Patent Publication Number: US-2006012121-A1

Title: Fishing game

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION  
      The invention relates to board games, and more particularly to a novel two part fishing game where players compete for lures in the first part of the game and then use these lures to compete in catching fish in the second part of the game, with each game being a fishing tournament with a creel limit.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      It is common practice to utilize dice, cards and tokens in board games. Prior art in fishing games uses boards from approximately 18 to 19 inches square and folds in the middle to allow for convenient packaging. Tokens are moved along a path of spaces or along a grid printed on the game board. Some games have event cards that gives directions to players, such as add weight, subtract weight, lose a turn, etc. Fish are caught in various methods in different games, some utilize lures and in other games fish are caught by a player merely landing on certain spaces.  
      The following described games all have some similarities to each other, as well as some significant differences in each. They all take considerable time to play, and some games have so many game parts and pieces they are cumbersome to play. There is a void in the market place for fast paced fishing board games. The game of the present invention fills that void. The game of the present invention is fast paced, yet fun and competitive.  
      U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,578 (Jones) defines a multi-part fishing game in which three separate individual games are played to complete a tournament. There is a grid of squares on the lake area that players move game pieces across. Tokens representing fish and their weight are placed upon the grid. Lures are not used in this game, fish are caught when players game pieces lands on a square that has a fish token on it. Players retain the fish token when a fish is caught. The fish in this game are all of one specie. Moves are determined by the casting of at least one die.  
      U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,848 (Keener) defines a multi-specie fishing game. This game has a series of squares that form a continuous path around the game board. Printed on the spaces are areas where players receive bait cards and bite cards, others areas are where players lose rod and reels. Also, a bait and tackle shop with a boat dock is depicted in this same path. There is not a boat ramp in this game. Various species if fish are depicted on the bite cards, along with a variety of lures printed on the same cards needed to catch fish. The weight of the fish are determined by a roll of dice. When a fish is caught it&#39;s weight is written on the bite card and it is retained by the player. Players move game pieces along the continuous path according to the roll of a die. There is a square where the game starts from, but no area defined as to where the game ends. The game pieces includes play money, fishing licenses, rod and reels, bait cards, bite cards and directional cards, such as lose a turn, subtract x amount of weight from stringer, etc., as well as a bait and tackle operator and a game warden. The game is played for a pre-determined amount of time, set before the start of each game.  
      U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,576 B1 (Pontacoloni) also defines a multi-specie fishing game. The game has a grid of spaces representing different depths of water. The fish are depicted on tiles that are placed on selected spaces in the grid. Lures are also used in this game. When a player catches a fish the tile is retained by the player, which represents the fish caught. The game has a considerable number parts and pieces.  
      The basic idea of the game of the present invention was to invent a fishing game that is based on actual single day fishing tournaments that can be played fast, and yet be fun and competitive. The game of the present invention does accomplish this. Whereas other fishing games are competitive, they take a considerable amount of time to play, and with all the variables in some of them, even cumbersome. The game of the present invention is competitive, easy to play, yet fun for children and adults alike. It is easy to learn, fun and fast paced to fit today&#39;s fast paced lifestyles. The game is designed to be played with as few pieces as necessary in order to keep it simple and fast, yet keeping it competitive. And with today&#39;s interest in ecology, it is also ecologically friendly, where players do not take possession of the fish when caught. When a fish is caught it&#39;s weight is recorded and the fish is left in the water. This game teaches specie of fish recognition, types of lures designed for a particular specie of fish, decision making, planning, strategy, math, memory enhancement sportmanship and camaraderie. The game plays extremely fast for board games, with each game taking from approximately twenty minutes to play with two players and approximately thirty five to forty five minutes to play with three to four players. The game is designed to be played by ages from eight years old to adult.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The invention is a fishing tournament board game that is played in two parts, with both parts having separate paths that players move game pieces along. Each game has a fixed creel limit in the total number of fish that can be caught by each player. The first part of the game has a series of spaces that forms a continuous path leading from a parking area into and through a tackle shop and back to the parking area. The spaces in the tackle shop has depictions of lures, with each space having a lure discernable from all others. The second part of the game has a series of one specie of fish of various weights that forms a path leading from a boat ramp in various directions and back to the boat ramp. The fish are depicted on the game board with the weight of each specific fish. There are defined areas in the path of fish where lures are lost due to bad casts and defined areas where players may enter the tackle shop a second time under certain conditions. Players compete for lures in the first part of the game, then use the lures to compete in catching fish in the second part of the game. When fish are caught their weight is recorded on a ‘Weigh-In Ticket’, and the fish is left in the water for others to catch. The game has a sportmanship rule, where only one player can be on a fish at a time. The game has ‘Lure’ cards that represent lures, ‘Fish’ cards that players draw indicating which lure is needed to catch fish and cards identified as ‘Free Pass-Tackle Shop’ cards. Moves are determined by rolling two dice, then using the number on only one die to determine the number of moves to make with the game pieces. The goal in the first part of the game is to collect the most lures, and therefore increasing the chances of catching fish in the second part of the game. The second part of the game has two goals, the first goal is to catch the most weight of fish within a set creel limit and therefore being the tournament winner in the game, the second goal is to catch the single largest fish and therefore being the big fish winner in the game. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  shows the game board;  
       FIG. 2   a - 2   q  shows the front and back of the ‘Lure’ cards;  
       FIG. 3   a - 3   q  shows the front and back of the ‘Fish’ cards;  
      FIG. Shows the ‘Free Pass-Tackle Shop’ card;  
       FIG. 5  shows a pair of dice;  
       FIG. 6  shows the ‘Weigh-In Ticket’ used for keeping score; and  
       FIG. 7  shows one of the game pieces used in the game. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
      Place the game board  10  on a flat surface. Shuffle the ‘Fish’ cards  3   a - 3   q,  place them on the designated areas in the Tackle Shop  12 . Sort the ‘Lure’ cards  2   a - 2   q  in the same order as the lures on the lure spaces  13  in the Tackle Shop  12 , place them on the designated area in the Tackle Shop  12 . To determine the order of play, players roll the dice  31 , with the player rolling the highest combined number on both dice playing first, in both parts of the game, and so on with the player rolling the lowest combined number playing last. Players select their game piece  34  and ‘Free Pass-Tackle Shop’ card  30  according to the order of play. The player that rolled the highest combined number on the dice  31  is also the Tournament Official. The Tournament Official keeps order during the game, assures all rules are followed, deals the ‘Lure’ cards  2   a - 2   q  and keeps the official score on the ‘Weigh-In Ticket’  35 . During play, in both parts of the game, players in turn roll the dice  31 , then moves their respective game piece  34  corresponding to the number rolled on only one die  32  or  33 , with the player that rolled the dice choosing which number to use. The first part of the game starts at the Parking Area  11 . Players, in turn rolls the dice  31 , then moves their respective game piece  34  from the Parking Area  11  following along the spaces leading into and through the Tackle Shop  12  one round, then returns to the Parking area  11 , where play ends for the first part of the game. As each player&#39;s respective game piece  34  lands on the lure spaces  13  in the Tackle Shop  12  they will receive a ‘Lure’ card  2   a - 2   q  that corresponds to the lure depicted for each space landed on. All players must complete one turn in the Tackle Shop  12  before the second part of the game can start.  
      The second part of the game starts at the Boat Ramp  14 . Players move their respective game pieces  34  in a forward direction only along the path of fish  15 . Play ends for each player after they complete one time round the game board  10  on the path of fish  15  and return to the Boat Ramp  14 . When players respective game pieces  34  lands on a fish in the path of fish  15 , that fish has ‘hit’ that player&#39;s line. If that player wants to catch that fish, a ‘Fish’ card  3   a - 3   q  is drawn from the top of the ‘Fish’ card deck, indicating which one specific lure is needed to catch that fish. If that player has the ‘Lure’ card  2   a - 2   q  corresponding to the lure indicated on that ‘Fish’ card  3   a - 3   q,  that fish is caught and it&#39;s weight is recorded on the ‘Weigh-In Ticket’  35  and the fish is left in the water for others to catch. The ‘Fish’ card  3   a - 3   q  is placed on the bottom of the ‘Fish’ card deck and the player retains the ‘Lure’ card  2   a - 2   q.  If that player does not have the ‘Lure’ card  2   a - 2   q  that corresponds to the lure indicated on that ‘Fish’ card  3   a - 3   q,  that fish is not caught, the ‘Fish’ card  3   a - 3   q  is placed on the bottom of the ‘Fish’ card deck and play then proceeds to the next player. If a fish is not wanted when any player&#39;s respective game piece  34  lands on a fish, no ‘Fish’ card  3   a - 3   q  is drawn, and play proceeds to the next player. When a player&#39;s respective game piece  34  lands on ‘Bad Cast-Lose Lure’ area  16  in the path of fish  15 , that player selects one ‘Lure’ card  2   a - 2   q  from among his/hers and gives it to the Tournament Official, who will then return it to the Tackle Shop  12  where players can compete for it again.  
      When a player&#39;s respective game piece  34  lands on any ‘Marina Entry’ area  17  in the path of fish  15 , that player can elect to use his/her ‘Free Pass-Tackle Shop’ card  30  to enter the Tackle Shop  12  from that ‘Marina Entry’ area  17  and try for more lures along the path of lure spaces  13 . The ‘Free Pass-Tackle Shop’ card  30  can only be used once, it must be given to the Tournament Official before entering the Tackle Shop  12 . Play stops for all other players until the player that is using the ‘Free Pass-Tackle Shop’ card  30  completes one round in the Tackle Shop  12 , entering and exiting from the same ‘Marina Entry’ area  17 , and returns to the original line of fish  15  where the Tackle Shop  12  was entered from. The Sportmanship Rule applies only in the second part of the game, where the rule is only one player&#39;s respective game piece  34  can be on a fish at a time. When a player rolls the dice  31  and the number on either die  32  or  33  would put that player&#39;s game piece  34  on a fish that another player&#39;s game piece  34  is already on, that number cannot be used and the player must use the number on the other die. If the numbers rolled on either dice  32  or  33  would put that player&#39;s game piece  34  where other player&#39;s game pieces  34  are already on both fish, neither number can be used and that player cannot move, and play then proceeds to the next player. The game ends after all players have completed one round along the path of fish  15  and returned to the Boat Ramp  14 . The Tournament Official will record the order of finish, tally the weight of fish caught by each player and determine which player caught the single largest fish. The player that caught the most weight of fish within the creel limit is announced as the Tournament Winner, the player that caught the single largest fish is announced as the Big Fish Winner. In case of a tie in the most weight of fish caught within the creel limit, the player that tied and returned to the Boat Ramp  14  first is announced as the Tournament Winner. In case of a tie in the single largest fish caught, all players that tied are announced as co-winners of the Big Fish category.