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Hump Lures
Collection
Our museum is host to an interesting collection
of hump lures, and this is the story behind them.
Earl F. (hump) and Dorothy Humphreys began
manufacturing fishing lures in El Campo, Texas in 1955. Hump Lures...
"Don't get bumps, catch fish with Humps"... proved so effective at catching
fish that they soon became a fast-selling item throughout most of the
southern United States. Hump's hobby had become a full-fledged
business.
Hump had made fishing lures for himself for some
time out of cedar wood because it had a certain vibration, or balance, that
attracted fish. The lures also attracted something else. They
attracted the attention of his fellow fishermen, and the idea for a fishing
lure business was born. When he tried to market his lures, however, he
found that most people didn't want wooden lures. They wanted plastic -
the "in" thing of the '50s.
Hump then worked with an engineer from Dow
Chemical Company to duplicate in plastic the action of the cedar lure,
created a paint formula, ordered hooks from Sweden because they were
"stronger than any competitors were using," and the hump Lure Company, Ltd.
came into being, under Dorothy's management, in a small factory on Correll
Street in El Campo.
The factory manufactured five models of Hump
Lures: the Mighty Minnow, or M series; the Mighty Flash, or F series; and
the Mighty Midget, or S M series; the Chubby Minnow, or A series; and the
Tiger. All series were numbered and all came in 27 different colors,
with the exception of the Tiger series which came in six colors and, unlike
the others, had broad vertical stripes down the body. In addition, all
Hump Lures were fish-by-number. In a small pamphlet furnished with the
lures, each lure was listed by its number plus the weather conditions for
which it was best suited.
The old-timers saw a hump Lure fished best when
used in shallow water if it was placed above a clear plastic bubble cork.
The cork served two purposes: it kept the lure off the bottom and it
"popped" in the water which also attracted fish -- a double whammy, so to
speak When used in deeper water, fishermen say, they just "let it run
the different depths."
Hump Lure Company, Ltd. manufactured Hump Lures
-- the little lure that could, and did, catch fish -- for 15 years.
During that time the Humphreys traveled once every year into Mexico, across
the southern United States from Texas to the top of Florida and up the
eastern seaboard to as far north as Virginia selling and taking orders for
thousands and thousands of Hump Lures. They closed the factory in 1970
without revealing the secrets of the paint mixture or how to balance the
lures.
Little did the Humphreys realize during their
years of business that their biggest "keeper" would be their place in
fishing history. Hump Lures are now valuable collector's items.
The Hump Lures and historical papers and
documents (minus the secrets) featured in this exhibit are the donated
private collection of Mr. and Mrs. Humphreys, becoming a permanent part of
the historical collections of the El Campo Museum in 1995.
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Just a sample of the
Hump Lures Collection at the
El Campo Museum of Natural History
(Click to enlarge.) |
