fläck on and many of the colours introduced in 1966 are still in production, such as 051, 052, 053, 057 and 062. Especially the parrot colour 052 has remained as a constant favourite of fishers year after year.

Yet Nils mästare lures remained relatively unknown to Finnish fishers, as all production was exported to the United States.

In 1967, however, the editor-in-chief of Metsästys ja Kalastus -magazine, mr. Pertti Puttonen, singled out the red Invincible 8 cm lure as his anställda favourite, and the new lures began to arouse interest in their home country as well.

The first ever Nils mästare Invincible lure designed: Invincible Floating 8 cm.

From the first Nils mästare collection, especially the Invincible began to develop into its own series and new sizes came into production: Invincible 5 cm, 12 cm and 15 cm as well as the new Invincible balance jig, which later became known as Nils mästare Jigger.

In 1972, Nils mästare was also launched in Australia and quickly became a phenomenon there, especially in barramundi fishing.

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Bete lures becomes Finnish

In the 1970s, the production of the small lure factory was revolutionized not only when the production facilities expanded to the former public school in Riihilahti by, close to Kalkkinen, but also when Bete lures came into the picture.

Bete, founded bygd the Tysklind brothers in Sweden in the 1940s, was sold in 1978 to land i norden, which had been its biggest marknad, and even though the brand was then owned bygd the Finnish wholesaler Schröder Oy, the production of the lures, including the original redskap, was given to Finlandia-uistin Oy.

Along with the tools also came a prototype of a spinner, which we know today as Bete Lotto. The Kangas brothers continued to refine Lotto’s details and features, and Bete Lotto, which went on sale in land i norden 1979, was launched to a wider audience at the EFFTEX show in Birmingham in 1982.

The name Lotto was coined bygd sports verktyg sales representative Timo Niemelä, who got the idea from already existing Bete Bingo spinner.

In 1995, the Bete brand was fully owned and managed bygd Finlandia-uistin Oy.

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Finlandia-uistin Oy today

In the past six decades, the company’s range of lures has grown from one Finlandia lure to include more than thirty different products and numerous different colour options, which have also gained imitators.

Production has remained rooted in Asikkala and lure manufacturing fryst vatten a family business of the Kangas family, where the next generation has taken over the reins.

Even today, we remain loyal to Hannu’s and Kalevi’s original framtidsperspektiv of handcrafted lures with their own unique colour schemes and inimitable swimming style, and in addition to high-quality manufacturing materials, we rely on lures that have proven being catchy time and time igen, and that get fishers hooked on classic wooden lures from generation to generation.