The present invention relates generally to the sport of fishing and, more particularly, to improvements in retrieval systems for successful recovery of a lure that has been snagged on debris beneath the water.
1. Field of the Invention
Fishing, once a procedure for obtaining food, has evolved into a multi million dollar industry, a major facet of which is tournament competition. Tournaments, as such, are conducted by FLW, having very considerable purses, often in the six figure range.
Then there are those who simply enjoy being in a boat or along a shore line, in relative peace and quiet with a pole and a tackle box of lures, some of which are relatively expensive.
Whether in competition or simply recreating, no fisherman enjoys losing a lure, and there is a cottage industry that evolved about the recognition that fishermen are fond of their lures and do not relish leaving them in the deep. Losses, however, are often part of the sport, and lure retrieval devices are available to minimize such losses. Fish have an affinity for areas where brush, broken tree limbs and other under water debris are present, and this proclivity is well known to fishermen.
2. Overview of the Prior Art
The concept of lure retrieval is not a new concept. Indeed, it has been around as long as the problem has been recognized. It has evolved from the very early “yank on the line” philosophy to some rather complex devices, the bulk of which are of the view that the way to free a lure that has hung up on debris in the water is to hammer it loose.
An early example of the hammer concept as it is represented in the patent art is Kocarek U.S. Pat. No. 2,526,031, wherein a retriever with a tubular body, formed with a passage for the fishing line, is provided, and a separate control line is attached. The retriever, devised in 1946, is sufficiently free to slide on the fishing line that when it is released from a suitable height above a trapped lure it will slide down the line and strike the lure, hopefully freeing it. If, however, it does not, the control line is used to pull up the retriever, allowing it to drop once again, thereby repeating the process.
Similar in concept but diverse in method, Carr, in his U.S. Pat. No. 2,562,413, envisioned a releasing member guided along a fishing line while being operated by a reel.
The hammer concept is alive and well in the 2004 patent to New, U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,040, which, in the manner of Carr, the retriever, an impact body, is guided by the fishing line, but controlled separately by a tether, for repeated hammering.
Several other variations on the same theme have been offered to the fisherman over the years, among them one offered by Murray Monsters, all of which offer some success as they also increase the number of attendant problems. Sevegny U.S. Pat. No. 2,399,298 is of interest only to the extent that it offers a structure which is useable as a sinker.
The retrieval system of the present invention, unlike its predecessors, seeks to provide the fisherman with a means of freeing a lure the first time, every time.
To this end, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a novel system for the retrieval of a fishing lure which has been snagged on a subsurface branch, tree root or other debris and to do so in a single cycle.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a retrieval system in which the retriever is quickly and simply attached to a line, at the end of which is a snagged lure, for rapid impact with the lure, delivering a single blow sufficient to free the same. It is an objective related to the foregoing to provide a system in which the retriever is readily removed from the line, as easily as it was attached and without cutting the line, when the task of freeing the lure is accomplished.
It is yet another objective to provide a retriever which is alternatively capable of serving as a sinker when desired.
The ability of the system of the present invention to achieve the foregoing enumerated objectives, as well as others, will become apparent to those skilled in the art when the following Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment is read in conjunction with the description of the drawings, wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and initially to
The retriever 21, in its depicted form, includes an elongated tubular body 23 having a nose 25 at one end and a butt end 27 at the opposite end. As seen in
A retriever guide 32 is secured to the body 23 in the trough 29. The retriever guide is a key to the accomplishment of the objectives of the system in that it facilitates attachment and removal of the retriever to a fishing line L, and guides it, unimpeded, toward the imperiled lure F, impaled on some sub surface debris such as a branch B.
The retriever guide, in its illustrate form, comprises a unitary wire 34 of suitable strength, yet flexible enough to be bent into the configuration as seen in the drawings. Referring specifically to
One of the unique features of the guide 32 is the rapidity and simplicity with which the retriever is pressed into service when needed.
The next step, which is quickly accomplished, involves manipulating the curl 56 over one end of the retriever, e.g., the butt end 27 as seen in
Having thus wrapped the curl beneath the crossbar and about the retriever, one need only pull the remote ends 58, 59 of the fishing line L [
Having now secured the retriever 21 for unrestricted movement along the line L and with the fishing line as close to vertical as reasonably possible, the retriever is released and will gravitationally descend to the lure, as seen in
Once the lure is freed, the retriever is easily removed, by reversing the steps which attached the guide to the line, and placed in the tackle box for future use either as a retriever or as a sinker.
Having read the description, some variation in the specific elements of the system will occur to those skilled in the art. Such variations are within the contemplation of the invention as described in the accompanying claims, wherein: