Fishing reels may be supplied with fishing line of various sizes, weights, compositions, and strengths depending upon the user's preferences and needs. A length of fishing line may be wound onto a fishing reel from a fishing line supply spool. During installation, proper tension may be maintained on the fishing line as it is unwound from the supply spool and wound onto the fishing reel, in order to avoid tangling, snagging, and coiling of the fishing line during the installation process and during subsequent use of the fishing reel.
The present disclosure is best understood from the following detailed description when read with the accompanying figures, wherein:
It is emphasized that, in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, various features are not drawn to scale. In fact, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity of discussion or illustration.
Illustrative examples of the subject matter claimed below are disclosed. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions may be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort, even if complex and time-consuming, would be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
As used herein, the article “a” is intended to have its ordinary meaning in the patent arts, namely “one or more.” Herein, the term “about” when applied to a value generally means within the tolerance range of the equipment used to produce the value, or in some examples, means plus or minus 10%, or plus or minus 5%, or plus or minus 1%, unless otherwise expressly specified. Further, herein the term “substantially” as used herein means a majority, or almost all, or all, or an amount with a range of about 51% to about 100%, for example. Moreover, examples herein are intended to be illustrative only and are presented for discussion purposes and not by way of limitation.
As used herein, to “provide” an item means to have possession of and/or control over the item. This may include, for example, forming (or assembling) some or all of the item from its constituent materials and/or, obtaining possession of and/or control over an already-formed item.
Spool support 102 further includes an optional flexible fishing line clip 116 for retaining fishing line as it is unspooled from fishing line spooling station 100 as herein described. In examples, one or more fasteners 111, such as screws, may be provided for attachment of base structure 110 to a support (not shown). In examples, base structure 110 may be secured with fasteners 111 to a rail or other support on a fishing boat.
With continued reference to
Side support 118 includes a height adjustment slot 122. A spool spindle 124 (not visible in
Due to the arrangement of spool spindle 124 and height adjustment slot 122, in examples, fishing line spooling station 100 may accommodate supply spools of varying diameters. To install a supply spool such as supply spool 700, thumbscrew 128 may be removed from threaded end 126 of spool spindle 124. Spool spindle 124 may be inserted through central opening 706 of supply spool 700, with threaded end 126 of spool spindle 124 extending out of side face 703 of supply spool 700. Threaded end 126 of spool spindle 124 may then be inserted through height adjustment slot 122 of side support 118, with side face 703 contacting side support 118 of fishing line spooling station 100. Spool spindle 124 may then be secured to side support 118 by tightening thumbscrew 128 at a height at which side faces 702 and 703 of supply spool 700 rest on spool support 102.
Brake adjustment thumbscrew 148 may be advanced along threaded shaft 136 to a point at which front face 146 of brake slider 138 contacts side face 702 of supply spool 700. Brake adjustment thumbscrew 148 may be tightened sufficiently to provide a desired amount of force to create tension on the rotation of supply spool 700 around spool spindle 124. This tension may be increased or decreased as desired by an operator according to specific needs and preferences by tightening or loosening brake adjustment thumbscrew 148 on threaded shaft 136.
During use, fishing line spooling station 100 may be mounted on a support with fasteners 111, as previously described. A supply spool 700 may be installed as described herein and as shown in
As fishing line 704 is unwound from supply spool 700 onto a fishing reel (not shown), a desired amount of tension may be maintained on fishing line 704 through adjustment of brake adjustment thumbscrew 148 to cause front face 146 of brake slider 138 to contact side face 702 and thereby compress supply spool 700 between front face 146 of brake slider 138 and side support 118.
The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, uses specific nomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the specific details are not required in order to practice the systems and methods described herein. Various substitutions, modifications, and variations of the examples described herein may be made in a given implementation.
The foregoing descriptions of specific examples are presented for purposes of illustration and description. Examples herein are not intended to be exhaustive of or to limit this disclosure to the precise forms described. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The examples are shown and described in order to best explain the principles of this disclosure and practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize this disclosure and various examples with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of this disclosure be defined by the claims and their equivalents below.
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