Abstract:
A reconfigurable fishing lure has a relatively thick solid metal wire body onto which are mounted various lure components such as weights, spinner brackets, spacer beads and the like. A pair of holes are drilled though the body proximate each end and removable fasteners are secured in each hole to hold the lure components on the wire body and to allow the components to be removed and changed. The wire body and fasteners are sufficiently sturdy to withstand the force of a hooked fish.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     This invention relates to fishing lures, and more particularly, to a bucktail lure having a solid wire body onto which are mounted blades, weights, hook clusters and other lure accessories. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the wire body is formed from a straight relatively thick metal wire having a hole drilled at each end. The wire body accepts lure accessories having holes formed therethrough to closely match the exterior diameter of the wire body. Split ring fasteners are inserted through the wire body holes to retain the lure accessories on the body when the lure is in use. Removal of one or both split ring fasteners allows the user to change accessories as needed or desired. This allows the lure to be modified while fishing instead of keeping a stock of already-assembled lures with different lure components.  
         [0002]     It is not uncommon for a fisherman to have a number of lures to be used under different fishing conditions such as clarity, depth and temperature of water, weather, and the depth at which are found to be feeding. The present invention allows the configuration of the lure to be changed by adding or replacing various lure components and thus reduces the need to purchase a number of pre-assembled lures. Substitution of lure components is a more flexible and economical approach allowing a fisherman to construct an appropriate lure while fishing.  
       DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART  
       [0003]     As is to be expected, a large and well-developed body of prior art exists with respect to fishing lures.  
         [0004]     A common lure construction is illustrated in  FIG. 1  herein, known generally as a “bucktail” lure, is sold under the Mepps® trademark by Sheldon&#39;s, Inc. of Antigo, Wis. under the model name “Giant Killer®”. This lure consists of a wire body onto which lure components such as weights, blades and beads are mounted. These components are held on the wire body by forming the ends of the wire into loops which are larger in diameter than the holes on each component through which the wire is passed. As shown in  FIG. 1 , such loops are formed at both ends of the body. If it becomes desirable or necessary to remove a lure component, the wire must be twisted to undo one of the loops and must be straightened sufficiently to allow the selected component to slide off the wire body. Repeated untwisting and retwisting will eventually weaken the wire body to the point where the wire may snap. If this occurs while casting or attempting to reel in a fish, the entire lure and lure components (and the fish) may be lost.  
         [0005]     U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0148155 (Pasley) teaches and describes quick disconnect spinner blades which are attachable and removable from a lure body through use of various spring biased connectors similar to those used as clasps for jewelry. The lure shown in Pasley has a solid wire body with twisted ends such as that shown in FIG. 1 and the spinner blades are attachable either to the loop formed at the end of the wire body or to a U-shaped rotator mounted to the body prior to twisting the end to form the closure loop. Pasley mentions use of spring biased connectors as preferable to using the split ring connectors. However, the quick-release connectors used by Pasley are only required to hold the blade to the lure body, not to withstand the force of a hooked fish.  
         [0006]     U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,336 (Link) teaches and describes a filamentary spinner blade and rattle dressing selectably attachable to special collars or fittings that are attached to a lure. Link uses flexible elastomeric collars and lines to attach fish-attracting components of the lure but which are not and cannot be used to secure the hook cluster or any other strain-bearing components.  
         [0007]     U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,901 (Baker Jr.) teaches and describes fishing lures having novel spinner blades. Baker Jr. describes a number of lure configurations and a number of lure components generally held together with split ring fasteners. Those lures having wire bodies are shown as having twisted loops formed at the end of the wire bodies to which the components described by Baker Jr. are attached.  
         [0008]     U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,127 (Merek) teaches and describes a noise making lure having split ring fasteners used to attach the lure body parts together and to attach a hook assembly to the lure body parts. Merek does not however, teach or suggest the capacity to substitute lure components on the lure body.  
         [0009]     U.S. Pat. No. 2,307,310 (Bryan) teaches and describes a fish lure having body parts held together with split ring fasteners. Although the lure is so assembled, Bryan neither teaches nor suggests a substitution of lure components on a straight wire body.  
         [0010]     U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,147 (Snipes) teaches and describes a fishing lure with a central, hollow cavity through which water passes when the lure is cast, creating a sound audible to fish. Although Snipes discloses the use of split ring fasteners to attach hook clusters and fishing line to the lure body, there is no teaching of the use of such fasteners to allow lure components to be added to the lure body itself.  
         [0011]     U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,139 (Rhoten) teaches and describes an attachment for a fishing lure consisting of a trailing spinner and also teaches a bent wire retainer used as an attachment device. The attachment portion of the lure serves an attracting purpose only and does not absorb the force exerted by a hooked fish.  
         [0012]     U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,863 (Rector) describes the use of rings to attach the line ring and the hook cluster to the lure. Rector does not describe the rings as split nor does it describe the adjustability of the lure by the removal of the rings, addition of components to the lure body and the reinstallation of the rings.  
         [0013]     U.S. Patent Application Publication 2003/014435 (Carver) teaches and describes a quick release detachable buckle having a solid shaft with holes formed at either end, a wire clip passed through one of the holes and a retainer pin through the other hole to hold the shaft to the body of a buckle. The design in Carver does not require the shaft to withstand axial strain or force but instead the shaft is positioned to accept such force transverse to the axis of the shaft so that the purpose of the wire retainer and the straight pin retainer is to keep the shaft attached to the buckle but not to accept any force or strain thereon.  
         [0014]     It is an object of the present invention to provide fishing lures having straight wire bodies to which various lure components can be removably secured.  
         [0015]     It is a further object to provide such lures with sturdy yet easily removable retainers attachable to each end of the shaft to keep the selected lure components in place.  
         [0016]     It is another object to provide such lures with the capability of accepting a variety of lure components to obviate the need for purchasing a large number of specifically configured lures.  
         [0017]     It is another object of the present invention to provide lures where the mechanism for changing the lure components also has the capacity to absorb the force exerted by a hooked fish.  
         [0018]     It is another object of the present invention to provide such lures in forms which are simple to manufacture, sturdy in construction and economical to assemble.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0019]     These and other objects of the present invention are embodied in a novel, adjustable lure characterized by a unitary solid cylindrical wire body, a selected series of lure components including swivels, weights, beads and the like through which mounting channels are formed closely corresponding to the outer diameter of the wire body and a number of split ring or similar fasteners used to close off the wire body and retain the selected components thereon by inserting the fasteners through the wire body retaining holes. 
     
    
       [0020]     These and other characteristics of the present invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0021]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a first prior art “bucktail” fishing lure having a solid wire body closed off by twisted loops;  
         [0022]      FIG. 2  is an enlarged detail of a second prior art “bucktail” lure;  
         [0023]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view of a bucktail lure assembled in accordance with the teachings of a preferred embodiment of the preferred invention;  
         [0024]      FIG. 4  is an enlarged detail of the wire body of  FIG. 3 ;  
         [0025]      FIG. 5  is an enlarged detail of a portion of the lure shown in  FIG. 3 ; and  
         [0026]      FIG. 6  is an exploded view of the lure components shown in  FIG. 3 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0027]     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , the numeral  10  indicates generally a prior art bucktail fishing lure as made and sold under the trademarks Mepps® and Giant Killer®. Lure  10  has a solid wire body  12  onto which are mounted a blade and swivel bracket  14 , a first solid spacer bead  16 , a second spacer bead  18  and a weight  20 . Beads  16 ,  18  are conventionally formed from plastic or metals such as brass and each has a mounting hole sized to allow wire body  12  to be inserted therethrough. In like fashion, weight  20  is conventionally formed from metal or plastic and has a similar hole formed therethrough while swivel bracket  16  is generally U-shaped and has a pair of holes bored proximate the ends of the legs of the U-shaped swivel.  
         [0028]     As seen in  FIG. 1 , wire body  12  is closed off by a first loop  22  and a second loop  24 . Loop  22  is formed by bending back a portion of one end of wire body  12  and then twisting that portion to form generally circular closed loop  22 . Loop  24 , in this embodiment, is formed by bending back a portion of body  12  to form the loop and then inserting weight  20  over both wire portions. A bend  26  is formed in that portion of body  12  that protrudes past the end of weight  20  distal from loop  24  to keep weight  20  in place. Loops  22 ,  24  are large enough in diameter to retain components such as bracket  14 , beads  16 ,  18 , and weight  20  on wire body  12 .  
         [0029]     As shown in  FIG. 1 , a hook cluster  28  is attached to loop  24  through use of a split ring fastener  30 . When a lure such as that shown in  FIG. 1  is used, a fishing line is attached to loop  22  and the strain experienced when a fish is hooked is absorbed by loop  22 , wire body  12 , loop  24 , split ring  30  and hook cluster  28 .  
         [0030]     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , an enlarged view of a portion of a second prior art lure  10 ′ having a blade and bracket  14 ′, beads  16 ′,  18 ′ and weight  20 ′ formed on body  12 ′. In this embodiment, loop  22 ′ is formed by twisting an end of body  12 ′, as described above. However, loop  24 ′ is also formed by twisting the opposite end of body  12 ′ rather than passing a portion of body  12 ′ through weight  20 ′.  
         [0031]     Referring now to  FIG. 3 , the numeral  34  indicates generally a lure assembled in accordance with the teachings of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Lure  34  has a solid wire body  36  which is relatively thicker in diameter than is the lure body  12  of lure  10 . Generally, a lure body such as lure  12  is formed from a metallic wire with a 0.062 inch diameter while lure body  36  is thicker, formed preferably with a larger diameter of about 0.093 inch.  
         [0032]     As seen in  FIG. 4 , lure body  36  has a first mounting hole  38  drilled or otherwise formed therethrough proximate end  40  and a second mounting hole  42  drilled or otherwise formed therethrough proximate end  44 . As seen in  FIG. 3  and in greater detail in  FIG. 5 a  first split ring fastener  46  is passed through hole  38 . As seen in  FIG. 3 , a second split ring fastener  48  is passed through hole  42 .  
         [0033]     As typified by the lure arrangement in  FIG. 3 , lure  34  has a spinner mounting bracket  50  rotatably mounted thereto to which a blade  52  is attached, a first spacer bead  54 , a second spacer bead  56  a weight  58  and a third spacer bead  60 . Each of the beads  54 ,  56  and  60  have centrally formed apertures as described hereinabove and with the larger diameter of wire body  36  these apertures must be made larger than standard spacer beads. In like fashion, bracket  50  and weight  58  have larger mounting apertures than are conventionally known. A hook cluster  62  is attached to split ring  48  and thereby to lure  34 .  
         [0034]     As best seen in  FIG. 5 , blade  52  is mounted to bracket  50  by passing bracket  50  through a blade aperture  64  prior to assembling bracket  50  to body  36 .  
         [0035]     Referring now to  FIG. 6 , a disassembled view of lure  34  is shown with body  36  having split ring  48  removed therefrom allowing the removal of bracket  50  and, thereby, blade  52 , beads  54 ,  56  and  60 , and weight  58 . It is now apparent that the configuration of lure  34  may be changed simply by removing split ring  46  and substituting different blades, spinners, beads, weights, or other lure components as desired.  
         [0036]     Thus, it is possible for a fisherman to make changes to the lure to adapt to conditions. For example, for deeper water, heavier weights may be added, for different water conditions or different species of fish, different blades or other attractive elements may be selected and different fish hook clusters and cluster adornments may also be selected. These components can be easily changed during a day of fishing without requiring the fisherman to stock a wide variety of lures on which these various components are already mounted or to untwist the ends of a conventional wire-body lure to change components. Instead, the fisherman need only carry a selection of individual components which may be added to or removed from the lure body as desired.  
         [0037]     In use, the fishing line is attached to ring  46  or another component which is attached to ring  46  which means that the force absorbed when a fish strikes and is hooked, is taken up by a fishing line (not shown) split ring  46 , wire body  36 , split ring  48 , and hook cluster  62 . This results in a simple, sturdy and serviceable construction adaptable for a wide variety of fish and fishing conditions.  
         [0038]     Other fasteners can be used to close off the ends of wire body  36 . For example, a portion of each end of wire body  36  can be threaded to accept a nut or other similarly threaded fitting.  
         [0039]     While the foregoing describes a preferred embodiment or embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that such description is made by way of example only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. It is expected that alterations and further modifications, as well as other and further applications of the principles of the present invention will occur to others skilled in the art to which the invention relates and, while differing from the foregoing, remain within the spirit and scope of the invention as herein described and claimed. Where means-plus-function clauses are used in the claims such language is intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited functions and not only structural equivalents but equivalent structures as well. For the purposes of the present disclosure, two structures that perform the same function within an environment described above may be equivalent structures.