I recently acquired some stuff from someone that was moving and downsizing their fishing gear. In ttgat was a box of 22 hellbenders. Most are pretty beat and I have no idea what the age of these are. Are they worth anything possibly? Would it be worth to to have them refinished and new hardware? Thanks

Sorry for the not great pictures

It's always hard for me to get rid of old lures

Some of those colors might have value but unless they are wood probably not

You've got some Hellbenders, some Arbogast Mudbugs and some Bombers. Most look like 70s-80s vintage and fairly common. A few of the Bombers are wood and worth a little more than the others. Best value would be to sell as is.

Those were pretty popular baits back in the 60s and 70s over in Alabama. I've thrown a few hellbenders in my time and caught a few fish with them too. Great trolling baits.

BD

Hey! that looks like my tackle box from 1978 !
Missing a few Big-O's and Hula poppers. LOL

Those were some hot baits for trolling back in the day. I still have one or two in my old tackle box.

Those Mud bugs will bounce off wood like you wont believe & Hunt !

I'm not sure they would be worth much...but those old Hellbenders are great for trolling for stripers...and you can attach a Pet Spoon to them and catch the heck out of bass trolling them as they act like a down rigger and the pet spoon matches the small shad fry.

Those old Arbogast Mud Bugs...if wood, are really great and still work. One of the best stringers I ever saw from Toledo Bend back in the early 80s came from an old wooden Mud Bug.

NO! Don't refinish. Sell them on eBay or TFF.

There is a reason they are called Hellbenders. Just cast one for a few minutes. LOL

The plastic baits are likely not worth much at all. But the wooden Bombers...... (I only saw one Mudbug in the photos). My father and I used to kill the East Tennessee and East Kentucky bass on the lures you have. We cranked them all day with Ambassadeur 5000 reels. I wish I had a time machine so that I could go do it one more time!

My dad used to take me and my brothers fishing when we had a place on Whitney trolling those Hellbenders with a Abu spinner trailing it and caught a ton of fish this way.
I also used to fish tournaments in the 80's and saw a lot of guys fishing those Mud Bugs on Toledo Bend. I also learned to use them for night fishing on Fork by slowly reeling them in near the surface with that side to side wobble. We would take them and paint them black and then red on the bottom. I didn't catch a ton of fish but the few fish I did catch completely murdered that bait when they would hit.

Plus #1.

I would clean them up, and make a shadow box type display.