Funny story about skitter pops.

[jaketomberlin]

When I was younger (15-17) I fished in a bass club with my dad, and there was an older guy who made these lures called "The Gouger Plug" Basically, he took a Rapala Original F-9, removed the diving lip, sanded down the nose of the lure about 1/4 inch, and installed a cupped "popper" lip onto the nose. And that was his "Gouger Plug". (His last name was Gouge).

Basically what you had was a very skinny, very light popper..... but those things would act a FOOL on top of the water, they would chug like a sum bitch, and leave bubbles in their wake.

They were famous in the bass club, he charged 15 dollars for them and everybody had one tied on during the spawning season. Mr. Gouge would bring in 25 lbs. of bass in some tournaments during May and June, ALL on the Gouger Plug.

I don't remember how it all went down exactly, but I know that eventually Claude sent his lures and designs in to Rapala, along with letters from about 50 bass fishermen in the area praising Claudes design. Basically Rapala kept his lures and plans, sent a letter back saying "thank you for your interest, etc." "we will consider your design, etc. " But Claude never heard back from anyone with Rapala.

3 months later Rapala released the Skitter Pop.. The Skitter Pop doesn't have the high floating characteristics of the Gouger, and doesn't chug like the Gouger, but as soon as everybody saw how it was carved out to fit the plastic cupped lip..... they knew what had happened. lol.

I was young when all that happened, and I remember thinking it was shitty of Rapala to never send anything back to Claude. I don't know if he was seeking compensation or Royalties, but I know he was HOT that Rapala never sent his lures or designs back to him. That's about all I remember, I will try to get the whole story from Dad next time I talk to him, and I will try my best to find an original "Gouger Plug"

ALSO, I remember seeing a Floating Mag with a cupped lip on this site, but don't remember who had it. Can somebody please send me a P.M. with information about who owns that lure??

[bacon]

if the time frame is correct, there is no way that rapala 'stole' his design for the SP. 3 months before the SP was released it was already several years old, prototypes had been circulating prostaffers and other testers for a long time before bring it to market. when you figure that when they release a lure, they make thousands, if not millions of them before you will even see them hit shelves, just from a logistics standpoint. tank testing along on the initial release would have taken more then the 3 months.
i have heard very similar stories in just about every fishing circle i have ever known, even my own family has a claim that the old fashion 'stick' tip ups were invented by my grandfather. these are the ice fishing tip ups made of 3 narrow sticks that form a cross with the 3rd stick sitting straight up and down in the air and into the water. story goes that grandpa made these so he could place one under the bucket he sat on and still jig so that no one could see the tip up. one day while being checked by a warden, the warden had found him to be ok and as he was leaving, the tip up went off inside of grandpas bucket with a loud whack and the warden then found the tipup in the bucket and then confiscated it and then by the next winter those tip ups were on the market everywhere and that the DNR owned the patent. this story has been told by my entire family at one point, but i still find it hard to believe, i really dont think its true, i have never looked into when those tipups were first introduced or by who. it could have been a true story that was adapted by grandpa as his own, or a total fabrication, or pure hearsay.
i dont know, hell, i even have a story like this, i painted a TD-9 in a sort of parrot pattern the year they were released and had it destroyed by a big pike, since i was no longer able to fish with it, with the rear hooks pulled off and the wire yanked half out of the balsa body, i sent it to rapala with a little note about what had happened and that i had been trolling it with bottom bouncers in 40'+. about 2 years later the deep TD showed up and one of the colors was parrot, very similar to the one i painted. now i could have gone out and claimed some credit for this, but i doubt i had any real effect. im sure they were already aware that a deeper running td was warranted, and its not like i invented the parrot color, it was already in there lineup for other models.
many times coincidences like this lead to claims of stolen ideas. i usually take all of these claims as just that, coincidences. i didnt mean to sound like i was calling you out as a liar or something, i appreciated the story, its interesting how things like that work out. i was just kinda pointing out how many fishing tales are just that, tales.

bacon

[jaketomberlin]

I mean, I'm not here to say Rapala "stole" his idea, the skitter pop is quite different from the "Gouger Plug" lol. And once again, I can't give exact details of when all this occured, but I will try to get some precise details. Obviously Rapala didn't copy his exact design, or else they would have made the lure a high floater with a skinny body.

The Skitter looks nothing like the "Gouger" in the water. The Gouger was never tail-weighted, but the magic behind the Gouger was the clear plastic popping lip, which was twice the diameter of the lure body itself. That gives you a lure that pops and bubbles like a large body popper...... but still retains the smaller, minnow profile for shallow, clear water when the fish are finicky.

Is that a good idea or what? To my knowledge........ the Skitter Pop is the first (and only?) lure to employ a plastic popping lip that is larger than the lure itself.

HOWEVER....... if they WERE trying to capture the magic of the Gouger, they missed the boat completely. The Skitter sports a Large, Tail-weighted body... and the lip is not quite as big as the Gouger. But it's still an excellent popper, nonetheless.

And Bacon I know you didn't mean to call me out or put me down. I would expect an intelligent person to raise questions about this story. After all, I don't remember all the exact details, it's a vague memory from my youth. I just thought it was an interesting story and I need to do some more research before I state any more "specifics" I'm gonna try to get in touch with Claude and see what else I can find out..... it might turn out to be an interesting story?? who knows.

[Jason]

May 13, 2011 16:08:30 GMT -4 jaketomberlin said:

When I was younger (15-17) I fished in a bass club with my dad, and there was an older guy who made these lures called "The Gouger Plug" Basically, he took a Rapala Original F-9, removed the diving lip, sanded down the nose of the lure about 1/4 inch, and installed a cupped "popper" lip onto the nose. And that was his "Gouger Plug". (His last name was Gouge).

Basically what you had was a very skinny, very light popper..... but those things would act a FOOL on top of the water, they would chug like a sum bitch, and leave bubbles in their wake.

They were famous in the bass club, he charged 15 dollars for them and everybody had one tied on during the spawning season. Mr. Gouge would bring in 25 lbs. of bass in some tournaments during May and June, ALL on the Gouger Plug.

I don't remember how it all went down exactly, but I know that eventually Claude sent his lures and designs in to Rapala, along with letters from about 50 bass fishermen in the area praising Claudes design. Basically Rapala kept his lures and plans, sent a letter back saying "thank you for your interest, etc." "we will consider your design, etc. " But Claude never heard back from anyone with Rapala.

3 months later Rapala released the Skitter Pop.. The Skitter Pop doesn't have the high floating characteristics of the Gouger, and doesn't chug like the Gouger, but as soon as everybody saw how it was carved out to fit the plastic cupped lip..... they knew what had happened. lol.

I was young when all that happened, and I remember thinking it was shitty of Rapala to never send anything back to Claude. I don't know if he was seeking compensation or Royalties, but I know he was HOT that Rapala never sent his lures or designs back to him. That's about all I remember, I will try to get the whole story from Dad next time I talk to him, and I will try my best to find an original "Gouger Plug"

ALSO, I remember seeing a Floating Mag with a cupped lip on this site, but don't remember who had it. Can somebody please send me a P.M. with information about who owns that lure??

I have the Magnum.

[jaketomberlin]

Yeah, I dug through your collection until I found it.. lol. I know you don't like selling your lures but I would pay the prettiest penny to get my hands on and examine that thing.

By the way this story was not to take credit for anything, or to call foul on Rapala.... I just grew up assuming that the Skitter Pop was born through the work of a local lure designer, and thought I would share what I know about it. I've never personally spoken to Mr. Gouge about it, but I plan to. My old man told me about all this one night and basically what he said was the lures were sent to Rapala along with testimonials from members of ClearWater Bassmasters, Rapala sent a letter back saying they would look into it, Rapala never sent the lures back, and eventually the Skitter Pop was released with a large clear plastic cupped lip.

That's all I can remember, I'm gonna dig around a little. Maybe make a call to somebody claiming I need to know how Rapala lures were designed a research paper or something.
I know Claude was a genius, he could build a rocketship out of Bondo and a MIG welder.

[qbert]

Very interesting!!! I would love to see one of those "gouger's" If you can get your hands on one be sure to post a pic!!!

[jaketomberlin]

I'm workin on it.... ;D

I just got back from fishing and I'm gonna call around. Dad said that Claude actually WAS trying to get Rapala to produce the lure and let him take credit for it... which doesn't make sense at all. Hell, I could have told him Rapala wouldn't go for that. They barely mention David Fritts when they talk about the DT.

And what Rapala told Claude was that the lure was "not marketable" and that's basically all they said.