Patent Application
20210007339
The present invention relates in general to fishing lures and in specific to a fishing lure with interchangeable weight assembly adaptable to be quickly and easily attached and detached from the fishing lure.
There are various types of lures available in fishing industry. Some of these lures are individually tailored to meet specific fishing conditions and, therefore, require that an angler stock and carry many lures to meet the various conditions.
One problem with lures is that different conditions require lures with variable depth running characteristics. In order to adapt to different conditions, the same style of fishing lure may be available as a floating lure, a shallow running lure, a medium depth running lure, or as a sinking, deep running lure. In order to fish under various conditions, the angler is forced to purchase a wide variety of lures and may also be forced to frequently change lures while fishing in order to adapt to various conditions.
This problem has been partially overcome by lures with attaching weight systems. Conventional artificial fishing lures commonly include a lightweight hard or soft plastic lure body, which is shaped and colored to resemble the appearance of a worm, crawfish, shad or other aquatic creatures and may be fitted with one or multiple fishing hooks. Live fishing lures, such as minnows or crickets, may also be lightweight. The lure body is typically tied on the end of the fishing line.
In many applications, therefore, it may be necessary or desirable to place one or multiple weights on the fishing hook or on the fishing line near the point of attachment with the fishing hook to increase the weight of the fishing lure. Increasing the weight of the fishing lure may increase the tendency of the lure to sink in the water.
A large variety of fish weights exist, which are used depending on the fish being pursued, the environment, the current and personal preferences. For the longest time, weights were made from lead and although lead is still being used today, other metals are replacing it because of lead's toxicity. In some fishing areas lead is banned and anglers must use other weights, made from non-toxic materials. Some lead alternatives are: brass, tungsten, steel, and bismuth.
One of the fishing lure weights, which is most commonly used with fishing lures, is a rounded bead having a slot, which receives the fishing line typically near the point of attachment of the fishing line to the fishing hook. The bead is crimped against the fishing line using pliers or the like to secure the weight to the line. One or multiple beads can be placed on the fishing line depending on the desired weight and the desired casting and sinking characteristics of the fishing lure.
One drawback of the conventional beaded fishing lure weight is that the weight typically requires the use of pliers to crimp the bead onto the fishing line. This process is usually critical so that the fish will often move on before the angler have tied the knot on the second weight. Moreover, the bead may have a tendency to become detached from the fishing line during casting or retrieval of the lure through the water. Other types of conventional fishing lure weights, such as slip sinkers, which are typically used with artificial fishing lures, may be cumbersome to place on and remove from the fishing hook or line.
The present invention relates in general to fishing lures and in specific to a fishing lure with various interchangeable weight assembly adaptable to be securely placed on a fishing lure to impart a selected weight and can be quickly and easily removed from the fishing lure as desired. This invention discloses a quick release fish weight that facilitates changing weights to achieve neutral buoyancy at predetermined depths. In operation, at least one fishing lure weight may be employed between a fishing line and a fishing lure for the purpose of increasing the weight of the fishing lure to sink in the water. Then, the fishing line is attached to the fishing hook.
The fishing weight of the present invention comprises a weight body and an attachment mean, which provides connectors to connect the fishing weight to the fishing lure and the fishing line. The fishing weight body is centrally bored to build a channel with rectangular cross-section in which the attachment means can slidably be inserted and tightly supported therein. The attachment means is a flexible rod element, which provides connectors to connect to the fishing line from one end and to the fishing lure from its other end.
In operation, the rod element of the fishing weight may be quickly and easily removed by a novel mechanism of the present invention to change the fishing weight to selectively and incrementally decrease or increase the weight of the fishing lure and the hook. The fishing lure weight of the present invention may be applicable to any type of fishing lure and can be constructed and moulded in any shape and provided in a kit form with various interchangeable weight parts adaptable to varying fishing conditions.
Generally, the weight body may have an elongated or elliptical egg, teardrop, polygonal or other shapes, which is consistent with the functional requirements of the fishing lure weight. The central channel has an uneven diameter along its length, thereby, the opening of the channel on the front end is larger than the opening of the channel on the back end. The rod element can slidably be inserted into the channel.
The rod element has a length slightly longer than the length of the weight and contains a compression spring. The rod member has a head portion on its distal end and a tail portion on its proximal end. The head portion of the rod on the distal end is smaller than the tail portion on the proximal end. The rod provides an eye ring on its proximal end to tie a fishing line thereto and an easy clip-twist connector on its distal end to provide a quick and easy attachment mechanism to a fishing lure.
In operation, the rod is pushed from its distal end toward the rear end into the channel from the front end, thereby, forcing the spring to be compressed and pushing the distal end of the rod to stick out of the channel. The rod is then rotated by 90 degrees clockwise or counter clockwise to align the rod heads with respect to the openings. The spring is interposed on the rod between the rod head on proximal end within the channel.
When changing the weight, the angler rotates the rod by 90 degrees clockwise or counter clockwise bringing the rod head in alignment with the opening to allow for it to pull the rod out of the channel. The rod can be connected to another weight in the same mechanism. The fishing weight can be attached to a fishing line and to a fishing lure. A fishing hook is knotted to the fishing line and is casted into a body of water.
The flexible rod member is the only connection between the weight body and the fishing line. To replace the weight body, the lure is disconnected from the rod, while the fishing line remains on the flexible rod member. The flexible rod is then pulled out of the weight and insert into another weight. The fishing lure is then attached back onto the rod.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an interchangeable weight assembly adaptable to be quickly and easily attached and detached from the fishing lure as desired, thereby adapted to various conditions.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an interchangeable weight assembly to swap out weight from lures with the simple turn, and a fast process.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system to change weights as fast as possible to increase efficiency, which results in more time spent on fishing and not on tying lines. In many cases, the fish move on before the angler have tied the knot on the second weight.
Embodiments herein will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings provided to illustrate and not to limit the scope of the claims, wherein like designations denote like elements, and in which:
Referring to
The weight 10 comprising an elongated weight body 11 centrally bored in its central portion to build a channel 12. The channel 12 is sized to allow a rod 16 to slidably be inserted inside the channel 12 and supported tightly therein. The rod 16 has an attaching means 27, 28, to connect to the fishing line 20 from one end and to the fishing lure 21 from its other end which will be hereinafter described.
The fishing weight 10 may be quickly and easily removed from the fishing lure 21 to attach a desired weight to selectively and incrementally decrease or increase the weight of the weighted fishing hook. The fishing weight 10 may be applicable to any type of fishing lure 21. The fishing weight 10 of the present invention can be constructed and moulded in any shape.
Generally, the weight body 11 may have an elongated or elliptical egg, teardrop, polygonal or other shapes which is consistent with the functional requirements of the fishing weight 10. In some embodiments, the weight body 11 may be a metal such as tungsten, brass, aluminium or steel. The weight body 11 may have any desirable weight depending on the intended application of the fishing weight 10. Accordingly, the size and material of the weight body 11 may be selected to impart the desired weight to the fishing weight 10.
According to
As shown in
The rod head on the distal end 18 has a clip or twist connector 28 to quickly connect the fishing weight 10 to fish lures 21 and provides a secure connection without disconnecting the whole system. Any kind of artificial lure or a hook for live bait may be connected to connector 28. Built with a twist connection on one end provides anglers the ability to swap out weight from lures with a simple turn, and a very fast process to change the weight. It will be appreciated that other types of releasable connecting mechanisms can be provided, which will secure the weights on the line.
Referring to
In another embodiment as shown in
As disclosed before, the spring 15 is compressed in the wider portion of the channel 12 and have a dimension larger than the narrow portion of the channel, so that it does not extend to the narrow portion. When changing the weight 10, the rod 16 is rotated by 90 degrees bringing the rod heads 17, 18 in a direction that allows rod 16 to be pulled out of the channel 12 and the action of spring 15 provides a quick release of the rod 16 from the weight 10.
All parts of the present invention 10 are preferably made of non-corrosive metallic materials. The metal can be selected from brass, tungsten, steel. Bismuth or other suitable metals. The weights of the present invention 10 can be made in any shape such as: cylindrical shape, Pyramid shape, Barrel or egg shape, Bullet shape or bell shape as long as they follow, in general, the principles of the invention to achieve the desired casting and sinking characteristics, which is largely a function of the fishing weight 10. The fishing weight 10 can be selectively changed from the fishing lure 21, as was heretofore described.
The central channel 41 in this embodiment is constructed in dimensions such that when the metal spring 42 is squeezed and inserted into the channel 41, it will expand within the channel 41 to be secured tightly by the walls of the channel 41. A groove 70 is constructed longitudinally inside the channel 41, so that when the metal spring is inserted into the channel and rotated, it will lock in the groove 70, thus it cannot further rotate. The metal spring 42 has a length to fit inside the channel 41 and has an ellipsoidal shape similar to that of the channel 41 when expanded. An end pieces 48, preferably made of rubber, is installed on the proximal end of the spring to secure and block the spring metal 42 within the weight 40 to prevent it from sliding out by the force of the strong fishes. The metal spring 42 can be squeezed by hand and slidably inserted into the channel 41 and secured by the ring heads 44. The cone shaped rubber 48 tightly fits within the channel 41 preventing pulling the metal spring 42 out of the weight 40.
In one embodiment, the clip shape fishing weight 30 comprises a longitudinal groove on the inner portion of the second part 35. The connecting rod 37 has connecting means 38, 39 on its two end to connect to a fishing lure and a fishing line. A locking mechanism is provided to lock the connecting rod 37 inside the fishing weight 30. The locking mechanism comprises an engagement portion 37a on the connecting rod 37 and a perforation 36 on the inner portion of the first part 31 and is configured to function together. The engagement portion 37a of the connecting rod 37 is aligned with the perforation portion 36 of the weight and locked therein when the clip 30 is closed.
The fishing weight 30 further has a mechanical locking means along the axel 34 to lock the first part 31 and the second part 32 to lock the clip when closed. The fishing weight 30 can be forced to open along the opening axel 34, on which it is positioned by exerting a hand force in the axial direction to release and change the fishing weight 30. The fishing weight 30 will be released and another weight will be connected to the connecting rod 37.
The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.
With respect to the above description, it is to be realized that the optimum relationships for the parts of the invention in regard to size, shape, form, materials, function and manner of operation, assembly and use are deemed readily apparent and obvious to those skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present invention.
