GB2069801A - A fish hook baiting machine - Google Patents

Abstract

A baiting machine comprises a fish feed mechanism (12) and a hook guide mechanism (15, 16) extending at right angles thereto and intersecting at a baiting station (14). Hooks (H) are orientated and positioned by the hook guide mechanism so as to pass with their barbed end through a narrowly defined area of the station (14) and the mechanism (12) is synchronised with this motion ofthe hooks (H) to advance a portion of fish into the station (14), to cut off the projecting portion by means of a blade (28) synchronised with the mechanism (12) and to allow the hook to carry the severed portion of fish away from the station (14). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Afish hook baiting machine The present invention relates to a fish hook baiting machine operable automatically to apply a fish, or a piece of fish, to a hook automatically.

The present invention finds particular utility in the field of long line fishing in which a fishing line of considerable length is trailed behind a boat and carries, at regular intervals a plurality of "snoods" which are short lengths of fishing line attached at one end to the main line and carrying at the other end a baited hook. The long line may be anything to several miles long and is laid out from the vessel by anchoring or buoying the free end, and then proceeding away from the anchor "shooting" the line over the stern until the required length of line has been payed out. At this stage the vessel itself may anchor, or the line may be cast off and the vessel proceed to lay a further line in a different location, perhaps parallel to the initial one or in some cases at right angles to it.

Because of the long lengths of line which have to be payed out it is important that this be done as quickly as possible and it has been found in practice that a limiting factor to the speed at which the line can be layed is the rate at which the individual hooks on the snoods can be baited with fish. The snoods are relatively closely spaced (between one and three metres apart) and it will be appreciated that a line of several miles in length will have many thousand such snoods thereby requiring many thousand individual baiting operations to be performed during the laying of just one long line.

Until now the only method of ensuring that every hook is baited has been to apply a fish or piece of fish to each hook by hand as the snoods pass a baiting location. One ortwo operators stand alongside a container in which there are a plurality of pieces of bait fish, ready cut to size where necessary, and hook the bait onto the fish by grasping the hook with one hand while they remove a piece of fish with the other. This requires considerable dexterity on the part of the operator since, for security of baiting, it is important that the hook should enter the fish or piece of fish adjacent the backbone and between the backbone and underside of the fish so that the curve of the hook surrounds or partly surrounds the backbone when the bait is fully secured thereon.This prevents the bait fish from being pulled off the hook by contact with any part of the ship during the shooting operation and by water pressure when the hook and line enters the sea. It also ensures that the bait is securely attached to the hook and cannot be "nibbled" away from the hook by the fish it is intended to catch. This is particularly important since the bait fish are frequently in a somewhat deteriorated or decayed condition so that the flesh and skin of the fish is not firm and strong as in fresh fish, and any hooks baited without ensuring that the hook passes round the backbone could easily lose the bait and therefore be useless for the intended purpose.

Hand baiting is a difficult and dangerous operation given the restricted space available on board a ship which, particularly if the sea is not entirely calm, is alos pitching and rolling during the line shooting operation. The line is travelling at a fixed rate with respect to the ship and, although the snoods are detachable from the line and held thereto by clips, it is nevertheless the case that once they are hooked onto the line, even if previously baited, the possibility of the sharp barb catching in one of the operator's hands or a part of their clothing is quite significant; many accidents of this type have been reported, with operators receiving damage to their hands or faces by being caught by a hook on a snood attached to the line.

In order to obviate this risk it has been proposed to bait the hooks automatically, thereby avoiding the difficult and dangerous task of hand baiting on a moving vessel. Forthis purpose a container of fish was located in the path of the line and the snoods attached to the line upstream of the container, the hooks being guided in such a way that they pass through the container prior to passing over the rear of the vessel. With such an arrangement the orientation of the hooks on the individual snoods as they pass through the fish container is indeterminate and only a proportion of the hooks will be facing in the right direction to hook into a bait fish prior to leaving the container.It has been assessed that only 60% 70% of the hooks passing through the container actually leave the vessel carrying a piece of bait fish, and, of course, because of the random orientation of the fish many of these bait fish will be hooked in such a manner that the backbone of the fish is not engaged, or will be hooked in an insecure manner such that the bait is lost from the hook as the snood passes over the stern of the vessel or as the hook strikes the water.

With the conditions obtaining at present, of escalating costs and increasing competition, it is becoming more and more important that the manpower and equipment is used to maximum efficiency and, clearly, a situation in which only a proportion of the hooks of a line are actually carrying bait is unsatisfactory because of the waste of time in shooting that length of line represented by the unbaited hooks. Therefore, although the previous non-manual fish baiting system had the advantage of requiring fewer operations for shooting the line, this saving in manpower and expenses was largely lost by the effect of the inefficiency in hooking the bait fish onto the hooks.

The technical problem to which the present invention relates is that of providing fish baiting machine which will allow all the hooks of a long line to be baited using only one operator for supervision whilst nevertheless ensuring that every hook is engaged securely into a bait fish and that almost every hook is baited before it leaves the vessel.

One of the most difficult problems which has to be overcome in providing such a machine is to ensure that all the hooks are located in a predetermined The drawings originally filed were informal and the print here reproduced is taken from a later filed formal copy.

orientation and pass through a closely defined position whilst in that orientation in order to be able accurately to locate the fish in relation to the hook.

According to one aspect of the present invention a fish hook baiting machine comprises means for advancing a fish to a baiting station, means for severing a part of the fish at the baiting station, a hook guide for guiding a fish hook, drawn on a line, into a predetermined orientation and position whereby to enter the severed portion of the fish at the baiting station.

By ensuring that the fish are located in the feed mechanism by which it is advanced to the baiting station the engagement of a hook around the backbone of the fish can be ensured since the hook guide operates to locate the hook in a predetermined position.

In another aspect of the present invention a fish hook baiting machine is cyclinically operable to guide fish in succession to a baiting station, and to guide fish hooks in succession and in a predetermined orientation, to the said baiting station, whereby to enter the fish located there. Preferably the entry of a hook into a hook guide membertrig- gers a blade to cut off a portion of a fish at the fish baiting station. Again, by ensuring that the fish is in a predetermined orientation as it is fed to the fish baiting station it can be ensured that the hook enters a predetermined part of the bait fish.

The present invention also comprehends a fish hook baiting machine including a hook guide system operable to guide a fish hook, located therein in a predetermined orientation, to a predetermined position with reference to coordinate axes extending transverse the direction of travel of the hook, in order to locate the point of the hook within a given cross sectional area as it leaves the hook guide system to enter the fish baiting station.

The hook guide which operates to position the hook so that it passes through a predetermined region of the baiting station, preferably comprises a pair of parallel plates spaced by a distance less than the lateral dimension between the shank ofthe hook and the barb thereof, and having a plurality of resiliently urged hook engaging elements projecting inwardly therefrom.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention the spacing between the two parallel plates of the hook guide is only slightly greater than the thickness of the material of which the hooks intended to be used with the machine are made so that the orientation of the hook passing through the hook guide can be closely limited to the plane defined by the planes of the two parallel plates. The hooke engaging elements projecting inwardly from the plates into the space between them are preferably spring loaded balls or spherically ended cylinders arranged in pairs so that the contact point between adjacent pairs is located approximately midway between the two parallel plates. Alternatively, however, other hook engaging elements may be employed, including resilient or resiliently mounted feeler arms or blades projecting from the plates into the space between them.

Whatevertheirform, the hook engaging elements are preferably arranged in one or more rows, each row being inclined to the direction of travel of a hook along the space between the two parallel plates.

Where a plurality of successive inclined rows are provided these should preferably overlap in a direction transverse the intended direction of travel of the hook. The hook guide operates on the principle that the hook engaging members will slightly resist the motion of the hook along the interspace between the two plates; since the hook is attached by its shank to the snood in a conventional manner the curve ofthe hook will be orientated in such a way that as the hook is drawn past the first of the hook engaging elements which contact the hook during its transit through the hook guide the hook is orientated so that the curve of the hook furthest from the point of attachment of the hook shank with the snood is in engagement with the hook engaging elements immediately prior to the passage of the hook past the said hook engaging elements.In this way the location of the point of the hook in a direction transverse the direction of travel of the hook and parallel to the general plane defined by the two plates forming the hook guide can be established. If the machine is constructed for use only with a single predetermined size of fish hooks then this will sufficiently accurately locate the point of the fish hook and the fish baiting station can be located immediately downstream of the single pair of hook engaging elements.However, if it is intended that a range of hook sizes may be employed for greater versatility, the single pair of hook engaging elements will not necessarily engage on hooks of all sizes within the range to be employed and in this case it is preferred that a plurality of hook engaging elements in at least one row extending in a direction inclined to the direction of travel of the hook through the hook guide are provided. The transverse spacing between adjacent hook engaging elements must be sufficiently small as to ensure that a hook of the smallest dimensions which it is envisaged employing will span at least the adjacent pair of hook engaging elements with the distance between the barb and the shank of the hook when measured transverse the length of the shank.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides a fish hook baiting machine in which there are provided means for cyclinically advancing fish to a hook baiting station through which hooks are drawn in a predetermined orientation.

The cycle of operation of the machine is preferably triggered by a hook entering a hook guide leading to the baiting station. In such a machine there may be provided a blade for cutting fish into pieces priorto insertion of a hook at the bating station, and such a blade may be operated cyclically, triggered by the hook entering the hook guide.

The fish feed mechanism by which fish are advanced towards the baiting station may take various forms, but in a preferred embodiment this mechanism comprises opposed endless belts the adjacent branches of the loops of which are resiliently biased towards one another so that a fish located between them is firmly gripped and advanced towards the baiting station.

The resilient baising for the appropriate sections of the endless belts may be in the form of rollers contacting the belts between two end guide rollers which define the fish engaging section or, as in the preferred embodiment, may be resiliently urged belt biasing levers housed in the space between the two path defining rollers of the beit.

Such belts are preferably flexible notched belts located with the notched surface of each belt facing the other belt across the fish guide space, and movement of the two belts may be incrementally obtained by a reciprocating mechanism undirectionally engaging the notched faces of the belts. Alternatively, however, the path defining rollers of the belts may be driven, either by a stepping mechanism, or by a linear or angular reciprocating mechanism via a unidirectional clutch.

At the baiting station there may be provided fish clamping means which are operated to hold that portion of the fish projecting into the fish baiting station until a fish hook has been engaged therein.

The fish clamping means are preferably dimensioned and arranged so that the passage of a hook through the baiting station to engage a piece of fish held clamped therein can release the fish without requiring release of the clamping means. In the cyclic operation of the machine the fish clamping means is then released only in order to enable the feeding of a new fish portion into the baiting station.

The cycle of operations of the machine may be triggered only by the entry of a hook into the hook guide, or may be consequent on signals from sensors placed in other parts of the mechanism, for example a sensor could indicate when a fish portion has been withdrawn from the baiting station by a hook engaged therein to trigger the fish feed mechanism to feed the next fish portion into the baiting station, and a sensor may be provided to indicate when a new fish portion has been correctly located at the fish baiting station to trigger the operation of a blade to sever the fish portion at the baiting station from the remainder of the fish in the fish feed mechanism.

Such sensors are not provided in the preferred embodiment, however, since at the present time it is considered preferably, in view of the corrosive nature of the environment in which the machine will be working, and in view of the likely contamination due to loose fish particles and scales to make the machine operate in a complete cycle once triggered and to accept that occasionally the cycle may operate without a fish portion actually having been entered into the baiting station since the stroke of the fish feed mechanism will be predetermined and may not advance the fish sufficiently far to enter it, or enough of it, into the baiting station.The advantage of triggering the operation of the blade with a sensor responsive to presence of the fish portion in the fish baiting station is that if the fish located in the fish feed mechanism should be further from the baiting station than the distance moved by one stroke of the fish feed mechanism, this mechanism will be triggered to make several successive strokes until the fish has been advanced into the baiting station before the blade is triggered to cut off the projecting fish portion. In this way the machine will always operate to ensure that fish is located at the baiting station when a hook passes along the hook guide into the baiting station providing the fish feed mechanism is kept supplied with fish.

One embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure lisa general plan view of the fish baiting machine; Figure 2 is a side view of the machine illustrated in Figure 1 showing the hook guide and fish clamp mechanism; Figure 3 is a cross sectional view through the hook guide taken on the line Ill-ill of Figure 2; In Figures land 2 the hydraulic rams are shown, but the Figures do not illustrate the other components of the hydraulic circuit of the machine.

Referring firstto Figures 1,2 and 3 the machine illustrated, generally indicated 11, comprises two main functional parts, that is a fish feed mechanism, generally indicated 12 and a hook guide mechanism generally indicated 13. The fish feed mechanism 12 and hook guide mechanism 13 intersect at a baiting station the location of which is generally indicated 14. The hook guide mechanism 13 comprises a pair of flat plates 15, 16 having respective grooves 17, 18 formed therein such that when the two plates 15, 16 are placed face to face with a spacer 19 between them the two grooves 17, 18 form a channel, generally indicated 20 and the facing surfaces of the plates 15, 16 form a deep slot, generally indicated 21 of which the channel 20 constitutes an intermediate enlargement.

The plates 15, 16 have extension members 1 spa, 16a which curve upwardly and outwardly as can be seen from a study of Figures 1 and 2, to provide an input guide for the hooks, and spanning the two extension members 15a, 1 6a is a transverse rod 22 pivoted at 23 and connected to a triggering mechanism (not shown) by means of which the hydraulic circuit of the machine is initiated.

Housed within the plates 15,16 are, in this embodiment, two inserts 23,24 in the plate 15 and 25,26 in the plate 16. These inserts comprise rectangular plates having a plurality of bores therein extending along a diagonal from one corner to the diagonally opposite corner. These bores house springs 27 which resiliently urge spherical headed cylinders 28 towards the opposite plate.

Alongside the plate 15 there is located a blade 28 which is guided to run between the plate 15 and a blade guide plate 29 urged by a long stroke blade operating ram 30 the blade guide plate 29 has an aperture 31 therein adjacent the end of the plates 15,16 remote from the extension members 15a, 16a, which end is formed Wit;1 an arcuate recessed end edge 32 as can be clearly seen in Figure 2.The curved recess 32 in the end of the hook guide assembly comprising the plates 15, 16 defines one surface of the hook baiting station the opposite sur- faces of which are formed by a curved clamp plate 33 and a curved fish retainer 34. which latter is pivotally mounted on a pivot 35 extending transverse the length of the hook guide 13 and incorporates a spring (not shown) permitting the fish retainer 34 to turn through an angle up to 90" and be resiliently returned to the position shown in the solid outline in Figure 2. The maximum displacement of the fish retainer is shown in broken outline in Figure 2.

The fish clamp plate 33 is mounted rigidly on the end of a clamp arm 36 pivotally mounted on a pivot 37 alongside the hook guide 13. The arm 36 is rigidly connected to a lever 38 extending at approximately right angles thereto, which lever engages the operating arm of a double acting clamp ram 39 the two inputs to which are indicated 39a and 39b. When fluid pressure is fed to the line 39b the clamp ram 39 extends turning the lever 38 in an anti clockwise direction as viewed in Figure 2 and causing therefore the arm 36 to turn buy a corresponding angle lowering the fish clamp plate 33 from the position shown in solid outline in Figure 2 to the position indicated in broken outline in that Figure.By this action the fish clamp plate 33 engages the adjacent curved surface of the fish retainer 34 and this acts as a cam surface causing the fish retainer 34 to turn through a small angle where it is spaced away from the position shown in Figure 2. The displacement of the fish retainer 34 under the action of the clamp plate 33 is not as much as the maximum excursion shown in broken outline in Figure 2 since this displacement is only required to enlarge the hook baiting station 14 to permit a fish to be introduced therein through the opening 31 in the blade guide plate 29.The resilient biasing of the fish retainer 34 causes it to reassume the position indicated in solid outline in Figure 2 when the fish clamp plate 33 returns to the raised position, to which position it is biased by a strong spring 40 reacting against a fixed abutment plate 41 connected via an adjustment screw 42 to the fixed structure of the machine. Adjustment of the screw 42 causes the plate 41 to move towards or away from the lever 36 thereby adjusting the final position of the fish clamp plate 33 and the force which this therefore exerts on a fish F located in the hook baiting station 14. The force of the spring 40 is overcome by the turning moment exerted on the arm 36 by the lever 38 when the fish clamp ram 39 is caused to advance by the application of fluid pressure along the line 39b.The hydraulic circuit operates cyclically so that having caused the fish clamp ram 39 to advance for a predetermined time, sufficient for the fish feed mechanism 12 to have advanced a fish into the baiting station 14, fluid pressure is removed from the line 39b and transferred to the line 39a causing the fish clamp ram 39 to retract and allow the clamp arm 36 to turn in a clockwise direction under the action of the spring 40 to raise the fish clamp plate 33 into contact with the fish F now positioned in the baiting station.

The fish feed mechanism 12 which operates to feed fish to the baiting station 14 comprises two notched belts 43,44 mounted on respective pairs of rollers 45,46, separately indicated 45a, 46a at the end of the fish feed mechanism 12 nearest to the baiting station 14 and 45b,46b at the end of the fish feed mechanism 12 remote from the baiting station. The ends of the fish feed mechanism will hereinafter be referred to as the ends a andb respectively in conformance with this identification.

The belts 43,44 are carried on the rollers 45,46 with their notched surfaces facing outwardly away from the rollers, and the rollers are freely rotatably mounted on respective spindles (not shown).

The axes of the rollers 45,46 are each inclined slightly to the vertical (by and angle of up to about 10 ) the A axes and the B axes lying in respective common planes, the axes of the two rollers 45 being in a common plane and the axes of the two rollers 46 being in a common plane, these latter planes being inclined to the vertical by up to 100, but preferably in the region of 5" so that the included angle between the faces of the belts is up to 100. This inclination facilitates the placing of fish into the elongate region between the facing parts of the two belts 43,44.

Each loop constituted by the belts 43,44 comprises two sections extending substantially rectinlinearly from one roller to the other Thus, when reference is made hereinafter to a 'section' of the belt it will be understood that this refers not to a fixed portion of the belt, but rather to that part of the belt at any one time lying on one side of the loop or the other.

Moreover, the "sections" of the belt facing one another and defining the fish feed channel will be referred to as the inner sections, whilst the other sections of the belts will be referred to as the "outer" sections.

The rollers45b,46b are mounted at fixed positions, whilst the rollers 45a,46a are mounted so as to be displaceable toward or away from one another, and resiliently biased by springs (not shown) towards one another in order to engage fish in the channel between the inner sections of the belts.

In addition, within each loop defined by a belt 43,44 there are located a plurality of pressure arms 47 each pivoted at one end and carrying a pressure pad 48 at the other. The arms 47 are resiliently biased (by means not shown) so that the pressure pads 48 engage the inside faces of the inner sections of the belts 43,44 to press the belts towards the fish channel defined between the inner faces of the belts 43,44 at a number of spaced locations along the length of the fish channel. In the drawings there have been shown three such arms 47, although there may, of course, be more or less than this in dependence on practical requirements.

Tension in the belts 43,44 is maintained by springs (not shown) which urge the rollers 45b, 46b away from the rollers 45a, 46a in slots in which the spindles of the rollers 45b, 46b are guided, these slots extending parallel to the length of the loops 43,44.

Also within the loops 43,44 there are located respective reinforcement plates 49,50 which lie on the inside of each loop against the inside faces of the outer sections of the belts 43,44. The reinforcement plates 49,50 are substantially flat straight plates rigidly supported on the fixed support arm on which each of the pairs of rollers 45 and 46 are carried and the surface thereof facing the belt 43,44 is coated with a friction resistant material such as polytetrafluoroethylene.

On the outer section of the belts 43,44 engage respective drive coupling assemblies 51,52 each of which comprises a housing 53,54 having upper and lower flat walls in which are formed diagonal slots 55, 56 respectively. The upper and lower flat walls of the housings 53,54 extend above and below the outer sections of the belts 43,44 and engage over the respective reinforcement plates 49, 50, for example, by being formed with a flange or lip on the innermost edge.Within the casings 53,54 there are located respective pivoted arms 57,58 which extend diagonally across the casing, the pivoted end being located at the outer side of the casing (that is, the side remote from the fish channel) and the free end being formed with a hook shape nose 59, 60 respectively the shape of which includes a right angle corner 59a, 60a and a curved junction between the face of the nose parallel to the adjacent section of the belt and the respective arm 57,58 itself. The width of the nose in a direction parallel to the adjacent section of the belt is equal to or slightly less than the corresponding dimension of the notches in the belts 43,44.

Midway along its length each arm 57,58 has a shaped protuberance 59c, 60c receiving one end of a biasing spring 61,62 respectively the other end of which engages against a cup 63,64 carried at the end of an adjustment screw 65,66 having a gnarled end for manual adjustment.

Each of the casings 53,54 is pivotally connected to a respective link rod 67, 68 which joins it to a respective arm of a Y shape thrust transfer level 69.

As can be seen in Figure 2, the thrust transfer lever 69 comprises a main body 69a having two arms 69b, 69c to which the link rods 67,68 are respectively connected. The main body 69a is pivoted at its lowermost point and has a number of circular recessed seats 71 spaced along the length thereof. These seats receive the operating arm of a fish feed ram 72 which is mounted, in a mannerwhich is not shown in detail, so that it can be adjusted in a direction parallel to the main body 69a of the Y shape thrust transfer lever 69 so that, for a given displacement of the ram 72, the angle through which the thrust transfer lever 69 turns can be adjusted.If the ram 72 engages in the uppermost seat 71 (with reference to the orientation shown in Figure 2) the stroke of the ram 72 causes less angular displacement of the lever 69 than it would if it were engaged in the lowermost recess. As the ram 72 is advanced it causes angular displacement of the thrust transfer lever 69 away from the rollers 45b, 46b thereby causing the unidirectional couplings 51, to move from their position shown in Figure 1 towards the rollers 45b, 46b that is away from the hook guide 13.With this displacement the pivoted arms 57,58, urged by their respective springs 61,62 engage with their noses 59,60 in the notches of the adjacent outer section of the respective belts 43,44 and therefore cause each belt to progress around the loop by a distance corresponding to the distance by which the couplings 51,52 are displaced. As discussed above this distance will depend on the particular setting of the vertical position of the fish feed ram 72 in the respective seats of the main body 69a of the thrust transfer lever 69.

Corresponding to the movement of the outer sections of the belts drawn by the unidirectional couplings 51,52, the inner sections of the belts 43,44 move, both by the same amount, towards the baiting station 14 carrying with them any fish F located therebetween. During this movement the biasing arms 47 within the loops 43,44 urge the inner sections of the belts 43,44 towards the fish F to ensure that they are firmly gripped in the channel.

The cycle of operations of the machine described above is as follows: Fish F are placed in the fish channel between the inner sections of the belts 34,44, preferably with the heads and tails of adjacent fish F overlapping as shown in Figure 1. Following this, a hook attached to a snood is hooked over the trigger barb 22 of the hook guide 13 and the other end of the snood clipped to a line which is to be fed over the end of the vessel. As the line pays out it draws the snood tight and eventually overcomes the resilient biasing of the trigger lever 22 causing this to rotate to initiate the operation of the hydraulic circuit.The rotation of the trigger lever 22 is also sufficient to allow the hook to slide off the end following which it is guided down the channel 20 between the plates 15,16 of the hook guide 13, its entry into this being guided by the inlet guides 15a, 16a at the inlet end of the hook guide.

As the hook travels along the hook guide it engages the resiliently biased hook positioning members constituted by the spherical ended cylinders 28 in this embodiment, and these as described above draw the hook down until the barb is located at the horizontal level indicated in Figure 2. The point of the hook is now located, accurately, within the area defined by the width of the slot 21 and theverti- cal tolerances in the positioning caused by the members 28 which, as indicated in Figure 2 is of the same order as the width of the slot 21.

In the time taken for the hook to travel from the inlet end of the hook guide 13 to the position at the outlet end shown in Figure 2 the long stroke blade drive ram 30 is energised to advance by the hyd ray liy circuit whereby it cuts off the section of the fish F which projects into the baiting station 14. The hydraulic circuit operates to reverse the ram 30, which is a double acting ram (as, indeed, are all three rams in this machine) immediately it has completed its extension stroke and this reverse action of the ram 30 takes place completely automatically.

As can be seen in Figure 2 the fish F are positioned with their spines uppermost so that the hook is drawn by the snood out of the hook guide 13 it engages beneath the backbone of the fish F, but with the shank lying above the backbone so that the backbone is securely encircled by the curve of the hook. The resilient biasing of the fish retainer 34 is selected such that the pressure exerted by the fish F as it is engaged by the hook H overcomes the bias and allows the fish retainer 34 to swing away from the baiting station, returning to the position shown in solid outline once the fish has been removed. At this stage the fish clamp ram 39 is stili retracted so that the fish clamp plate 33 is in the uppermost position clamping the fish F against the lower curved face of the recess 32 in the end of the hook guide.

The direction in which the force on the fish F is applied by the clamp plate 33, however, is such that this does not prevent removal of the fish. The fish is not at risk of being displaced by the blade 28 as it advances since this, in fact, has a shearing action severing the portion of the fish F at the baiting station from the remaining part of the fish, cooperating with the fish guide plate 29, the shearing action actually taking place between the sharp edge of the blade 28 and the co-operating edge of the hole 31 in the blade guide plate 29.

Upon initiation of the reverse stroke of the ram 30 the clamp ram 39 and the fish feed ram 72 are energised via a restrictor so that actuation of these rams commences after the portion of fish F at the baiting station 14 has been removed by the hook H. The restrictor in the circuit to the fish feed ram 72 applies a greater restriction than that in the circuit to the fish clamp ram 39 so that the latter operates first, turning the lever 38 and thus the clamp arm 36 in an anti clockwise direction and lowering the clamp plate 33 which, as described above, engages the fish retainer 34 and, with a cam action, urges this to turn in an anti clockwise direction also thereby opening the baiting station for reception of a new portion of fish.

Advance of the fish feed ram 72 causes the thrust transfer lever 69 to rotate drawing with it the pivoted link rods 67, 68 and, via the unidirectional couplings 51,52 causing the belts 43,44 to move around their respective loops advancing the fish F along the fish feed channel until a portion of the leading fish is projecting into the baiting station 14. The length of the stroke of the unidirectional couplings 51,52, and therefore the size of the fish portion advanced into the baiting station 14 depends on the positioning of the fish feed ram 72 in the manner described above.

Following this the fish feed ram 72 and clamp ram 39 are caused to retract by a pressure applied in the reverse direction, the fish clamp ram 39 again acting first in view of the difference in the restrictors in their respective circuits. The fish portion F is therefore clamped between the fish clamp plate 33 and the adjacent curved end of the hook guide 13. Subsequently the ram 72 retracts causing the thrust transfer lever 69 to rotate and apply pressure to the pivoted link rods 67,68 causing the unidirectional couplings to move towards the hook guide 13.The curved corners 59b,60b of the noses 59,60 of their respective pivoted arms 57, 58 in the unidirectional couplings,togetherwith the direction of inclination of these arms and the resilient biasing applied by the springs 61,62 allows the unidirectional couplings 51,52 to move with respect to the notched belts 43,44 without carrying these belts with them, the noses 59,60 of the arms 57,58 riding out of the notches.

During this movement the reverse motion of the notched belts 43,44 is resisted by the engagement between these and the fish F the leading portion of which extends into the baiting station 14 and is clamped by the clamp plate 33.

This completes the cycle of operations which is triggered by the next hook to be engaged on the trigger lever 22.

In an alternative embodiment (not shown) the reverse motion of the belt 43,44 can additionally be resisted by providing unidirectional notches on one or all of the rollers 45,46 on which the belts 43,44 are carried. Likewise, by interengaging two of the rollers 45,46 (that is either the a pair of the b pair) it would be possible to dispense with the duplication of two unidirectional couplings and drive only one belt, the other belt being a free belt, the movement of which is encouraged by the turning of the rollers 45 or 46 and the engagement of the fish being advanced on their other sides by the driven belt. Again, only one belt may be employed and the fish channel defined by the appropriate section of this belt and a fixed plate against which a fish would slide with low friction.

Although not shown there may be provided an adjustment mechanism by means of which the inclination of the belts may be changed to suit different conditions and different fish.

Also, the cycle of operations may be different from the described in that the advance of the long stroke ram 30 connected to drive the blade 28 may be the last operation in the cycle so that a free piece of fish F is available at the baiting station before the hook is guided into the hook guide 13. This would permit the use of a ram 30 having a slower action than that required in the embodiment described which requires the ram 30 to advance and cut the fish F at the baiting station 14 faster than the hook travels along the hook guide. It may be found that this constitutes a limit to the speed at which the machine can be operated and for greater speed a rotary blade may be employed the movement of which could be continuous of modulated in orderto synchronisethe cutting action with the operation of the remaining parts of the circuit.

Claims (20)

1. A fish hook baiting machine comprising means for feeding a fish to a baiting station, means for severing a part of the fish at the baiting station, and a hook guide for guiding a fish hook, drawn on a line, into a predetermined orientation and position whereby to enter the severed part of the fish at the baiting station.

2. A fish hook baiting machine cyclically operable to guide fish in succession to a baiting station, and to guide fish hooks in succession and in a predetermined orientation to the said baiting station, whereby to enter the fish located there, in which the entry of a hook into a hook guide member triggers a blade to cut off a portion of a fish at the baiting station.

3. Afish hook baiting machine including a hook guide system operable to guide a fish hook, located therein in a predetermined orientation, to a predetermined position in the machine so as to locate the point of the hook within a given cross-sectional area as it leaves the hook guide system so as to enter a predetermined part of a fish or piece of fish at a fish.

baiting station.

4. Afish hook baiting machine in which there are provided means for cyclically advancing fish to a baiting station through which hooks are drawn in a predetermined orientation.

5. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in any preceding Claim in which the cycle of operation of the machine is triggered by a hook entering a hook guide leading to the baiting station.

6. Afish hook baiting machine as claimed in any preceding Claim in which there is provided a blade for cutting fish prior to the entry of the hook into the baiting station.

7. Afish hook baiting machine as claimed in any preceding Claim in which the fish feed mechanism includes two endless belts located with facing portions or branches in contact with the fish being fed.

8. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in Claim 7 in which the facing branches of the endless belts are urged towards one another by belt biasing levers.

9. Afish hook baiting machine as claimed in Claim 8 or Claim 9 in which the endless belts are caused to effect incremental movement by means of a belt traction mechanism engaging the outer branches of the belt.

10. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in any of Claims 7 to 9 in which the belt advancing mechanism includes a ram and unidirectional belt engaging means which are displaceable in a first direction with respect to the belt, but which engage the belt when displaced in a second direction opposite the first.

11. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in any of Claims 7 to 10 in which the endless belts have a plurality of notches on one face thereof, which face is in contact with the fish being fed.

12. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the hook guide which operates to position the hook so that it passes through a predetermined region of the baiting station comprises a pair of parallel plates spaced by a distance less than the lateral dimension between the shank of the hook and the barb thereof, and having a plurality of resiliently urged hook engageing ele ments projecting inwardly therefrom.

13. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in Claim 12 in which the spacing between the two parallel plates of the hook guide mechanism is only slightly greater than the thickness of the material of which the hooks intended to be used for the machine are made whereby the orientation of the hook passing through the hook guide can be closely limited to the plane defined by the planes of the two parallel plates.

14. Afish hook baiting machine as claimed in Claims 12 or Claim 13 in which the hook engaging elements projecting inwardly from the plates into the space between them are spring loaded balls or spherically ended cylinders arranged in pairs so that the contact point between adjacent pairs is located approximately midway between the two parallel plates.

15. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in Claim 14 in which the hook engaging elements are arranged in one or more rows, each row being inclined to the direction of travel of the hook along the hook guide mechanism.

16. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in Claim 15 in which there are provided a plurality of successive inclined rows of hook-engaging elements, which rows overlap in a direction transverse the direction of travel of the hook along the hook guide mechanism.

17. Afish hook baiting machine as claimed in any preceding Claim in which there are further provided fish clamping means at the baiting station, which fish clamping means are operable to hold that portion of the fish projecting into the fish baiting station until a fish hook has been engaged therein.

18. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in Claim 17 in which the fish clamping means are so dimensioned and arranged that the passage of the hook th rough the baiting station to engage a piece of fish held clamped therein can release the fish without requiring release of the fish clamping means.

19. A fish hook baiting machine as claimed in Claim 18 in which the fish clamp includes a bell crank lever turned buy a fluid pressure actuator synchronised with the fish feed mechanism.

20. Afish hook baiting machine substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in the accompanying drawings.