WO2011051539A1

WO2011051539A1 - Fishing lure

Info

Publication number: WO2011051539A1
Application number: PCT/FI2010/000064
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jarl Fredrik Serlachius
Original assignee: Jarl Fredrik Serlachius
Priority date: 2009-10-26
Filing date: 2010-10-26
Publication date: 2011-05-05
Also published as: FI20090392A0; FI20090392A

Abstract

The invention comprises a fishing lure that combines the body of a spoon lure with the lip of a wobbler lure.

Description

FISHING LURE

The invention comprises a metal, i.e., spoon fishing, lure, which does not rotate around its longitudinal axis and swim in an upward position like a wobbler lure does.

All fishing lures function with the same principle. When in water, they generate a motion which should mimic pray caught by the hooks of a fishing lure and attacked by predatory fish. A fishing lure is mainly used in three ways.

Jig fishing, i.e., the fishing lure is immersed in water down to the desired depth where it is moved up and down with a short rod; in other words, predatory fish is lured with the jig to attack.

Another fishing method is trolling, in which the fishing lure is pulled behind a moving boat. A third, and perhaps the most popular, form of fishing is casting rod fishing, in which the fishing lure is cast with a casting rod and reeled in with a reel, i.e., a spool.

There are many types of, and different-looking, fishing lures, but they can be roughly categorized into four main groups: Jigs, spinners, wobblers, and spoons, i.e., spoon fishing lures or metal fishing lures. The newest fishing lure is the jig, which has a body entirely made of soft rubber material to be threaded into the hook, in which body, when swimming, due to its hook-like form, the jig tail moves back and forth at a fast pace.

Due to the way they are used, the jigs differ most from the rest of the groups. A jig does not have to swim forward like a fish, so its straight-bodied structure is very simple and various soft-material lures and hooks can be hung on it. The fastening loop for the fishing line also very often is in the middle of the jig's upper back, this way allowing the jig to maintain its horizontal position when resting.

The spinner lure is an old invention, comprising a heavier body part and a lighter spinner rotating around it. Spinners come in many sizes and colors, but they all have the same structure. Regular swimming motion, which does not necessary always sufficiently stimulate predatory fish, can be considered the spinner lure's weakness. Wobblers are used as casting and trolling fishing lures. A special feature of wobblers is that their outer appearance also resembles that of a real fish. The body is long and oval and the front end is distinctly stronger than the tail. A wobbler's swimming motion is regular and hovering, with no surprising flips. The front lip in the snout mostly generates the motion. The wobbler's special feature is that it also always stays in an upright position in water. There are both floating and sinking wobblers, and their swimming depth is adjusted by changing the inclination of the front lip. The wobbler's negative feature as a casting lure is that, during a windy weather, it is not easy to cast, especially to headwind, as it easily turns sideways and its hooks get caught in the casting line. During bad fishing weather, the regularity of the swimming motion may also be a disadvantage, because, in such a case, the threshold for catching fish requires special stimuli.

A few years ago, a new wobbler type was launched in the market, which wobbler differs from a traditional wobbler in that the front lip is very little or it is completely missing. During steady reeling, the swimming motion of such a wobbler is straightforward and impassive. But the intention is to reel in with irregular jerks and tiny pulls, in which case the wobbler moves in small spurts, in a way resembling a playing or escaping predatory fish. This wobbler is called the jerk, the name coming from the English verb. The jerk is rather difficult and rather tiresome to reel in and out, but it has gained great popularity because it brings great catches of fish.

Throughout the ages, the spoon fishing lure has been the most used and most popular fishing lure type in the world. It is mainly made of one single piece of metal wound into a variety of forms in order to generate a luring swimming motion. Contrary to other fishing lure types, spoon fishing lures are know for irregular, at times also sporadic, moves around their longitudinal axis. Also, as irregular motion lures predatory fish, the spoon is popular because it is simple and easy to cast, especially to headwind.

As stated above, spoon fishing lures come in many types and colors. However, the common factor for them is that, when swimming, they all rotate more or less around their longitudinal axis. This rotational motion is bad for the line, which, in time, twists and becomes unusable. In an attempt to prevent this, a swivel is put between the fishing lure and the line. The swivel is a rotating small joint which should rotate instead of the line. Hence, the most negative attribute of a spoon fishing lure is twirling, which not only ruins the line but also reduces the possibility to catch fish. There is at least one known technical solution, in which the intention is to get the spoon fishing lure to swim in an upward position. The Finnish Patent Number Fl I06093B has equipped a completely flat spoon fishing lure with at least one wing extending to both sides of the fishing lure body. Because of its flat form and of the wings extending evenly to both sides, the fishing lure swims with a regular hovering motion from side to side similar to a wobbler. And, because of its flat form, when reeled in slowly, the fishing lure stops hovering. The wing does not allow the metal body to be sensitive enough to swim slowly; instead, the fishing lure swims forward without any hovering motion.

Instead, there are many known techniques in which a metal fishing lure is equipped with wings, but the intention is not to mimic the traditional wobbler.

The Finnish Patent Number Fl 68153 has tried to make the traditional spoon fishing lure's swimming motion more stable by fitting wings onto the side of the fishing lure parallel to the fishing lure body's longitudinal axis. Granted, this partially reduces the rotational motion, but does not make the fishing lure to stay in an upward position, which is not the goal of the solution, either. Two factors prevent the lure from staying in an upward position, i.e., the form of the fishing lure body and the fact that the wings are parallel to the longitudinal axis of the fishing lure.

The US Patent Number 4,180,936 is one of the newest flat metal fishing lure inventions employing the wing technique. In that application, there is one long wing fitted from the front to the back along the fishing lure body's longitudinal axis, and its form is identical to the form of the body. In that solution, the wing is completely parallel to the body's longitudinal axis; hence, the wing lacks the to-and-fro hovering motion. But, the goal is to generate a steady motion in various water depths.

Based on Rehnfors's Patent Number Fl 8983, solutions using wings to adapt a fishing lure's swimming motion have been developed. In those solutions, the so-called metal fishes, i.e., the wings, whose corners, in relation to the fishing lure's longitudinal axis, are not parallel on the right side and on the left side, are installed on both sides of the fishing lure. For this reason, when the fishing lure swims, the water pressure pushes the wings from different directions on both sides of the lure. On one side, the pressure comes from below and on the other side from above, generating a rotation motion, which is exactly the purpose of the invention.

In all of the above-mentioned solutions, swimming takes place according to a certain regular pattern. The fishing lure either rotates fast around its axis or swims in a hovering motion forward. In its invention, the US Patent Number 2129209 chose the regularly rotating motion around the axis. True, the actual twirling can take occasionally place from one direction to another direction, but the movements create the regular fast motion of a healthy fish. The metal body is arched, which allows the preconditions for sensitive motion, but the wing is installed on the outer, i.e., convex, side of the body, for which reason the body tends to toss about from side to side, at times rotating around its longitudinal axis. In this solution, the intention is not to have the fishing lure stay in an upward position similar to the wobbler.

The solutions mentioned above do not consciously try to mimic a wounded fish. A wounded fish mainly swims in three different ways.

It either slowly jerks forward, often on the side, slowly spirally rotating around its longitudinal axis. This is how a fish about to die moves.

Another way for it to swim is in an exceptional manner, in which case the fish might be a slightly wounded individual able to survive even for a long time.

A third way is a fish having experienced a deathly impact, therefore moving spastically forward due to the shivering impact when dying. In such a case, the fish mostly swims tilted to one side.

Among those swimming motions, the last one best lures predatory fish to attack, because it represents the easiest prey.

One could think that, to a predatory fish, the above-mentioned solutions could represent the two first motions of a wounded fish, but the above-mentioned technique is not able to generate the shivering motion of the third way to swim.

The goal of the invention in question is to create a metal fishing lure, i.e., a spoon fishing lure, which swims like a wounded fish similar to the third example. This is attained with a metal fishing lure according to the invention, characterized in that the other end of the arched body is equipped with a front lip, pointing slantingly down and forwards.

Similar to traditional metal fishing lures, the fishing lure is made of a flat metal sheet, of which the form is cut and pressed for the lure and, unlike the traditional fishing lures, the main profile does not have to include any variations. The body is worked into an arched and convex form, which is one of the requirements for generating the correct swimming motion. Another requirement is the front lip, preferably placed on the stomach side of the fishing lure under the snout to point slantingly down. The length of the front lip has to be relatively long, preferably well over half of the body length. If the front lip is shorter than that, the fishing lure loses its ability to swim forward with its side pointing forward. It is possible to separately prepare the front lip, e.g., from a piece of plastic, which is pushed into the opening reserved for it under the front lip and glued to fasten it.

If the fishing lure body is arched only longitudinally, its back part requires an additional wing. This wing should be located on the back side in the back part and point toward the convex, i.e., inner, side of the body arch. It is possible to fold the wing from the body or, similar to the front lip, to make it separately, e.g., from a piece of plastic.

A recommendable method is to fold the wing from the fishing lure body in the way that the wing is folded so that the tail's back part forms the wing end. By doing this, the tail is created, and the tail, similar to the wing, is in a 90 degree angle in relation to the rest of the body. In such a case, the hook of the fishing lure is fastened onto the tail, i.e., onto the wing end. In this solution, as the tail is a part of the wing, no separate wing can be used; instead, as stated above, the wing is a part of the body. That is to say, a separate wing would not hold a hook.

But, if the body is arched in both directions, i.e., it is both arched and convex, no wing is required for the fishing lure to swing like a wounded fish.

The requirement for the fishing lure body to be arched does not exclude the possibility for the body to be in a way bi-directionally arched, in other words, seen from above, to form an S form. The main issue is that the fishing lure has a roundish surface to use for swimming sideways forward. The surface could be called a surfing board which jams in water, if the surface is not in the form of an arch.

Employing this technique, a motion resembling the swimming of a wounded fish is generated.

When it comes to designing metal fishing lures, the differences apparently seem to be very minor, but, in practice, they seem quite decisive. Even the slightest bending of the body to one direction or other completely changes the way the fishing lure swims. A wobbler that earlier swam slowly, due to a slightest change, starts to rotate quickly, and a missing front lip makes a hovering fishing lure swim completely lifelessly.

In reference to what is stated above, it can be said that, technically, the US Patent Number 2129209 and the Finnish Patent Number Fl 106093 are similar to the invention now being presented. But, as a result of a more detailed review, small but decisive differences emerge.

The US patent does include an arched body, but the wing on the convex side of the arched body already generates a completely different motion. Instead of the wing trying to hold the body in an upward position, it throws the body around its longitudinal axis, to which motion the omission of the front lip further contributes. In other words, among the three partial elements in a fishing lure - the body, the wing, and the front lip - two differ from the invention presented here. The wing is on the wrong side and the front lip is missing. Also, the body is not convex.

On the other hand, the Finnish Patent Number Fl 106093 requires a flat body, but one of the most decisive requirements of the invention presented here is an arched body. A flat body provides a stable, regular swimming motion, but an arched body is the prerequisite for an irregular swimming motion mimicking the swimming motion of a wounded fish.

In case of a fishing lure with a body which is both arched and convex, therefore not requiring a wing, the position of the front lip differs from that in the wing solution in which the front lip continues in a straight line with the body's snout end.

But, in a wingless solution, the front lip points circa 10 degrees from the body's snout end toward the outer arch. Furthermore, it is preferable that, in relation to the fishing lure body, the front lip be in a sloping angle so that, in relation to the body, the corner above the front lip at the inner arch side be less than 90 degrees and the corresponding corner on the outer arch side be more than 90 degrees. With this front lip's sloping position, the fishing__, lure swims forward with a slanted body and a side pointing forward. If the front lip is installed in a straight position, the fishing lure either hovers in an upright position or rotates around its axis.

The following is the presentation of the invention, with references to the appended drawings where

Figure I presents the wing a solution from above.

Figure 2 presents a solution, where the tail is a part of the wing, and the hook is fastened onto the tail, i.e., onto the wing end.

Figure 3 presents a wingless arched and convex solution from above. Figure 4 presents a wingless solution directly from the front above. Figure 5 presents an S-formed body.

Figure 1 presents from above the fishing lure's arched body (1), where there is a wing (3) on the convex (4), i.e., the inner side, of the body (1)). An overlong front lip (2) is shown in the front.

Figure 2 shows a solution, where the wing (3) is folded so that the wing (3) end becomes the tail (5).

Figure 3 shows a wingless arched and convex body (IA), which has a front lip (2A) in the front tip, which front lip (2A) is positioned slantingly in relation to the direction pointed by the tip of the body (1A).

Figure 4 shows directly from the front above a wingless solution, in which the corners (6, 7) of the front lip (2A) are seen in relation to the fishing lure body (IA), with one corner (6) > 90 degrees and the other corner (7) < 90 degrees.

Figure 5 shows from above a solution, in which the body (1B), seen from above, forms an S-shape.

The description and the related drawings are only intended for illustrating the concept according to the invention. The details of the fishing lure according to the invention may vary within the framework of the claims.

Claims

1. A spoon fishing lure, with an at least longitudinally arched body (4)

CHARACTERIZED IN that the arched body (1) is equipped with a front lip (2).

2. A spoon fishing lure according to claim 1 , CHARACTERIZED IN that the arched body's (1) back part, at least its convex, i.e., inner arch, side (4) is equipped with a minimum of one wing (3) or plate.

3. A spoon fishing lure according to claims 1 and 2, CHARACTERIZED IN that the front lip (2) is fastened onto the front part of the fishing lure body (1), on the belly side, to point down and forward in a slanting position, which front lip's (2) length is at least one third of the body length, and width, depending on the size of the body (1), circa 1 - 4 cm, and onto which body's (1) back side over the entire back part, or part thereof, a wing (3) is fastened or bent in an angle in relation to the body (1) in a convex, i.e., inner arch, side- directional (4) position to point down backwards in a slanting position.

4. A fishing lure according to claims 1 and 2, CHARACTERIZED IN that the very back part of the body (1) is folded into a wing ( 3) to the convex, i.e., inner arch, side (4) (4) so that it starts from the upper edge, circa 1 - 4 cm from the back end of the body down and backwards in a slanting position, folding the lower edge of the body (1) before the end of the body (1), this way forming a longitudinal tail part (5) away from the body (1), which tail part (5) can be turned down in a slanting position and onto which the hook is fastened.

5. A spoon fishing lure according to claim 1 , CHARACTERIZED IN that the body (1 A) is also widthwise arched and the front lip (2A), which can be well over half of the length of the fishing lure body (1A), is installed onto the belly side to point to the direction slanting down and forward from the body (1A) front circa 10 degrees from the direction (8) the front is pointing at, toward the direction of the outer arch (4B) of the body, preferably in a slanting position so that, in respect to the fishing lure body (1 A), the corner (7) of the level on the inner arch side (4A) of the front lip is less than 90 degrees, and the corresponding comer (6) of the outer arch (4B) is more than 90 degrees.

6. A spoon fishing lure according to claims 1 and 5, CHARACTERIZED IN that, seen from above, the fishing lure body (1 B) arches in the form of letter S.