I hereby claim the benefit under 35 U.S.C., Section 120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/920,140 filed on Mar. 13, 2018.
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The disclosure relates to minnow hooking facilitating device and more particularly pertains to a new minnow hooking facilitating device for facilitating the storing, capturing and hooking of a minnow.
The prior art relates to minnow storage devices as well as those devices which have been used for retaining a minnow in place such that a hook can more easily be extended through the minnow.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a tubular member that has a first end, a second end and a perimeter wall extending between the first and second ends. Each of the first and second ends is open. The tubular member has a first portion including the first end and a second portion including the second end. The perimeter wall of the first portion has a plurality of elongated slits therein extending into the first end and toward the second portion. The slits expose portions of a minnow held within the tubular member such that a hook can extend through the slits and through the minnow. A housing has a bottom wall and a peripheral wall attached to and extend upwardly from the bottom wall. The housing holds water and a plurality of minnows. The peripheral wall includes a front wall, a rear wall, a first side wall and a second side wall. The peripheral wall has a top edge defining an opening extending into the housing. The bottom wall has a top side that is planar and a juncture of the top side and an interior surface of the first side wall is continuously concavely arcuate. The interior surface of the first side wall is concavely arcuate from the front wall to the rear wall. The interior of the first side wall is linear from the juncture to the top edge of the peripheral wall. The tubular member is positionable against the juncture at the first side wall such that a minnow in the housing swims into the second end.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
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A handle 58 is attached to the tubular member 12. The handle 58 extends upwardly from the upper wall 30 and the handle 58 is positioned between the first 14 and second 16 ends. The handle 58 may be removably coupled to the tubular member 12 by a coupler 60 that is attached to the tubular member 12 and which is receivable by the handle 58. This allows a user to use different length handles 58 with the same tubular member 12 or utilize tubular members 12 of differing sizes with the same handle 58.
A housing 100 has a bottom wall 102 and a peripheral wall 104 that is attached to and extends upwardly from the bottom wall 102. The bottom 102 and peripheral 104 walls of the housing 100 will typically be comprised of an insulating material. While any insulating material may be used which is used in the minnow storing arts, one such material often used are closed-cell foam materials such as expanded polystyrene. However, the housing 100 may also include plastic walls which include thermally insulated core materials. The housing 100 is configured to hold water and a plurality of minnows 26. The peripheral wall 104 includes a front wall 106, a rear wall 108, a first side wall 110 and a second side wall 112. The peripheral wall 104 has a top edge 114 defining an opening 116 extending into the housing 100. The bottom wall 102 has a top side 118 that is planar, but a juncture 120 of the top side 118 and an interior surface 122 of the peripheral wall 104 may be continuously concavely arcuate for reasons stated below.
The interior surface 122 of the first side wall 110 is concavely arcuate from the front wall 106 to the rear wall 108, though the interior surface 122 of the first side wall 110 is linear from the juncture 120 to the top edge 114 of the peripheral wall 104. That is the first side wall 110 is straight in the vertical direction but concavely arcuate in the lateral direction. The interior surface 122 of the second side wall 112 may be concavely arcuate from the front wall 106 to the rear wall 108 and linear from the juncture 120 to the top edge 114 of the peripheral wall 104 to firm a mirror image of the first side wall 110.
The interior surfaces 122 of the front 106 and rear 108 walls are each planar from the juncture 120 to the top edge 114. The tubular member 12 is positionable against the juncture 120 at the first side wall 110 such that a minnow 26 in the housing 100 swims into the second end 16. It has been found that a minnow 26, while being captured, tends to swim toward a bottom corner of a typical minnow bucket. By making the juncture 120 continuously arcuate, the minnow 26 will continually swim along the juncture 120 while searching for a corner. The tubular member 12 has a flat bottom side, or lower wall 30, to sit upon the top side 118 of the planar bottom wall 102, but the tubular member 12 also has an outer convexly arcuate surface 50 which ensures a tighter fit against the juncture 120. When the tubular member 12 is placed in abutment of the juncture 120 at the first side wall 110, the minnow will 26 not be able to swim between the tubular member 12 and the juncture 120 and will therefore freely swim into the tubular member 12 where it is captured for hooking. It should be understood that juncture 120 need not be concavely arcuate as the minnow will continue to swim along the juncture 120 due to the arcuate shapes of the first 110 and second 112 side walls as well. However, the shape of the juncture 120 does assist in the juncture 120 conforming to the shape of the tubular member 12.
The housing 100 has a minimal inner width measured from the front wall 106 to the rear wall 108 along the top side 118 of the bottom wall 104, and which extends from the abutment of the first side wall 110 with the front wall 106 to the abutment of the first side wall 110 with the rear wall 108. The minimal inner width is greater than a length of the tubular member 12 from the first end 14 to the second end 16. That is, the tubular member 12 will always fit along the first side wall 110 without abutting simultaneously the front 106 and rear walls 108. The minimal inner width is greater than at least 4.0 inches and more typically greater than 5.0 inches, while the length of the tubular member is less than 4.0 inches.
In use, the housing 100 is used in a conventional manner to hold minnows 26 such that they may be accessed as needed by a person who is fishing. However, the unique shape of the housing 12 helps a person to capture minnows 26, particularly when using the tubular member 12.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one 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 an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure 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 disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20200137998 A1 | May 2020 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15920140 | Mar 2018 | US |
Child | 16735783 | US |