A tandem fishhook comprising a forward hook and a rearward hook, the hooks each having two opposite sides connected by a curved portion, one of the sides having a barbed end, the other of the sides of each of the hooks defining an elongated shank extending in a direction opposite to the convex side of the curved portion, the shanks being alongside each other, means rigidly interconnecting the shanks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
In the past tandem hook assemblies have been made by having the eye of the 
trailing hook received on the curved part of the forward hook. This has a 
serious disadvantage in that the trailing hook is not rigidly held in 
plane between forward hook and to the line to which it is attached which 
would cause the loss of some fish which otherwise would have been caught. 
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide various means for 
rigidly interconnecting the forward and rearward hooks. 
Another disadvantage of the prior art is that both forward and rearward 
hooks have in the past been in the same plane; whereas, there is an 
advantage in having the hooks offset in planes slightly to the right and 
left of a vertical plane because fish do not ordinarily strike directly 
from the rear and with my offset hooks the fish can be more easily caught. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The major goal of this invention is to provide a tandem fishhok comprising 
a forward hook and a rearward hook. 
Other goals are to provide for the rigid interconnection of the shanks to 
be done either by a loop of wire of one piece with the shanks and hooks or 
by the same with a weight around forward ends of the shanks. 
Still another goal is to provide the interconnection of the shanks as being 
done by different methods involving a weighting member having an external 
eye which can be of of one piece with one of the hooks, or which can be of 
a separate piece of wire united to the hooks within a weighting member 
either by extending through eyes of the hooks or not. 
Still a further goal is to provide tandem hooks with interconnected shanks 
and with eyes of each hook in forward alignment of the interconnection for 
attachment of the line to both of the eyes. 
An important goal is to provide for the rigidly attached hooks to be offset 
in places one to the right and one to the left of a vertical plane by 
acute angles.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMEMT 
The tandem fishhook of this invention is generally indicated at 10 in FIG. 
1, and comprises a forward hook 20 and a rearward hook 30, the hooks each 
having two opposite sides 32 and 34, respectively, connected by a curved 
portion 36. One of the sides 32 has a barbed end 40. 
The sides 34 of each of the hooks define an elongated shank 46 and 48, 
respectively, extending in an opposite direction to the convex side of the 
respective curved portion 36. 
The shanks 46 and 48 are alongside each other and one above the other with 
the shank 46 of the forward hook above the shank 48 of the rearward hook. 
The hook shanks 46 and 48 are rigidly connected by one or more connectors, 
one of which is shown in FIG. 2 at 62, and a second connector is shown at 
66 in FIG. 1, the second connector 66 being a weighting member since it 
has a much greater weight per unit of forward to rearward dimension along 
the tandem fishhook than either of the hooks 20 or 30. 
The connector 62 is a loop of wire having ends connected at 72 and 74, 
respectively, to the forward ends of the shanks 46 and 48. The loop of 
wire 62 is preferably of one piece with the shanks 46 and 48 and also of 
one piece with their respective hooks 20 and 30. 
The weighting member 66 can be formed of lead or any other suitable 
material and can be cast around the junction between the rearward ends of 
the wire loop 62 and the forward ends of the shanks 46 and 48. The wire 
loop 62 can extend upwardly to form an eye 80 disposed above and forwardly 
of the weighting member 66 so that the effect of the weighting member 66 
is to hold the barbs 40 in positions above the shanks 46 and 48 as the 
hook is drawn through the water while trolling, for example, with the line 
connected to the eye 80. For this purpose the hooks 20 and 30 both have 
their curved portions 36 extending upwardly. 
Referring to FIG. 2, a top plan view is shown of the curved portions 36 of 
the hooks, each of the curved portions lie in a plane and the planes 
defined by the curved portions 36 are disposed at an acute angle to each 
other with the planes converging toward their lower sides so that the 
hooks 20 and 30 have their curved portions 36 and their barbs 40 offset to 
the left and right, respectively, of a vertical plane extending between 
the planes of the respective curved portions 36 at times when the tandem 
fishhook of FIGS. 1 and 2 is being pulled through the water with its eye 
80 in an upper position. 
Referring to FIG. 3, a modification of the hook of FIG. 1 is shown and has 
the shanks 46 and 48 identical to the shanks of the modification of FIG. 
1, and has hooks 20 and 30 which are likewise identical and which also 
extend into a weighting member 66. However, in the modification of FIG. 3 
the shanks 46 and 48 extend completely through the weighting member 66 to 
which they are attached, and the forward ends of the shanks 46 and 48 
terminate in eyes 84 and 86, respectively. 
In FIG. 5 a top plan view of the forward end portion of FIG. 3 is shown 
along the line 5--5 and the eyes 84 and 86 are not both seen in FIG. 5, 
because one is directly below the other in alignment with the eyes 84 in 
horizontal planes. 
In the modification of FIG. 4, the forward end of the shanks 46 and 48 
likewise extend into a weighting member 90, but the forward end of the 
shank 48 extends upwardly in the middle of the member 90 and extends out 
the top of the member 90 and forwardly, as shown at 92, terminating in an 
eye 94, best seen in FIG. 6, at its forward end. The shank 46 of the 
forward hook 20 has an eye 104 which extends around the upwardly extending 
portion 110 of the shank 48. 
In FIG. 7, an example of prior art construction is shown in which a forward 
hook 120 receives the eye 122 of a rearward hook 124, around the curved 
portions 126 of the forward hook 120. This has the disadvantage that the 
eyes 122 are conventionally of set sizes, and such sizes are small enough 
so that in assembly the barb 134 of the forward hook 120 becomes damaged 
while passing through the eye 122, whereby it is less effective or else 
must be smaller. 
This construction of the prior art, shown in FIG. 7, has the further 
disadvantage that the rearward hook 124 can swing freely on the forward 
hook 120 and the lack of rigid is very undesirable. 
In FIG. 7 a weighting member 140 is shown to be a conventional part of the 
prior art and the shank 142 of the forward hook 120 extends out of the top 
of the weighting member, as seen at 146, terminating in an eye 148. 
Referring to FIG. 8, a further modification of the tandem hook of this 
invention is there shown as indicated at 150, in which the hooks 20 and 
30, previously described, and having shanks 46 and 48 simply have the 
forward ends of their shanks interconnected at 154 by a portion of the 
same wire of which both hooks 20 and 30 are made. The hooks 20 and 30 can 
otherwise be the same in position and construction as the hooks 20 and 30 
of FIGS. 1 to 4. 
Referring to FIG. 9, a still further modification is there shown at 160 of 
the tandem hook. In the tandem hook 160 the forward and rearward hooks 20 
and 30 are the same as described in the other modifications, but the 
forward ends of their shanks 46 and 48 are each provided with an eye 160 
to 164, respectively. These eyes are disposed substantially, but not 
necessarily, in horizontal planes, and a wire 172 is provided with a 
portion 174 extending down through the eyes 162 and 164, and held in place 
in this position by having the eyes 162 and 164 embedded in a weighting 
member 178. The wire 172 extends forwardly at its upper end to an eye 184. 
When the eye 184 is normally upward, because of the effect of the 
weighting member 178, then the hooks 20 and 30 both extend upward from 
their shanks 46 and 48 also, and, therefore, do not catch on the debris on 
the bottom of a body of water. 
FIG. 10 shows at 190 a modification of the tandem hook, in which the shanks 
46 and 48 of two hooks are connected partly by a weighting member 192, 
which extends around an eye 194 in the forward end of the shank 48, and 
also around an upwardly offset portion 196 of the shank 48, which extends 
upwardly through the eye 194, and out of the weighting member 192, to be 
connected to a forwardly extending portion 198 of the shank 48, which 
latter terminates in an eye 200. 
The tandem hook 190 of FIG. 10 is in all respects identical to the tandem 
hook 160 of FIG. 9 at points rearwardly of the weighting member 192. 
Referring to FIG. 11, is another modification 210 of the tandem hook, and 
in which the shanks 46 and 48 terminate, respectively, in an eye 212 and 
in an upwardly extending portion 214, connected to a forwardly extending 
portion 216, having an eye 220 on its forward end. The remainder of the 
tandem hooks 210 rearwardly of a connector 240, extending around the eye 
212, and the upwardly extending portion 214 at its lower end, are the same 
as the tandem hook of FIG. 9, shown at 160. 
In the modification of FIG. 8 the shank portions 46 and 48 can have 
portions in contact a short distance rearwardly of the connecting portion 
154 to in effect will form an eye at the forward end of the tandem hook. 
This can be done either by having only one shank offset toward the other, 
both shanks partly offset until they touch, or another way is to have the 
shank portions 46 and 48 substantially touching with forward ends each 
partly outwardly offset to meet the outer ends of the connecting portion 
154 so as to form an eye immediately rearward of the connecting portion 
154. 
As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the curved portions 36 of the forward hook 
20 and rearward hook 30 both can extend upwardly from the shanks 46 and 48 
at the same time, and at that same time the centers of the curved portions 
36 of each hook are disposed on opposite sides of a reference plane, not 
shown, extending along said shanks and extending substantially through the 
center of an area in which the shanks are disposed. 
The terminal tip of the barbed end 40 of the forward hook 20 points 
forwardly and is disposed a substantial distance forwardly of the 
forward-pointing tip of the barbed end 40 of the rearward hook 30. 
The shanks 46 and 48 are interconnected by the weighting member 66 which is 
of substantially greater weight in proportion to its forward-to-rearward 
dimension than the combined weight of the two shanks along an equal 
forward-to-rearward dimension along the two of the shanks. 
The forward ends of the hook shanks terminate in aligned eyes inside the 
weighting member 66 as seen in FIG. 9. The wire 174 is imbedded inside the 
weighting member 66, as also seen in FIG. 9, and the wire 174 extends 
through the aligned eyes, and the wire 174 has an eye 184 thereon external 
of the weighting member 178.