Patent Application
20080229647
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fishing rod fixing device, and in particular to a fishing rod fixing device that allows for adjustment of horizontal direction and vertical inclination angle of a fishing rod retained on the fishing rod fixing device.
2. The Related Arts
Sports fishing has been a popular outdoor activity over the whole world. Doing sport fishing requires a person to stay by for example a pond or a lake in a clam and patient manner. And, this allows the person to deeply relax himself or herself. However, fishing sometimes requires very long time waiting before a fish bites the bait and the fisher has to hold the fishing rod for such a long time. This often causes pain and strain of muscles, especially after whole day fishing. Thus, it is often that the fishing rod is fixed on the bank of a river or a pond for a long time waiting. Conventionally, a simple-structured rack is provided for positioning the fishing rod thereon. Or, the fishing rod is simply retained by large pebbles accessed at the river bank. All these are not convenient and effective for retaining a fishing rod.
Thus, it is desired to provide a fishing rod fixing device that provides easy, efficient and adjustable retention of a fishing rod so as to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional devices.
An object of the present invention is to provide a fishing rod fixing device that allows for easy, efficient, and adjustable retention of a fishing rod. The fishing rod fixing device in accordance with the present invention comprises a base that is supported by two suction cups for easy and efficient attachment of the device to a smooth fixture surface. A seat is rotatably mounted on the base and is releasably set any desired horizontal direction by an adjustment knob. The seat comprises a tubular bar on which at least one retainer is mounted and rotatable about the bar for setting the retainer at any desired inclination angle. An angle locking member is provided to releasably secure the retainer at the desired inclination angle. The retainer has a base support mounted to the tubular bar and a top wall member spaced from the base support to define a passage therebetween for receiving a fishing rod. A locking member is provided on the top wall and is manually movable to releasably and selectively secure the fishing rod to the base support.
The conventional fishing rod fixing device that is available in the market is either too simple or too complicated in structure and is difficult to operate or use. And, the fishing rod fixing device of the present invention has a simple and sufficiently efficient-to-operate structure. In addition, the fishing rod fixing device allows a plurality of fishing rods to be retained on the same fishing rod fixing device, while the conventional device allows only a very limited number of fishing rods to be retained by a single device.
Further, the conventional device does not provide easy and efficient adjustment of the direction and inclination angle of the fishing rod retained thereon. The fishing rod fixing device of the present invention, on the contrary, provides a very easy and efficient way for adjusting the horizontal direction and the inclination angle of the fishing rod fixed thereon.
In addition, the fishing rod fixing device employs suction cups to attach the device to a smooth fixture surface and this apparently simplifies the mounting process as compared to the conventional devices.
Further, the fixing device of the present invention can be of other applications. For example, the fixing device of the present invention can be attached to for example glass windows of a building to retain a rod that carries for example a flag. Or an article support rack can be formed by simply mounting a rod to the fixing device of the present invention that is attached to a wall surface.
The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art by reading the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, with reference to the attached drawings, wherein:
With reference to the drawings and in particular to
A rotary seat 20 is arranged above the central ridge portion of the base 10 and has a shaft (not labeled) rotatably received in a bore (not labeled) defined in the central portion of the base 10 so as to rotatably mount the seat 20 to the base 10. An adjustment knob 21 is rotatably mounted to the base 10 and has an end portion (not labeled) laterally extending through a hole defined in a side wall of the elongated member of the base 10 and communicating the bore to releasably and selectively engage the shaft of the seat 20 for selectively locking the seat 20 at any desired orientation with respect to the base 10. In other words, the knob 21 can be released from the shaft of the seat 20 to allow free rotation of the seat 20 about the shaft thereof and positioned at a selected orientation. The knob 21 is then secured to lock the seat 20 at the selected orientation.
An elongate bar 30, which can be tubular, is mounted to the seat 20 so as to extend from the seat 20 in opposite directions. Preferably, the bar 30 is arranged in a symmetric manner with respect to the seat 20, but not necessary to be so. The bar 30 can be mounted to the seat 20 in any known means. For example and as illustrated, the seat 20 is provided with a top lid (not labeled) that is mounted to the seat 20 by means of for example bolts to interpose the bar 30 therebetween. Apparently, other means can be employed to realize the mounting of the bar 30 to the seat 20. Thus, the bar 30 is rotatable in unison with the seat 20.
Two retainers 40, 50 are provided on the bar 30 on the opposite sides of the seat 20 for releasably fixing fishing rods 90 (see
Each retainer 40, 50 also comprises wall members 41, 51, which are sized and mounted to the associated base support 45, 55 so as to form a passage between the wall members 41, 51 and the base support 45, 55 for the extension of the fishing rod 90. For example, the wall members 41 that are mounted to the base support 45 for the retainer 40 include two erected end pieces that are respectively and vertically mounted to opposite ends of the base support 45 (namely substantially perpendicular to the bar 30) and a cross piece that is fixed at opposite ends thereof to and extends between the end pieces and is spaced from the base support 45, whereby the passage is delimited by the cross piece and the base support 45 on upper and lower sides and the end pieces on opposite ends of the passage.
To ensure proper securing of the fishing rod 90 on the bar 30 or in the retainer 40, 50, one or more anti-skid pads 43, 53 are mounted on the base support 45, 55. The pads 43, 53 can be made of soft friction material, such as some plastics or rubber, that prevents skidding of the fishing rod 90 positioned thereon. The pads 43, 53 can be mounted to the base support 45, 55 in any known means and preferably, recesses (not labeled) are defined in the base support 45, 55 to receive and retain the pads 43, 53 therein. If desired, adhesive can be applied between the pads 43, 53 and the base support 45, 55.
The retainer 40, 50 also comprises one or more locking members 42, 52, corresponding to each anti-skidding pad 43, 53. In the embodiment illustrated, each retainer 40, 50 comprises two locking members 42, 52 spaced from each other. The locking member 42, 52 comprises a threaded bar extending through a hole defined in the cross piece of the wall members 41, 51 with a lower tip opposing the anti-skidding pad 43, 53. An internally-threaded collar is mounted to the hole of the cross piece to allow the extension of the threaded bar of the locking member in a threadingly engaging manner so that, due to the threading engagement between the threaded bar and the collar, rotation of the locking member 42, 52 with respect to the collar causes the lower tip of the locking member 42, 52 to approach or move away from the anti-skidding pad 43, 53.
The lower tip of the threaded bar of the locking member 42, 52 is provided with a rod engaging member that has a surface facing the anti-skidding pad 43, 53 and shaped corresponding to the outer configuration of the fishing rod 90 so that when the locking member 42, 52 is rotated to put the rod engaging member to engage the fishing rod 90 that is positioned on the anti-skidding pad 43, 53, the fishing rod 90 is tightly retained between the anti-skidding pad 43, 53 and the rod engaging member, as shown in
Preferably and as illustrated, a rotation knob is provided at a top end of the threaded bar of the locking member 42, 52 to facilitate manual rotation of the locking member 42, 52.
As shown in
Also referring to
The base support 45, 55 and the lower support member 32 that are arranged above and below the bar 30 can be made with semi-circular recess to correspond in shape to a circular contour of the bar 30. This allows the base support 45, 55 and the lower support member 32 to rotate about the bar 30. This can be done by providing a suitable clearance between the bar 30 and the base support 45, 55 and the lower support member 32. Thus, the fishing rod 90 that is fixed to the retainer 40, 50 can be adjusted in the inclination angle, as illustrated in
To secure the fishing rod 90 at any desired inclination angle, an angle locking member 60, 70 is provided. The angle locking member 60, 70 has a threaded bar received in and threadingly engaging an internally-threaded hole 31 defined in an end face of the tubular bar 30. The tubular bar 30 and the base support 45, 55 and the lower support member 32 are sized to have a locking pad that is interposed between a rotation knob of the angle locking member 60, 70 and the end of the tubular bar 30 apply a force to outer ends of the base support 45, 55 and the lower support member 32 when the angle locking member 60, 70 is tightened. In this respect, it is preferably that inner ends of the base support 45, 55 and the lower support member 32 is supported by for example the seat 20 and the lid of the seat 20. However, it is understood that this is illustrative and various ways for fixing the retainer 40, 50 at different inclination angle are apparent to those having ordinary skills.
To this point, it is apparent that the present invention has at least the following advantages:
(1) The present invention provides a novel fishing rod fixing device, which has a simple structure comprising only a base, a rotary seat and fishing rod retainers rotatably mounted to the rotary seat and which allows for adjustment of direction and inclination angle by means of the rotation of the seat with respect to the base and the rotation of the retainers to the seat. In addition, the fishing rod fixing device can serve to fix a number of fishing rods at the same time to ensure operation efficiency for users.
(2) The present invention provides a fishing rod fixing device that can be efficiently attached to a smooth fixture surface by means of suction cups, while allowing for adjustment of horizontal direction and inclination angles of a fishing rod retained thereon with respect to the fixture surface.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention which is intended to be defined by the appended claims.
