FR7 and FR5 Fat Raps. Both are the old SD color yet only one has the original orange belly.

One thing I don’t understand about the fishing tackle industry is; more often than not, a manufacturer will develop something that’s just awesome, they’ll sell it for a number of years and then they’ll take it off the market for no reason. The old green Curado 200 is a prime example of this. Great reel, sold more than any other reel made and they lasted. I don’t think anyone who was an aficionado of that reel has recuperated from it being taken off the market.

Another piece of tackle that was near and dear to me that simply vanished off the shelves was the old original Rapala Fat Rap. This bait came out in the mid-70s and they continued to manufacture the things through the 90s. I sold these baits for 10 years at the tackle shop I worked at from 1978 to 1988 and I would wager we went through 10 cases a month.

The beauty of these baits was in their simplicity. The colors changed a little over the years but overall these baits never changed. They came in two sizes, FR5 and FR7, had no rattles and tracked straight right out of the box. The original colors were SD (shad), CW (crawdad) and P (perch). Then in about 1980 they came out with the color SFC (chartreuse) that was just phenomenal. About the same time Rapala did away with the original shad colored bait and came out with their S color shad, which instead of having silver painted sides, an orange under belly and the typical shad dot, it had foil sides and a red throat. I don’t think the new S-colored bait was as good as the original SD-colored bait but it still produced.

I never thought Rapala, one of the kingpins of the crankbait industry, would ever eliminate the original Fat Rap from their lineup but how wrong was I.

Three FR5 Fat Raps in SD, SFC and CW patterns.

In the late 1990s Rapala came out with the plastic version of the bait – which was about as worthless as the Popeil Pocket Fisherman – but they continued to make the original balsa baits. I wasn’t worried and continued to buy them as needed.

Then one day around 2000 I went into the tackle shop to replace some of my Fat Raps and the pegs were empty. I asked the tackle guy – who knew as much about tackle as Paris Hilton knows about class – and he said they stopped making the baits, including the plastic version. Of course that couldn’t be right, this guy didn’t know what he was talking about. Well, Johnny Tackle Boy was right, the Fat Rap had met its demise; more than likely from the stroke of a bean-counter’s pen.

How could a company make such a productive lure, both in sales and on the water, spend money to develop its plastic brother and then, because the plastic bait stunk, cut both lines from the production line? It just boggles my mind.

My current supply of Fat Raps maintains itself due to certain online auction sites and friends that look out for them for me. But, someday that source will dry up and my stock will dwindle to the point I won’t want to throw the remaining gems anymore for fear of losing my last one in an important tournament and then I’ll be screwed.

Until then, I guess I’ll keep searching, buying and hoarding all the while wondering what the heck was Rapala thinking?