GB2446890A - Bite indicator - Google Patents

Abstract

A bite indicator comprising a housing 10 defining a rest 16 for a fishing rod, and two guides 24 arranged in the housing 10 beneath the rod rest 16. The guides 24 have edges lying in vertical planes to contact horizontally opposite sides of the fishing line 20 of a rod supported on the rod rest 16. At least one of the edges of the two guides 24 has an upper curved or inclined lead-in portion to deflect the fishing line 20 laterally as the fishing rod and its line 20 are lowered onto the bite indicator to cause the fishing line 20 to follow a zigzag path passing over the edges of the two guides 24. A piezoelectric sensor is coupled to one of the guides 24 for sensing longitudinal movement of the fishing line 20, and the other guide 24 is coupled to a means sensitive to changes in line tension, e.g. a strain gauge or a mechanical device where line tension acts against a spring.

Description

BITE INDICATOR

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a bite indicator for sensing movement of a fishing line of a fishing rod.

Background of the invention

Electronic bite indicators are well known in the art and are in common use by anglers, especially when fishing for carp. Bite indicators usually have a housing which is mounted at the top of a bank stick or tripod and incorporates a V-shaped rod rest which acts as a support for the fishing rod. A sensor is mounted in a slot located in the centre of the rod rest to make contact with the fishing line of the rod and to detect any movement of the line.

In some bite indicators, the sensor is a pulley which rotates when the fishing line moves and mechanical, electromagnetic or optical transducers respond to any rotation of the pulley to produce an audible and/or visible alarm signal to warn of a potential bite. In other known bite indicators, the fishing line contacts a stylus fitted to a piezoelectric crystal. In this case, movement of the fishing line causes vibration of the stylus which results in the crystal emitting a signal that is used to generate an audible and/or visible alarm signal to warn of a potential bite.

In known indicators, the line is dropped onto the sensor in the housing and makes contact with an upper surface of the sensor. In the case of a pulley sensor, the latter is normally mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis and the fishing line makes frictional contact with its perimeter in a vertical plane normal to its axis of rotation. It is also known from GB 2248755 to use one or more rollers which are rotatable about vertical axes and are conically tapered at their upper ends.

In the case of a stylus connected to a piezoelectric crystal, the stylus normally has a Y-shaped tip defining an upwardly facing recess in which the fishing line sits and movement of the fishing line causes the stylus to vibrate in the vertical plane containing the fishing line.

Because of this geometry, there is nothing impeding removal of the rod from the rod rest when a bite is detected, allowing the angler to strike rapidly. On the down side, however, it is only possible for a single sensor to make contact reliably with the fishing line. As will be explained below, there are occasions when it is desirable to provide more than one sensor but if two or more sensors are placed one after the other in the path of the fishing line to make contact with its underside, then the contact with the additional sensor(s) would be dependent upon the attitude of the fishing rod.

Object of the invention The present invention seeks therefore to provide a bite indicator in which it is possible to include more than one sensor but in which the contact with the sensors does not depend on the attitude of the fishing rod.

Summary of the invention

According to the present invention, there is provided a bite indicator for sensing a bite on a fishing line of a fishing rod, comprising a housing defining a rest for a fishing rod, and two guides arranged in the housing beneath the rod rest and having edges lying in vertical planes to contact horizontally opposite sides of the fishing line of a rod supported on the rod rest, at least one of the edges of the two guides having an upper curved or inclined lead-in portion to deflect the fishing line laterally as the fishing rod and its line are lowered onto the bite indicator to cause the fishing line to follow a zigzag path passing over the edges of the two guides, a piezoelectric sensor being coupled to at least one of the guides for electronically sensing vibration of the guide caused by longitudinal movement of a fishing line in contact therewith.

Because of the configuration of the guide edges in the present invention, the line finds its own path when a rod is placed on the rest and does not need to be threaded manually over the different guides.

In the invention, instead of the line being deflected by a sensor in a vertical plane, it is deflected in a horizontal plane. Therefore, when viewed from above, the fishing line follows a zigzag path through the bite indicator and any number of bends can be made in the line and it is possible to couple sensor to each guide surface over which the fishing line is deflected.

There have been proposed in the past bite indicators which respond to an increase in line tension. In these earlier bite indicators, the line was deflected horizontally to pass around a spring biased vertical antenna. It has however never been proposed to use vertical guides to deflect a fishing line in a horizontal plane in a bite indicator responsive to line movement.

The ability to use more than one sensor in the same bite indicator can lead to important advantages, some of which will now be described.

First, it is possible to combine the signal of two line movement sensors operating on the same principle with a view to reducing false alarms and to warn of failure. When similar signals are produced by the two sensors, the likelihood of the alarm signal being spurious is reduced, and a persistent difference between the signals of the two sensors would warn that the bite indicator may be malfunctioning.

Second, one can combine sensors which respond to different operating parameters, for example a sensor responding to longitudinal line movement can be used in conjunction with a sensor responding to line tension, which causes transverse line movement. It has previously been suggested to use changes in line tension to detect the direction of line movement. This should be possible because drawing out of line will normally be the result of an is increase in line tension whereas a drop back (fish swimming towards the angler) will normally be accompanied by a drop in line tension. However, attempts to use the same sensing element to determine both line movement and change in line tension have not hitherto been entirely successful. For example, when using a vibration sensor, line movement causes vibration in the plane of the fishing line whereas changes in line tension cause a movement or vibration in a plane normal to the length of the fishing line. A sensor optimised for vibration in one of these planes will have little sensitivity to vibration in the other. The present invention allows one of the sensors to be optimised for longitudinal line movement and the other may be optimised to detect changes in or absolute values of the tension.

One can use a vibration sensor as a tension indicator but one may alternatively use a strain gauge or even a mechanical device in which the tension acts against the force of a spring. One may furthermore use the sensed rate of change of tension, in combination with a line movement sensor, to generate a bite indication alarm.

Brief description of the drawings

The invention will now be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a partial representation of bite indicator having a clamshell housing of which one half has been removed to show the layout of the sensors which make contact with the fishing line, and Figure 2 is a schematic plan view of the two sensors in Figure 1 when in contact with a fishing line, represented in dotted lines.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiment(s) The physical construction of the bite indicator shown in the drawings differs from known bite indicators, for example that currently being marketed as the Delkim Plus, only in as much as the bite indicator of the present invention has two sensors in contact with the fishing line and their associated circuitry, rather than the conventional single sensor. For this reason, it is only necessary in the present context for a full understanding of the present invention to describe the construction of the sensors and the manner in which they operate. Further details of the construction of a bite indicator and the processing of the signal from the sensors are to be found, for example, in GB 2348096, which is imported herein by reference and provides details of a vibration-type sensor.

Figures 1 and 2 show a bite indicator having a clamshell housing 10 of which one half has been removed to expose two sensors 12 and 14. The housing 10 defines a rod rest portion 16 at the bottom of which there is a groove 18 to receive the line 20 (see Figure 2) of the fishing rod and guide it onto the sensors 12 and 14.

Each of the sensors 12 and 14 comprises a stylus 22 mounted at its lower end onto a piezoelectric crystal (not shown) which generates an electrical signal when the stylus vibrates. The upper end of each stylus 22 is fitted to a paddle-like line guide 24, which, as shown in Figure 1, has a contact edge lying in a vertical plane. The upper or lead-in portion or each edge is curved or inclined so that when the fishing line 20 is dropped onto it, the line is deflected in the manner shown in Figure 2 to follow a zigzag path between the two sensors 12 and 14. This configuration ensures that both of the sensors 12 and 14 will respond to movement of the line.

In the illustrated preferred embodiment of the invention, the first sensor 12 is oriented to vibrate in the direction represented by the arrow 26 and is consequently sensitive to longitudinal movement of the fishing line, i.e. in a direction parallel to its own length. This sensor functions in essentially the same manner as that described in GB 2348096 mentioned above and is termed a line movement sensor. Friction with the fishing line causes the sensor 12 to vibrate as the line 20 moves and this results in a signal from its piezoelectric crystal that can be analysed to indicate the presence of line movement and also the speed of line movement, if desired.

The sensor 14 on the other hand is oriented to vibrate along the direction represented by the arrow 28 in Figure 2 i.e. transverse to the length of the fishing line 20.

Because of its orientation, the sensor 14 will move to the right as viewed when the tension in the line 20 is reduced and will move to the left as viewed when the line tension increases. The signal derived from the piezoelectric crystal associated with the sensor 14 is therefore sensitive to changes in line tension, even if not accompanied by movement of the line parallel to its own length. For this reason, it is termed herein a tension sensor. The polarity of the signal generated by the tension sensor 14 can therefore be analysed to provide an indication of whether line tension is increasing or decreasing.

The signals from the line movement and tension sensors 12 and 14 can be used in different ways, which will now be described. It is possible to use the tension sensor 14 as the primary means for detecting a bite. One can analyse the signal from the tension sensor 14 to determine the rate of change of line tension and also to determine the sense in which the tension has changed (i.e. increased or decreased).

Using the rate of change of line tension as the primary parameter for detecting a bite allows line movement occasioned by wave motion to be disregarded. This is because wave movement results in a gradual change in the line tension that is distinguishable from the sudden change that occurs when a fish takes the bait on the line. Once a sudden change in line tension has been detected and its sense ascertained, the output of the line movement sensor 12 can be activated to provide an indication of the rate of line movement.

The tension sensor 14 can be used to activate the power supply to the line movement sensor 12, so that battery life is conserved. Furthermore, because both a line movement and a change in line tension are needed before the angler is alerted to a bite, the indicator is inherently less prone to false alarms.

The presence of a tension sensor in addition to the line movement sensor allows the bite indicator of the preferred embodiment of the invention to differentiate both audibly and visually between when the tension is increasing and when it is decreasing. In other words, the bite indicator can emit differing sounds and/or vary the LED flashing pattern to indicate the sense in which the line tension has changed.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, one can use the signal of the line movement sensor 12 as the primary means for detecting a bite but then analyse the output of the tension sensor 14 before an alarm signal is emitted. The signal from the tension sensor 14 is used in this case to confirm that the change is tension is consistent with a bite and to indicate audibly and/or visibly the sense of the change in line tension.

In any of the embodiments of the invention, the tension sensor can be replaced by, for example, a strain gauge or even a spring biased variable resistor. The nature of the sensor is not of primary importance to the invention.

In an alternative embodiment, both of the sensor 12 and 14 may be constructed as longitudinal line movement sensors.

In this case, duplication can be used purely for the purpose of reducing the incidence rate of false alarms but it is advantageous in such an embodiment to use line movement sensors of different types so that one may combine the benefits that each type of sensor has to offer.

Claims (7)

1. A bite indicator for sensing a bite on a fishing line of a fishing rod, comprising a housing defining a rest for a fishing rod, and two guides arranged in the housing beneath the rod rest and having edges lying in vertical planes to contact horizontally opposite sides of the fishing line of a rod supported on the rod rest, at least one of the edges of the two guides having an upper curved or inclined lead-in portion to deflect the fishing line laterally as the fishing rod and its line are lowered onto the bite indicator to cause the fishing line to follow a zigzag path passing over the edges of the two guides, a piezoelectric sensor being coupled to at least one of the guides for electronically sensing vibration of the guide caused by longitudinal movement of a fishing line in contact therewith.

2. A bite indicator as claimed in claim 1, wherein both of the guides are coupled to means for electronically sensing movement of a fishing line in contact therewith.

3. A bite indicator as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of the guides is coupled to means sensitive to longitudinal movement of the line and the other is coupled to means sensitive to a change in line tension.

4. A bite indicator as claimed claim 3, wherein means are provided for analysing the output signal of the tension sensitive sensor to determine when the rate of change of the sensed line tension exceeds a preset threshold.

5. A bite indicator as claimed in claim 4, in which the tension sensing means comprises a strain gauge or a mechanical device in which the line tension acts against the force of a spring.

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6. A bite indicator as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the bite indicator is operative to emit an audible and/or visible signal indicative of the direction of movement of the fishing line.

7. A bite indicator substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.