Patent ID: 7484733

Claim:
A fishing apparatus comprising a flat, essentially vertical game board having an upper end and a lower end, means for supporting the game board in relation to the ground and at a relatively large angle with respect thereto a fish support mounted behind the game board, one or more flat, relatively thin fish shaped members, each having the outline of a fish and each having an upper end forming an angled mouth and a lower end resembling the tail of a fish, each fished shaped member having a circular snare opening therein mounted directly below the mouth of the fish shaped member and a guide slot leading from the mouth of the fish-shaped member to the circular snare opening, each fish shaped member being connected to the fish support by a releaseable holding means, a casting line, a plug adapted to be connected to the end of the casting line so that the plug and line can be cast over the angled mouths of the fish shaped members, each plug being made of resilient material and being provided with a nose piece adjacent to the connection of the line to the plug, the nose piece tapering outwardly from a diameter of smaller size than the circular snare opening in the fish shaped member where the plug connects to the line to a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the snare opening in the fish-shaped member, the plug being provided with a recess beyond the larger diameter of the nose piece so that, when the plug is pulled into the circular snare opening in the fish-shaped member, the nose piece will squeeze through the opening until the sides of the opening are received in the recess of the plug, so that pulling on the line after the plug has been received in the circular snare opening will cause the fish shaped member to pull against the releaseable holding means to release the fish-shaped member from the fish support, the game board having a gap therein which is in alignment with the guide slot in the fish shaped member, the gap in the game board being disposed between a pair of doors which are mounted on hinge axes for swinging movement when a fish-shaped member is pulled against the doors, the game board being tapered inwardly on opposite sides of the gap so that a fisherman, if he gets his line over the upper end of the game board, can manipulate the line by sideways tugging into the gap and thereafter into the guide slot, and continued pulling on the fish-shaped member will cause the fish shaped member to be released from the fish support and to spring out through the hinged doors in a manner simulating the catching of fish in actual water.