PICO Lures - A Short History of the Company
The following is a special guest blog post from Bill Crumrine. Many thanks to Bill for his efforts and history lesson.
It’s one of my favorite lures (PICO Perch) to use when I’m fishing. It’s one of the best lures (PICO Pop) I’ve ever used for topwater bassin’. The original swimming bait. For more fishing fun. They work because they catch fish. A Fish Catching Legend since 1933. You’re just not fishing (especially bass fishing) without a PICO Lure tied on, to your rod & reel outfit. So, it goes, with all the compliments that fishermen have paid or advertising slogans PICO Fishing Lures has used throughout the company’s 85 years of business.
PICO is one of the oldest lure manufacturers not just in Texas, but also in the nation. The year was 1933 and the Great Depression had a stranglehold on the United States. Corpus Christi resident, Fred Nichols, carved a cedar wood lure resembling the salt-water piggy perch. It proved successful when used for speckled trout and other salt-water game fish. Nichols carved a few more lures for family and friends to use. Soon word spread and people started inquiring about the lure. With encouragement from family and friends, Nichols soon found himself in the fishing lure business. Times were still tough in the mid-30s, but people eked out a fishing trip every once in a while.
Because of its proximity to the Corpus Christi area and being one of his favorite fishing haunts, Nichols named the company after Padre Island, but shortened it to PICO (Padre Island Company.) A catchy, easy to remember little name.
The story goes that while the lure started out as a salt-water artificial bait, someone either went to Medina Lake or a stock tank and not having anything but a PICO Perch, cast it in the water. Much to the fisherman’s delight, he caught one hefty stringer of black bass. Before anyone knew it, the lure became as much as a fresh-water lure as a salt-water one. Nichols did a little re-designing of the original lure making it resemble either a salt-water piggy perch or the freshwater sunfish (bluegill, green ear or pumpkin seed.)
PICO Fishing Lures has seen many transitions and owners over its 85-year history. In 1962, Ed Henckel bought and moved the company to San Antonio. He expanded the company by producing and marketing a wide variety of lure types. Pico moved more and more into fresh-water fishing, but never abandoned the salt-water market.
Deteriorating eyesight forced Henckel to sell the company. In 1986, Bob Miller became the owner. Miller took the company in a somewhat different direction, eventually dropping the spinnerbait and soft plastic lines that had pushed PICO Lures to a forefront throughout the 1960s and 70s. Many changes were occurring in 1980, as many of the Mom & Pop shops were fazing out with the onslaught of the big sporting retailers and mail order conglomerates. With the advent of all the computer technology almost for 40-years now this has only accelerated the demise of the Mom n’ Pop tackle stores, though this angler surely misses the one-on-one owner /customer relationship.
Miller decided in 1993, to move the company to Kerrville and concentrate on the traditional PICO Perch and Pop lures, with the twist of offering a new concept of producing “logo” lures bearing academic, commercial, and non-profit logos on the previously mention lures. This concept was especially popular on the topwater PICO Pop lure. The name of the firm became PICO Outdoor Company diversifying into apparel and gifts such as vintage tin signs promotions. PICO Lures also became a fly fishing specialty shop offering guided trips on the streams and rivers within the Texas Hill Country or individual canoe and kayak rentals. Miller also went on to promoting a fly fishing show in May once a year.
In 2003, Miller sold out to his other investors, the primary one being Kim Howard, M.D. in Longview, Texas. Dr. Howard’s practice required his full attention, and while the company did not cease operations, manufacturing ceased, until Steve Frick purchased the company in 2012, taking all operations to Lago Vista, Texas, located between Austin and Marble Falls. Frick was sole proprietor of PICO Lures conducting operations from his home where a large warehouse style building was on the property. Having toured the new site and writing a Texas Outback Magazine article titled “Welcome Back, PICO,” an off-shoot of the Emmy award winning 1970s television series, “Welcome Back, Kotter” the company continued to manufacture both the regular and logo PICO Perches and Pops.
As time passed, other issues arose so Steve Frick contacted me, inquiring if I could help him find a buyer, which I was glad to help in search. Try as I did, I exhausted my short list of possible buyers, though Steve and I kept in contact. It was in March 2017, when Steve contact-ed me via e-mail informing me that he had found someone, Mitch Glenn, former general sales manager for Arkie jigs and spinnerbaits, to buy the company. Mitch Glenn lives in Garfield, Arkansas, so he took the (life-long/long-time) Texas company to his home town and state. In mid-2017, Mitch sent out his new web-site with new a hardbait, the PICO INT-Med, with an elongated/rounded clear lip.
Find our current selection of Vintage PICO lures here.
I am Inuring about any information that anyone might have on a William (Bill) Houston and any details about his involvement with h Pico. I have just discovered that he was my birth father, Ancestry, and have met several of my natural step siblings and relative . TI was also give several older lures that I intend to display.
Hey there. I came across your article and it brought back memories. I worked at Pico Lures in 1963 as an airbrush artist. I was taught how to spray the base coat on twelve lures at at time after placing them on a piece of board that was perfectly build for that task. I used stencils for the different lures, scales, stripes, etc. The eyes were the most interesting. Two, maybe three stencils for perfect look. Some lures had an iridescent coat after all design was applied. Lastly, the PICO LURE name on the underbelly of the lure was airbrushed on. The mouth on the Pico Pop was my greatest challenge. After painting the lures they were carefully dipped in a varnish type solution. After they were dried they moved on to the ladies who attached all hardware and packaged them. I loved doing that airbrush art. So precise. 😌
I’ve seen catalogs of other lure manufactures but none on Pico. Not a serious collector I personally wouldn’t buy one, but would order it from the library loan program. With all the different manufactures copying this lure I’ve no idea who the original manufacture was, and if it possible to distinguish one from another. I’ve one, no two, that to me are very unusual as I’ve not found an example of them in four lure books and going through literally thousands of pictures of lures for sale on line.
What a shame. I remember as a young lad back in the 60’s I would sale newspapers and save my money to by a lot of the bream colored PICO PERCH at the local GIBSON STORE. I caught the crap out of bass. I lost my last one 30 years ago in Lake Georgetown, Texas. I wished that they would go back to making the old balsa wood PICO PERCH. Problem is you can’t find any of the PICO products in TEXAS anymore.
Good info. I failed to see where/when Heddon took over. Do you have any details about that time in PICO’s history?
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