Floating fish grip

A fish grip comprising a body member having at one end cheliform jaws adapted to encircle and grip a fish and at the other end a handle, means for holding the jaws in open position, and means for actuating the jaws to the closed or gripping position, said grip being characterized in that the parts are constructed of material having a specific gravity greater than one and the handle has an air compartment of sufficient size to reduce the over-all specific gravity to less than one;

• in that the jaws and the handle are made of rigid plastic which can be molded or machined, has a tensile strength of at least 5,000 psi, and has a specific gravity of about 1.1 to 1.2;
• in that the body member is Y-shaped, the cheliform jaws are pivotally attached to the arms of the Y-shaped body, and the handle is attached to the bottom of the stem of the Y-shaped body and projects laterally therefrom in the same plane as the jaws and forms a right angle with said stem;
• in that the means for actuating the jaws to the closed or gripping position, includes a fingergrip, which projects laterally from said Y-shaped body parallel to the handle without changing its parallel relation thereto, is spaced from the handle not more than a handgrip away, and has a spring-biased linkage to the cheliform jaws, which when the fingers apply pressure to the fingergrip, actuates the cheliform jaws against said spring bias to the closed or gripping position and continued pressure on the fingergrip, after a fish has been gripped, asserts a corresponding gripping pressure on the fish;
• in that the linkage comprises an axially movable member rigidly attached at one end to the fingergrip and pivotally attached at the other end to links which in turn are pivotally attached to the cheliform jaws at points intermediate their free ends and their pivoted ends;
• and, in that both the links and the cheliform jaws are seriated.