# What are they worth?



## wtc3 (Aug 16, 2005)

Just ran across a bunch of Bingo lures that my Dad gave me years ago. I don't have any intentions of getting rid of them, I was just curious what they're worth. He always said he caught alot of fish with them, but they haven't seen the water since I've had them. Thanks in advance for the input.


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## fishbowl365 (Mar 9, 2005)

priceless, cause they came from your dad.


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## Moonpie (Jun 20, 2004)

Head on over to E-Bay.com


Type in "bingo lure" There should be a few show up and give you an idea of worth. Some are quite valuble.

Hope this helps.


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## dicklaxt (Jun 2, 2005)

I had a number of them in a tackle box that went overboard about ten years ago,,,,,they were an excellent flounder bait. I wonder if they are still ion business. I think they were made in Corpus somewhere but not to sure about that.just seems like, heres a link

http://www.lureexchange.com/texaslures.htm

D!ck


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## atm_93 (Mar 16, 2005)

Put at least one in a display box (like something you keep an autographed baseball in) and keep it forever.


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## Dutch Treat (May 21, 2004)

I am 99% sure that Bingo's were made in El Campo. I am sure one of the E C guys on here can tell us if they are still around.
Bob


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## Evdog (Mar 11, 2005)

Call over at the Antique Center of Houston off of 610 and I-10 and ask for Phil Thompson. Phil has been collecting Bingo Lures for years and can give you some information.


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## grayfish (Jul 31, 2005)

I think there was a history of the Bingo Bait company in the Tide Magazine a while back. I lost my back copies in a recent move. (along with a lot of other things) maybe someone else has a back copy of it. May have been the Chronicle now that I am thinking about it.

I used them in the early 60's. Killer baits. They made King and Queen sizes as I remember.


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## GinMan (Jan 29, 2005)

I know they used to be a HOT surf lure at SPI, If I bought one off of eBay I'd fish with it. Midnight Tackle in the Bluff used to have a bunch of them. These were lures my gparents/parents used to use in the surf...........too bad they don't make 'em anymore


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## chubri777 (Aug 11, 2005)

I have over 30 Bingos that my dad gave to me. I tried a couple at baffin once when I waded into a school of hungry trout. I caught a few but did much better on assassins. I've since cleaned them up and put them back in their original boxes. Might break a couple out some day and try them on flatties.


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## 1fisher77316 (Oct 30, 2004)

*Bingo Pricing*

Bingos, Humps ect..prices range from a min. of 3.00 used in poor to good shape to the upper 30's for (Rare models) new lures in a box with all paperwork. I have bought quite a few used for under $3's. The reader who said "priceless" if they were your dads said a mouthful! I grew up fishing with them & on rare occasions still take a chance & fish with them. Great lures! I'd make you an offer but why don'y you go to ebay anf search for them under Lures. See what they are getting and make up your mind if it's worth the trouble..if not email [email protected] with lure #'s/colors & we'll see if we can strike a deal we both like. 
Tight Lines& Singing Drags to you!
1fisher 77316
Michael 
Montgomery, TX


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## JohnHumbert (May 21, 2004)

*Bingos*

I collect Bingo/Doug English lures as well as some other early Texas saltwater baits. Last count, I had about 1800 in my collection.

The history, backwards, of Bingo Lures is such. Currently, Ray and Patti Zapalac bought what was left of the company in the 1980's. Bob Blanchard in LA claims to have bought the company, but all he really has is a lot of old stock. At the time they closed their doors, the Bingo Bait company was located in Houston. The Zapalacs closed the company because the oil business (the primary source of income) could no longer help pay for the expensive lure business.

Before that, the Bingo Lure company was located in Corpus Christi. It was originally started by Doug English, and was known as the Doug English Lure company before the "bingo" models were introduced. Before that, it was called the Old English Lure Company.

Hump Lures were made in El Campo and were bought out by Bingo at the time when Bingo moved to Houston.

Doug English had a partner, Anton Stetner, whose nickname was "Plugging Shorty" due to his short stature and expertise in early lure design - and great prowness with artificials. The earliest lures by by Doug English carried names such as Old English Minnow, The "Pappy", and the Plugging Shorty Shallow and/or Deep Runner. Once Antone joined Doug, the lure designed became more sophisticated and models such as the Flash, Twist, Plugging Shorty Minnow and Plugging Shorty Shrimp came out (both lures having small side "fins"). A simpler, heavy version of the Old English Minnow/Plugging Shorty Minnow was produced (a solid body lure) and immediately was a big hit on the coast. During prototype field testing, Doug and Antone were catching fish one after another during a cold winter at Conn Brown harbor. They yelled "Bingo" every time a fish was hooked and thus named the new series of lures.

Bingos, made in 5 sizes and 54 "standard" color patterns, dominated the coastal lure scene for many years. However, in the mid-to-late 70's, early 80's a Florida company, L&S, began to dominate the Texas coast with a slow-sinking, hollow-body lure with a bright foil/reflective insert. Their manufactoring process, which produced a consist mirror-like reflective insert was far superior to English's attempts at embeding flash inserts. The L&S MirrOLure, as it was called, soon began to overtake the Bingo in sales.

Bingo, in an attempt to compete with the MUCH large L&S company (which had a strong base in Florida and east coast for many years already), subcontracted to Whopper-Stopper to produce a newer, imbedded flash lure to compete head-to-head with the MirrOLure. The new Bingo Queen Flash and King Flash (not to be confused with the early "flash" produced by Bingo), was never actually marketed to the public before Bingo closed their doors. However, you can still find these lures on Ebay.

Prices for old Bingo/Doug English lures can vary. Older style lure (made in Corpus) can be distinguished by having an "exposed" lead. The "newer" lures made in Houston have the lead completely encased in plastic. All these lures are no more, so prices continue to rise - it should be noted that even the "new" lures are now more than 20 years old and are true collector items.

Standard model Bingos (Bingo, Queen Bingo, King Bingo, Super Bingo) generally are around $10 in good condition. The Super size made run a couple of dollars more. However, it is not uncommon for a rarer color to fetch upwards of $25-$30.

When Bingo was made in Houston, Rudy Grigar had them build a lure based upon the fly-spin bubble that had been in use by guides for years on the coast. These lures were called the Rudy's Bubble and were sold mostly out of Rudy's store. Rudy Grigar DID NOT invent the bubble, he simple got Bingo to commericialize it. These Rudy Bubble lures regularly sell from $25-$50, especially the harder colors like the "Mouse" pattern.

The older lures, depending on the model, color, and condition can range from $10 up to more than $100, but most are under $25.

If anyone want more info, I have tons on the subject, along with lots and lots of pictures - just send me a note and I'll be happy to oblige.


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## Red3Fish (Jun 4, 2004)

*Here is a handful I dug around and found.*

Ceratainly not collectors quality, we USED ours pretty well. Main spot for the Bingo and Hump lures was that in the fall and winter, we would use them walking the Quintana Jetties at Freeport. Be surprised the trout you used to catch off those jetties in the winter!! The kinda fat plugs were Florida Shiners if I remember right. Kind of a trendy lure in the 60'

Later
R3F


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## Bigwater (May 21, 2004)

Look at that Red/White Grigar Bubble in Red3fish's pic-- bottom right! Heck of a lure in it's day!

Biggie


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## 220swifter (Apr 5, 2005)

I had a friend put a bunch of those under glass in a bar that he made for his beach house. It was a pretty neat way to display them.


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## Red3Fish (Jun 4, 2004)

*Haha,*

I got to digging around and found 6 more Bingos/humps! My dad and I used to have 6 or 8 of those Rudy bubbles, but we started using the smaller clear bubbles and I think we threw all of them away, except the one in the pic. I think they originally had a hook on the bottom end, but it would tangle your line and then just did away with the hook altogeather. I dont know what happened to all our plugging shorties. I know we had 15 or 20 of them--but no more. They used to be in a myriad of colors, HOT pink, yellow, green, red, natural shrimp and prolly several other colors.

I heard he originally "invented it" because he would get stikes on the clear bubble and he put a hook on a bubble to snag those. An ole RF will hit the clear bubble, every once in a while, but 4 out of 5 times will hit the lure behind it. It will give you a thrill when he hits the bubble in a violent strike!! My "go to" lure in shallow grassy flats is still a 1/4 oz Sprite with a single hook about 15" behind a small clear bubble. I carry three rigged at 15", 20", and 24" depending on water depth I am fishing.

Later
R3F


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## Redfish452 (Dec 22, 2015)

*Old Lures question*

I am new to the website and have learned much about a bunch of Old English, Humps (?) and a few others that I recently acquired. Four were in the original package and the rest were jumbled together. All including the ones in the packages are very dirty some having a white crusty material on them. Question? How do I/should I clean them? They are useless as they are. Also, most of the hooks are totally rusted. Should I replace?


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## gigem87 (May 19, 2006)

If I had a bunch of them I would clean them up, put new hooks on them and do something like this. Maybe use a Hot Spot fishing map as a background...


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## pknight6 (Nov 8, 2014)

atm_93 said:


> Put at least one in a display box (like something you keep an autographed baseball in) and keep it forever.


Or, use several and make a really cool shadow box.


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## Goags (May 28, 2004)

Where did John Humbert go? Used to do rod repairs for him and talk fishing...


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## TIMBOv2 (Mar 18, 2010)

wtc3 said:


> Just ran across a bunch of Bingo lures that my Dad gave me years ago. I don't have any intentions of getting rid of them, I was just curious what they're worth. He always said he caught alot of fish with them, but they haven't seen the water since I've had them. Thanks in advance for the input.


" but they haven't seen the water since I've had them." Like that new Shallow Sport he had. Ole Dry Rot?? lol


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## wtc3 (Aug 16, 2005)

TIMBOv2 said:


> " but they haven't seen the water since I've had them." Like that new Shallow Sport he had. Ole Dry Rot?? lol


Lol. They still haven't seen the water and they're still in the box they were in when I made the original post......... over 10 years ago ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ lmao.

There seems to be a trend in the usage of his fishing gear!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk


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## TIMBOv2 (Mar 18, 2010)

wtc3 said:


> Lol. They still haven't seen the water and they're still in the box they were in when I made the original post......... over 10 years ago ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ lmao.
> 
> There seems to be a trend in the usage of his fishing gear!
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk


I can't say anything, I haven't been fishing in awhile myself. But that's all fittna change PDQ!!!


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## bill (May 21, 2004)

Restore a old thread for subject matter requested. Some images were lost


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## Bocephus (May 30, 2008)

Here's a couple of photos of some I have...


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## TIMBOv2 (Mar 18, 2010)

Bocephus said:


> Here's a couple of photos of some I have...


I can't see something. Lol


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## dontbscared (Nov 29, 2005)

*Bingo Lures*

Not sure how many know of the many models of Bingo lures that were produced by Doug English back in the Corpus days. This is a display I put together of all the cataloged models and also a few lures that were never cataloged and no publishments or packaged inserts are known to exist. There are also many colors on of these as well as prototypes. Many of these were not produced after the company was sold and moved to Houston.

There is a facebook group called Fishing Lures of Texas which is a great resource for Bingo,Stettner, Hump, Nichols and more Texas lures history and has tons of pictures of common and rare lures.


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## hog_down (Jan 11, 2010)

does anyone know someone who has any Bingo Bubble's for sale? Just curious...


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