GB2111361A - Fishing reel attachment - Google Patents

Abstract

A lever carries at one of its opposite ends a line-braking pad (12) and at its other end a finger trigger (13). The line-braking end (12) of the lever fits pivotally over one of the crossbars (16) of a fishing reel so that the brake pad lies closely adjacent the surface of the line wound onto the spool and so that alternative movements of the trigger (13) about the pivot (16) will bring the pad respectively into and out of braking engagement with the line surface. The trigger (13) and the rod (19) both lie on the same side of the spool axis in use, and to brake the line the trigger is moved in a direction generally along and towards the base of the rod. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Fishing reel attachment The invention relates to fishing reel attachments, and is particularly concerned with an attachment to facilitate initial casting of the fishing line.

When casting initially, the line which is wound onto the spool of the reel should ideally be braked until the tip of the rod reaches its point of maximum acceleration in its arc of swing, at which point the line should instantaneously be released to spin-out from the un-ratcheted spool. It is difficult to do this accurately. However, if it is not done well, a poor cast will result and the cast may have to be repeated several times before fishing can begin.

It is known to brake the line during the initial swing of the rod by pressing one's thumb against the outer surface of the line and then releasing the thumb to release the line at the appropriate instant. Drawbacks of this are that the line, typically nylon, is slippery - especially when wet - and the releasing of the thumb is a movement quite opposite to the movement of the user's hands as a whole and is thus not easy to perform. It is especially difficult to maintain constant pressure until precisely the moment needed to release the line, and then to release it cleanly, whilst at the same time bringing one's hands forward and down in a smooth casting swing.

It is known to equip reels with a so-called "thumb-pad" which pivots about one of the crossbars of the reel frame and presses down onto the wound line to brake the line during the initial part of the casting swing. The pad is released at the point of maximum acceleration of the tip of the rod. Here again, however, as its name implies, the thumb-pad is maintained in place by pressure from the user's thumb during the initial part of the casting swing, leading to the previously outlined difficulty of releasing the thumb at precisely the right time in contra-movement to the rest of the hands; and the distance between the pad itself and the cross-bar about which it pivots is relatively short so that a fairly high pressure is needed on it.

In summary, a fully wound spool of line is extremely difficult to get one's thumb around at all; and even with the aid of the thumb-pad fixed to the reel frame and pivoting about one of the reel frame cross-bars, that difficulty remains. In both cases the point at which braking pressure is applied to the surface of the wound line is spaced some distance from the rod; the thumb-applying point lies on the opposite side of the spool axis on the rod itself and thus from the rest of the user's hands; and the brake-applying movement of the thumb is in a direction generally across the axis of the rod and towards the tip of the rod.

In a fishing reel attachment according to the invention, a lever carries at one of its opposite ends a line-braking pad or bar and at its other end a finger-trigger; the lever is adapted to fit pivotally onto a reel (or to clip pivotally onto the rod adjacent the reel) so that the pad or bar lies closely adjacent the surface of the line wound onto the reel's spool and alternative movements of the trigger about the pivot will bring the pad or bar respectively into and out of braking engagement with the line surface; and the lever is so sized, shaped and pivoted that when the spool and the lever are assembled for use on the rod, the trigger and the rod both lie on the same side of the spool axis and the trigger is moved in a direction generally along, and towards the base of, the rod to brake the line.

Thus with such an attachment, the trigger is brought close to the rod itself, and hence within easy reach of the user's hands; it is intended for finger-application which is much more natural and sensitive than thumb-application and which permits release of the line at precisely the right moment; and the brake-releasing movement of the trigger is in a direction in which the user's trigger-holding finger will naturally tend to release its grip as the hands are swung forward and down in the casting movement.

In practical embodiments there will usually be some form of spring-biasing of the brake pad or bar away from the surface of the line wound onto the reel's spool. Such spring-biasing could take the form of a torsion spring at the pivot.

Alternatively it could comprise something as elegant and simple as an elastic band stretched between the lever and the adjacent surface of the rod. Such a band could readily be replaced, and has the advantage that when it eventually fails it will fail suddenly without gradually deteriorating in effectiveness as would a metal spring. The sensitive performance of the reel and its linebraking attachment will thus stay substantially constant as long as the band is still functioning.

This is very important to a competitive angler, who comes to rely on an almost subconscious knowledge of and feel for the tuned limits of performance of his equipment.

The lever may be adapted to fit onto and pivot about one of the reel cross-bars which spaceapart and hold together the side plates of the conventional reel. Such a bar forms a convenient pivot for the lever, and the frame can be dismantled, the lever inserted, and the frame reassembled without undue difficulty.

More conveniently, however, the lever may be adapted to clip onto one of these cross-bars and then to pivot in use about the bar, without the reel frame having to be dismantled to accommodate the lever. This minimises the risk of distorting the frame during dismantling or reassembly. It also means that different sizes and shapes of lever can be quickly changed on the one reel. If for example the braking pad or bar incorporates renewable friction material, the lever can be taken out to have such material changed and quickly put back into place on the reel without having to disturb the rest of the reel.

The lever may be so sized, shaped and pivoted that when lever, reel and rod are assembled for use, the reel and the finger-trigger lie on opposite sides of the rod axis. In other words the trigger is effectively brought down below the rod, when viewing the rod with the reel on top as it would be in casting, and the trigger is then virtually wholly within the natural grasp of the user.

In the case just outlined, the lever may curve around the surface of the rod as it (the lever) flows from pivot to trigger, so that the trigger is disposed along the rod axis rather than being offset from the rod axis. If the trigger is so disposed, right-handed or left-handed persons can use it equally easily.

The trigger itself may be set to one side or the other with respect to the rest of the lever, in order to allow for the natural lie of the trigger-finger of, respectively, a left-handed or right-handed user.

The lever may be so sized, shaped and pivoted that in use the brake-applying pad or bar and the lever both lie on the same side of the pivot. Such an arrangement would give maximum sensitivity and would thus permit optimum instantaneous release of the line at the point of maximum acceleration of the tip of the rod.

Alternatively the pad (or bar) and the trigger may lie on opposite sides of the pivot, which could give greater brake-applying pressure in certain circumstances but might not be as sensitive on the release.

It will be appreciated that the invention may be embodied in an attachment for use with an otherwise conventional fishing reel; or in a fishing reel fitted with such an attachment. Both are equally within the scope of the invention.

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. They will now be described with reference to those drawings. They are only examples of forms which the invention might take within its broadest aspect.

In the drawings: Figures 1 and 2 show an attachment, embodying the invention, respectively in front view and side view; Figures 3 and 4 show the same attachment respectively in front perspective and rear perspective views; Figures 5 and 6 show a fishing reel, fitted with the attachment, respectively in front and side views; Figure 7 is a view similar to Figure 6 but showing another attachment in use; and Figure 8 is a view similar to Figure 7 but showing a further attachment in use.

As shown in Figures 1 to 4, the attachment consists essentially of a lever, referenced generally 11. carrying at one of its opposite ends a linebraking pad 1 2 and at its other end a finger-trigger 13. This particular lever is made from a piece of brass strip which has been bent and machined into shape, but it could equally well be made from other malleable strip materials or it could be cast or moulded in metal or in plastics material. The precise material used for the lever is not important save that the lever must be as rigid as possible without being unduly heavy.

The line-braking pad 12 consists of three separate strips 1 2A to 1 2C of friction material.

The three strips in this particular embodiment are each glued to the surface of the pad region of the lever 1 A gap is left between each pair of adjacent strips, and the line-contacting visible surfaces of the strips are criss-cross-grooved as illustrated.

The free end of the pad region 12 of the lever is bent over into a clip 14. Below this clip 14, and on the front surface (i.e. the underside) of the pad region 12, another clip 1 5 is carried. The clip 1 5 has initially been separately formed and has been brazed, glued, riveted or otherwise secured to the underside of the pad region 1 2.

As Figure 1 shows, the lever 11 as it flows from the pad region 12 to the trigger 13 curves inwardly towards the pad region. The result is to dispose the trigger 1 3 centraliy underneath the pad region 12.

The trigger 1 3 itself is curved and, in this particular example, is not offset to accommodate left-handed or right-handed users. Its front underside surface (i.e. its finger-gripped surface in use) is polished smooth but could be faced with friction material to give a good grip.

As Figures 5 and 6 show, the attachment fits onto one of the cross-bars 1 6 of a conventional fishing reel referenced generally 17. The clip 14 hooks over this cross-bar 16, and a replaceable elastic band 1 8 is stretched between the hook 1 5 and the rod 1 9 to which the reel 1 7 is removably clamped. The band 1 8 spring-biases the braking material 1 2A etc. away from the outer surface of the line 21 wound onto the spool of the reel 17. It also holds the attachment down onto the crossbar 16 and resists any tendency of the clip 14 to lift off the cross-bar.

With the rod, the reel and the lever assembled for use as shown in Figures 5 and 6, the trigger 13 of the lever is disposed centrally of the rod 1 9 and lies closely adjacent the rod; and, as Figure 6 shows clearly, the trigger and the rod both lie on the same side of the spool axis 22. To brake the line 21 when it is fully wound onto the spool, the trigger 13 is pressed by the user's forefinger and is moved to the right in Figure 6. To release the line subsequently, the trigger itself is released and the band 1 8 automatically springs the braking pad away from the line. If the spool is in neutral gearing (i.e. with its ratchet mechanism temporarily disengaged) the line will spin-free once the trigger is released.

The band 1 8 applies only a very light spring biasing pressure. The sensitivity of competitive casting is such that the line-braking pressure, whilst effective, must be minimal. The band 18 achieves this admirably.

In Figure 7, the lever 11 clips onto the rod, and the pivot 1 6 is built into the clip 23 rather than using part of the existing reel frame. The line braking and line-releasing movements of the trigger are the same as in the Figures 1 to 6 embodiment, but in this case the pad and the trigger lie on opposite sides of the pivot 1 6 whereas in the previous embodiment they both lay on the same side of that pivot. The Figure 7 arrangement enables greater pressure to be exerted on the line and this can ba valuable in certain circumstances.

In Figure 8 the pad and the trigger are again on opposite sides of the pivot 1 6, but this time one of the cross-bars of the reel frame is again used as the pivot and there is no need for the clip 23 of Figure 7.

The separate spaced-apart friction strips 1 2A, 1 2B, 1 2C of the Figures 1 to 6 embodiment allow water from a wet line to drain away between them. The cross-grooving also allows rapid watershedding and thus more efficient line-braking.

Instead of being glued onto the pad region 12 of the lever, the strips 1 2A etc. could fit into channels upstanding from the pad 1 2 (or into grooves cut into it) so as to be readily replaceable.

Different-sized strips 1 2A etc. could then be inserted to cater for different spool-wound diameters of line. The material of which the strips 1 2A etc. are made will be a compromise between braking ability and long life. If the material is too hard it will not brake a nylon line effectively.

In broken line in Figure 8, an alternative possible construction is shown in which the lever comes straight down off the pivot, after the pad 12, and around the surface of the rod. This would bring the user's hands closer to the reel and would reduce the amount of leverage needed in casting.

An adjustable stop could project from the back surface of the trigger 1 3 to bear against the underside of the rod when the trigger is applied and hence to lessen the risk of bending the lever by applying too much pressure to the trigger.

Claims (11)

1. A fishing reel attachment comprising a lever carrying at one of its opposite ends a line-braking pad or bar and at its other end a finger-trigger; the lever being adapted to fit pivotally onto a reel (or to clip pivotally onto the fishing rod adjacent the reel) so that the pad or bar lies closely adjacent the surface of the line wound onto the reel's spool and alternative movements of the trigger about the pivot will bring the pad or bar respectively into and out of braking engagement with the line surface; and the lever being so sized, shaped and pivoted that when the spool and the lever are assembled for use on the rod, the trigger and the rod both lie on the same side of the spool axis and the trigger is moved in a direction generally along, and towards the base of, the rod to brake the line.

2. A fishing reel attachment according to Claim 1 and in which the lever is adapted to fit onto and pivot about one of the reel crossbars which space-apart and hold together the side plates of the reel.

3. An attachment according to Claim 2 and in which the lever is adapted to clip onto the reel crossbar and then to pivot, in use, about the bar, without the reel frame having first to be dismantled in order to accommodate the lever.

4. An attachment according to any of the previous Claims and in which the brake pad or bar is spring-biased away from the surface of the line wound onto the reel's spool, the spring-biasing being provided by an elastic band stretched between the lever and the adjacent surface of the rod.

5. An attachment according to any of the previous Claims and in which the lever is so sized, shaped and pivoted that when lever, reel and rod are assembled for use, the reel and the fingertrigger lie on opposite sides of the rod axis.

6. An attachment according to Claim 5 and in which the lever curves around the surface of the rod as the lever flows from pivot to trigger, so that the trigger is disposed along the rod axis without being substantially offset from that axis.

7. An attachment according to any of the previous Claims and in which the lever is so sized, shaped and pivoted that in use the brake-applying pad or bar and the lever both lie on the same side of the pivot.

8. An attachment according to any of Claims 1 to 6 and in which the pad (or bar) and the trigger lie on opposite sides of the pivot.

9. A lever substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.

10. A lever according to Claim 9 modified substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in Figure 7 of the accompanying drawings.

11. A lever according to Claim 9 modified substantially as described herein with reference to either of the alternatives illustrated in Figure 8 of the accompanying drawings.

1 2. A fishing reel fitted with an attachment comprising a lever in accordance with any of the previous Claims.