Fishing – trapping – and vermin destroying – Fishing – Artificial bait
Reexamination Certificate
1997-01-29
2001-05-08
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3644)
Fishing, trapping, and vermin destroying
Fishing
Artificial bait
Reexamination Certificate
active
06226918
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to artificial bait used in fishing and more particularly concerns baits intended to drop at relatively low rates of descent.
Fishermen generally use weights to increase casting distance and accuracy as well as to cause bait to sink and use floats to counter the weight so as to restrict the level to which the bait will sink. In situations where the angler desires for bait to fall from the surface to the bottom at a very slow rate of descent so as to tantalize a fish at any depth therebetween into striking the bait, the counterbalanced relationship is so sensitive that minimal variations in any component prevent achievement of the desired effect.
In my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,790, a balanced artificial bait is described for use with a typical fishing hook or jig. The hook or jig has an average density greater than the average density of water while the artificial bait has an average density less than the average density of water. Thus, the hook tends to sink and the bait tends to float. However, the volume of the bait is proportioned to the volume of the hook so that their average density taken together slightly exceeds the average density of the water and the hook and the body together sink relatively slowly in the water. Coordinated choices of bait and hook result in rigs of weight suitable for accuracy and distance in casting and yet so counterbalanced for buoyancy as to provide a minimal rate of descent in the water.
While this balanced artificial bait affords an angler a predetermined slow rate of descent, a different bait must be used for each rate of descent selected by the angler. The angler could increase the rate of descent of a given bait by breaking off a portion of the artificial bait. However, if too much of the bait is broken off, the rate of descent will be too fast. Thus the angler must again deal with the problem of adding a counterbalancing weight to the bait to experimentally achieve the desired rate of descent or changing the bait entirely and starting the process anew.
It is, therefore, the primary object of this invention to provide a balanced artificial bait which is readily adaptable to permit selection of any of a plurality of drop rates without changing the bait.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the invention, an artificial bait is provided which has a body shaped to simulate a natural bait. The bait exhibits a predetermined base drop rate when immersed in water with an attached threshold weight. Means is provided on the body for delineating one or more breakaway segments from the main segment of the body. The breakaway segments are volumetrically calibrated so that, upon removal of any number of breakaway segments from the main segment and immersion in water with the attached threshold weight, the body, together with the unremoved breakaway segments, will have a predetermined drop rate which is correspondingly faster than the predetermined base drop rate depending upon the number of breakaway segments removed.
The breakaway segments may extend serially or independently from the main segment. The main segment may simulate a body portion of the natural bait while the breakaway segments simulate portions of appendages of the natural bait. The breakaway segments may be volumetrically equal or otherwise coordinated to provide a proportional change in descent rates. The delineating means may, for example, be changes in color on the surface of the body, changes in contour of the body, lines on the surface of the body or perforations in the body.
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Catalano Frank J.
Jordan Charles T.
Palo Francis T.
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