AU720364B3 - A pouch for holding fishing lures - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A PETTY PATENT Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Invention Title: Thomas Edward WALLBANK As above CULLEN CO., Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, 240 Queen Street, Brisbane, QId. 4000, Australia..

A POUCH FOR HOLDING FISHING

LURES

The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me: A POUCH FOR HOLDING FISHING LURES This invention relates to a pouch for holding fishing lures separately and individually and in a manner where individual fishing lures can be accessed easily.

Fishing lures are widely used to enhance the prospect of catching a fish, or a particular type of fish. It is well recognised that different lures are required for different species and sizes and fish. For this reason, it is common for a fishing tackle box to contain half a dozen or more fishing lures. The lures are all different shapes and sizes, and some lures are lightweight and quite fragile, while other lures are heavy steel lures. Some lures are brightly painted while other lures have particular fragile profiles to facilitate a particular type of movement underwater. Conventionally, these lures are all dumped together in a tackle box. It is found that this causes damage to the fragile lures, scuffing and dulling of the bright paint work of the brightly painted lures. As well, the lures are all provided with hooks (and most lures have multiple hooks) and the lures become entangled together. Trying to remove a particular lure from the tackle box can often be a frustrating experience and sometimes can result in the hook piercing a person's finger or hand.

It is known to have fishing tackle boxes having individual compartments. These compartments are used to separate sinkers, hooks, swivels and the like. It is possible to also place lures in these compartments, but the compartments are usually box-like which means that the larger lures still have to be jumbled together in the bottom of the fishing tackle box. A disadvantage with the use of fishing tackle boxes is that they are quite bulky and are often not readily accessible. When used on a boat, and especially in rough seas, the tackle box can overturn or in an extreme situation, fall overboard. For beach use, the tackle box is placed on the sand and tends to get in the way. For rock fishing, the tackle box needs to be propped on a level surface and this is not always conveniently available. Another problem with fishing tackle boxes is that the lures, after use, are wet and when placed in the box the water cannot drain away and will, over time, cause corrosion of the tackle box hinges, other metal items in the tackle box and the like.

The present invention is directed to a pouch which can hold fishing lures individually and which may overcome at least some of the abovementioned disadvantages or provide the public with a useful or commercial choice.

In one form, the invention resides in a pouch for holding fishing lures individually, the pouch having a back wall, a plurality of separate elongate lure pockets attached to the back wall, and a flap which, -when closed, overlies the pockets.

In a more particular form, the invention resides in a pouch for holding fishing lures individually, the pouch having a back wall, a plurality of separate elongate lure pockets attached to the back wall, the pockets having generally U-shaped wall and having an open top to allow a lure to be placed in a said pocket and be held inter alia by the U-shaped wall, and a bottom which has an opening sized to prevent the lure from passing through the bottom but allowing water to drain through the opening, and a flap which, when closed, overlies the pockets.

The pouch may be formed from flexible strong marine grade fabric and can be brightly coloured. The size of the pouch and the shape of the pouch can vary depending inter alia on the number of lure pockets. If the pouch is belt mounted, the pouch may be substantially rectangular when opened up and may have a width of between 150 to 300mm and a length of between 150 to 400mm. This of course can vary to suit.

A plurality of separate elongate lure pockets are attached to the back wall of the pouch. These lure pockets can be in the form of open ended tubes with one part of the tube being defined by the U-shaped wall, and another part of the tube being defined by the backing wall. The pockets may be formed of clear or translucent marine grade fabric to allow the lures to be at least partially viewed through the pocket wall. The U-shaped wall of the pocket may be continuous to minimise any snagging of the lure hooks on the pocket walls.

The pockets may have an open top to allow a lure to be placed in the pocket. The pocket may also have an open bottom which is open sufficiently to allow water to drain from the pocket but to prevent or resist the lure from simply falling out through the bottom of the pocket.

The pockets may be in a substantially vertically orientation when the pouch is attached to a person's belt. The pockets may be arranged in a side-by-side relationship and a plurality, for instance three to eight or more pockets may be arranged in a side-by-side relationship to form a horizontal row of vertically arranged pockets.

For larger pouches, a plurality of such rows may be provided and the rows are typically aligned with one row being above or below the other row.

The pouch has a flap which, when closed, overlies the pockets.

The flap may be an extension of the back wall and may fold about a fold line or fold zone.

If the pouch contains two rows of lure pockets, the second row may be able to fold about a fold line or fold zone to overlie the first row with the flap being able to overlie the second row to form a compact closed pouch.

If the pouch contains a single row of lure pockets, the flap may simply overlie the single row.

It is preferred that the flap can be secured in the closed position to prevent it from inadvertently opening. This can be achieved through various types of releasable fasteners including stud fasteners, catches, the use of VelcroTM, buckles and the like.

The rear face of the back wall may include attachment means to allow the pouch to attach to a person's belt. The attachment means may be in the form of hooks, clasps, buttoned loops and the like.

An embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the following drawings in which Figure 1 illustrates an open pouch having two rows of lure pockets.

Figure 2 is a front view of the pouch of Figure 1 in the closed position.

Figure 3 is a rear view of the pouch of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a plan view of the pouch of Figure 2 but with the flap in the open position.

Referring to the drawings, there is illustrated a pouch 10 which has a back wall 11. In the embodiment, the pouch is rectangular and is formed from 1mm PVC marine grade fabric which is coloured bright yellow.

For the particular embodiment illustrated which is to a pouch having two rows of lure pockets with the top row having five pockets and the bottom row having six pockets, the back wall has a width of 275mm and a fully open lo length of 310mm. It should of course be appreciated that this size will differ depending on the number of rows of pouches and the number of pouches.

The following table illustrates the different widths and lengths of the pouch depending on the number of rows and lures.

TABLE 1 NUMBER OF NUMBER OF WIDTH (MM) LENGTH (MM) ROWS POCKETS 1 4 180 185 1 6 180 275 2 11 310 275 1 4 210 185 1 6 210 275 2 7 340 185 2 11 340 275 1 4 290 225 1 5 290 280 2 7 460 225 2 9 460 280 2 7 310 185 Attached to back wall 11 are two rows of lure pockets being an upper row 12 and a lower row 13. Each row has a number of lure pockets, the pockets being in a side-by-side relationship and each pocket having a generally curved U-shaped outer wall and a flat back wall which forms part of back wall 11. The pockets can be formed of a single strip of 1mm clear PVC marine grade fabric which is welded to back wall 11 at spaced apart locations to form the individual pockets. For instance, in the embodiment illustrated in Figure 1, a first PVC fabric strip is heat welded across roughly the midpoint of back wall 11 to form five upper pockets 14, and a second longer 1mm clear PVC strip is welded to adjacent the bottom of back wall 11 to form a lower row of six pockets The pockets have an almost entirely open top to allow a fishing lure 16 to be pushed into a pocket through the open top. Each pocket has an open bottom which allows water to drain from the pocket, but the bottom edge has been welded along part of its length 17 such that the size of the open bottom is smaller than the open top which prevents the lure from simply dropping through the pocket. The open bottom is big enough to allow water to drain but prevents the lure from merely falling through the opening.

The two rows are spaced one above each other and far enough away such that the lures of a lower pocket can be inserted and removed without becoming entangled or snagged on the lures in the upper row of pockets.

The upper row of pockets are offset to the lower row of pockets this being best illustrated in Figure 4. It can be seen that the lower pockets partially nest in the valleys between the upper pocket 14 and this provides a more compact folding arrangement.

The pouch has a top flap 20 which can fold over fold line 21.

Similarly, a fold line 22 is present between the upper row and the lower row of pouches. This means that the lower row of pouches can be folded to overlie the upper row of pouches (illustrated in Figure 4) and then flap 20 can be folded as illustrated in Figure 2 to overlie the rear of the back wall on which pouches 15 are affixed. In essence, this can reduce the length of the pouch by two thirds.

The rear of the pouch is provided with belt fastening means which is in the form of a PVC marine grade fabric belt loop with buttons which loop around a person's belt and which can be buttoned to the belt. Of course, other types of belt fastening devices can also be used.

Flap 20 is provided with three Velcro T M patches 25 which overlie VelcroTM patches on the rear surface of back wall 11 such that when folded as illustrated in Figure 2, the VelcroTM patches adhere to each other to close the pouch in the folded condition. Some pouches do not have two rows of lure pockets and in this arrangement, the flap can extend over the top of the single row of pouches and again be secured by Velcro T m or other types of suitable fastening means.

A label area 26 is provided to allow a distinctive label to be attached to the pouch.

By having the lower row of lure pockets offset with respect to the upper row, when the pouch is folded the two rows can interlock (illustrated in Figure 4) to provide some measure of securement to allow easy attachment of flap The pouch holds the lures secure which means that there is no rattling or rubbing of lures such as in a tackle box and the pouch keeps the lures in good condition. The pouch in the embodiment is formed of flexible material and can bend without damaging the lures. It is easy for packing into bags or tackle boxes. The pouch takes up less space than a tackle box for the same number of lures. The pouch can be made of soft material to not cause damage when packed with other equipment. The pouch is washable an easy to clean and can be hung up and hosed down even with the lures in it. The pouch can be attached to a belt which does away with the need for bulky boxes or with sharp hooks in pockets. In a boat, the pouch can be hung up out of the way and keeps the lures with sharp hooks out of harms way. Choosing of a lure is easy as there is no need to open and close boxes and untangle lures from each other. The pockets, typically being made of clear material, provides excellent presentation of the lures which allows you to view all the lures in the pouch without opening a tackle box.

The pockets can hold a greater variety of lure lengths as it is not restricted by the length of a compartment like in a tackle box.

It should be appreciated that various other changes and 8 modifications can be made to the embodiment described without departing form the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

Claims (3)

1. A pouch for holding fishing lures individually, the pouch having a back wall, a plurality of separate elongate lure pockets attached to the back wall, each pocket having an open top to allow a lure to be placed in a said pocket, a side wall, and a bottom which has an opening sized to prevent the lure from passing through the bottom but allowing water to drain through the opening, the lure being held in a said pocket solely by the wall of the pocket, and a flap, which when closed, overlies the pockets.

2. The pouch of claim 1 containing an upper row of said pockets, and a lower row of said pockets, the pockets in the upper row being offset with respect to the pockets in the lower row, the pouch being foldable about a fold line between the rows, whereby the pockets in the lower row can at least partially nest between the pockets in the upper row to provide a more compact folding arrangement.

3. The pouch of claim 1 or claim 2, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawings. DATED this 17m day of March 2000 Thomas Edward WALLBANK By his Patent Attorneys CULLEN CO.