Fishing line choke for the rod of a spinning reel

#1. Field of the Invention

#This invention relates to the art of spinning reel control and release mechanisms for use on fishing rods having spinning reels for casting. In particular this invention relates to a thumb-operated fishing line choke that is installed on the handle of a fishing rod having a spinning reel attached to the rod for casting so that the invention is used for choking the fishing line so that the line may not move just prior to casting the rod forward to release the line and its lure allowing the line to unwind from the spinning reel.

#2. Description of the Prior Art

#This invention will be better understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and its scope will be pointed out in the appended claims.

#FIG. 1 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a fishing rod having an open-face spinning reel, where the rod is fitted with the thumb-operated fishing line choke accessory of the present invention, in its at-rest position.

#FIG. 2 is a front elevational view, on an enlarged scale, with parts shown in cross section, of the combined fishing line ring guide and choke member of the present invention, taken on the line 2--2 of FIG. 1.

#Turning now to a consideration of the drawings, and, in particular, to the fragmentary side elevational view of FIG. 1, there is shown a fishing rod 10 equipped with an open-face spinning reel 12 fastened beneath the handle 14 of the fishing rod, as is standard in this art. The reel 12 has a winding handle 16 for operating the reel. Other features of the reel are the spool 18 on which is wound the monofilament line 20, the rotating head 22, the line pick-up bail 24, mounting bracket 26 having a pair of feet 28 and 30 which are fastened to the handle 14 of the rod by means of a pair of adjustable ferrules 32 and 34 respectively, as is standard in this art. Another standard feature of this fishing rod 10 is a series of line guides 38 which are mounted along the length of the rod for receiving the line 20 therethrough, as seen in FIGS. 1 and 5.

#Now to be explained is the thumb-operated fishing line choke accessory 40 which may be installed on an existing fishing rod or it may be added to the fishing rod during the manufacture thereof. The elements of this fishing line choke assembly 40 are best illustrated in the exploded perspective view of FIG. 5, but they will be described in detail starting first with FIG. 1. This fishing line choke accessory 40 has a clamping member 42 in the form of a curved saddle which is fastened to the front end 44 of the rod handle 14 by means of a pair of U-shaped bolts 46 which are threaded on their free ends 48 for receiving the fastening nuts 50 thereon. The saddle-shaped clamping member 42 has a pair of mounting ears 52, where each mounting ear has a hole 54 for receiving the free end 48 of the U-bolt therethrough. Of course, other means may be employed for attaching this clamping member 42 to the rod handle 14. This pair of mounting ears is on the two opposite sides thereof.

#The fishing line choke accessory 40 of the present invention has a thumb-engaging actuator member 60 that is pivotally mounted to the clamping member 42 by means of a hinge connection 62. Intermediate the length of the actuator member 60 is a knee joint 64 which divides the actuator member into a thumb-engaging portion 66 and a pusher element 68. The actuator member 60 is shown buckled about its knee joint 64 and held in that position by a tension spring 70 that is positioned under the actuator member and connected between the thumb-engaging portion 66 at one end 72 and to the pusher element 68 at the other end 74. The function of this tension spring 70 is to normally hold the actuator member 60 in a non-operating position, always ready to be acted upon by the user's thumb, as is shown in sequence in FIGS. 3 and 4.