1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to weedless and surface floating fishing lures designed to “spit” or spray water across the water surface to attract hiding fish when rapidly retrieved and also relates to the method used to fish therewith.
2. Background of the Invention
In calm water fishing, large desirable fish, such as bass, frequently hide just below lily pads, floating logs, and surface weeds. These large fish prefer to strike, to ambush prey, from protective cover, under which they are safe from predators such as eagles. Such floating debris provides fish easy escape routes providing cover, camouflage, and hiding places. The largest of these fish frequently like to attack and swallow surface floating prey that splash, disturb the water, or generate noise as the prey swims or struggles on the surface. To be effective in such debris rich environments, fishing lures need to be weedless, designed in such a way that debris is deflected away from catching on the barbed point of any fish hooks.
As fish hiding places become denser, direct vision becomes less effective in initially attracting the attention of a fish. And, in the densest sort of debris, it is desirable to have a fishing lure that both floats at the surface of the water, and one that tends to be pulled over the top of floating debris without becoming snagged. Additionally, though not exclusively, flexible soft bodied fishing lures (such as artificial worms, artificial frogs, etc.) historically have particularly high success rates.
Weedless poppers are an example of a class of fishing lures designed to operate near the water surface, in a weedy environment, and create a surface disturbance to attract predator fish that might not be visually in their line of sight Existing fishing lures, such as weedless poppers, are not well suited to generating surface disturbance while still being able to be conveniently pulled over the top of lily pads and other floating debris. Fishing lures that sink or dive (such as poppers do), even a small distance into the water, will not tend to be pulled over the top of debris, resulting in snagging of the fish line. This is true even when the fishing lure's hooks are rendered weedless.
Poppers, and certain other existing floating fishing lures, may create a surface disturbance when jerked, but most cannot reliably be pulled over the top of surface weeds without snagging. This is sometimes due to the designed tendency of poppers to dive and swerve erratically when sharply tugged. A “surface floating” fishing lure must have a floating body of sufficient buoyancy that it will have essentially no tendency to dive when tugged.
Soft bodied lures, such as elastomeric polymer plastic worms, can be rendered highly buoyant, and be Texas rigged (without a sinker) so that the tip of their hooks are weedless. But, as presently available, these tend to produce only limited surface splashing of the sort preferred in attracting hiding fish.
It would appear to be desirable to combine weedless, surface floating fishing lures with a device that would enhance their ability to create surface disturbance whereby they may be sensed from a distance by large fish hiding under cover. In some cases it might also be desirable to combine these features with a soft bodied fishing lure resembling natural fish prey.
One particular means of generating a splash of water when a surface fishing lure is tugged forwards is to incorporate a forwards facing concave surface, such as a funnel shaped hollow cone, a funnel-like structure, or a forwards facing suction cup-like structure. This creates a “spitting fishing lure”, one that essentially splashes or “spits” water into the air to subsequently splash unto the surface of the water when the fishing lure is sharply tugged. The resulting splash may generate sound and vibration in the water simulating large fish prey struggling violently at the surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,601,267, Sep. 28, 1926 to J. W. Svalgaard is an early example that teaches of a fishing lure containing such a forwards facing concave surface (a cone in this case) where the forwards facing cone is incorporated in sinking style of fishing lure. While the use of a forwards facing cone visually appears similar in structure to the present invention, a closer examination will reveal that the fishing lure is weighted, and flexibly coupled—with the specific intent of creating water turbulence below the surface that will result in the fishing lure following a snakelike path deep under the surface when retrieved at a steady rate through the water. It will not splash surface water when retrieved. It should also be noted that the fishing lure does not incorporate natural looking soft bodied bait, nor does it make any attempt at being weedless.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,101 Dec. 13, 1988 to Craddock reveals a semi-weedless fishing lure having a theory of operation similar to the previous citation. It has a flat clear plastic deflector plate designed to create a similar turbulence deep underwater. It's theory of operation supposedly results in a similar snakelike path underwater, as the fishing lure is retrieved at a steady rate. One particular embodiment of that fishing lure involved the use of wormlike bait attached to the hook. Note, however, that the fishing lure is inherently designed for subsurface retrieval at a steady rate, with its salient feature being the snakelike motion related to deep water retrieval. Also note that the hook is not rendered totally weedless by any means, particularly by Texas rigging of the bait, and that the deflector plate is flat, and would not generate significant surface water “spitting” even if this fishing lure were to be converted into a surface floating fishing lure.
Many patents exist for variations of “soft-bodied” or wormlike fishing lures, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,811 Sep. 1, 1992 to Freeman. This patent reveals the insertion of a longitudinal tube inside a plastic worm, making it relatively easy to rig a hook near the tail of natural looking bait. It does not, however, teach of making the fishing lure to float, rendering it weedless, nor does it in any way attempt to generate splashing action on the surface when retrieved.
Weedless fishing lures incorporating a “Texas rigged hook” are well known, whereby the barbed portion of the hook is embedded in the body of soft polymer plastic bait. U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,381 Jun. 15, 1982 to Carver et al. reveals a “modified” Texas rigging displaying a hook embedded in the bait for a particularly weedless configuration. However, it is also a sinking type of fishing lure, does not splash surface water to attract fish, and is rigged in a very non-standard variation of Texas rigging.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,783 Oct. 17, 1989 to McGahee et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,884 Apr. 8, 1980 to Zeman both reveal soft bodied fishing lures intended to be Texas rigged in a manner that should render them weedless. Both incorporate a cavity in the fishing lure in the region where the barbed point of the fish hook will reside, allowing for easier penetration when rigging, and easier setting of the hook when bitten by a fish. Neither of these fishing lures is inherently designed for surface fishing. Neither are they designed to create splashing type of water disturbance. The cavities proposed inside the soft bodied fishing lures of these patents, however, may be incorporated in the present invention to good effect, when employing a soft polymer plastic floating body. This incorporation of a cavity would not in any way inhibit the operation of the present invention as described herein. Therefore it is stipulated that such cavities may be considered to be included in soft bodied embodiments of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,069, Oct. 28, 1986, to Strickland teaches of a weedless Texas rigged double tailed worm fishing lure wherein the “flipper like” motion of the twin tails is designed to disturb the water and attract the attention of fish. This too is apparently intended to be a sinking fishing lure. If it were to be modified to render it to become a surface floating fishing lure, any splashing action accidentally caused by the protruding tails would be of a radically different nature than the splashing caused by the present invention. Similar appendages, if used in combination with the present invention, would still allow the resulting fishing lure to operate according to the theory of operation described herein. It is therefore stipulated that soft bodied embodiments of the present invention may incorporate such “flipper like” features, in such cases that they do not interfere with the claims of the present invention.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,267 Jun. 26, 2007 to Konstant reveals a modified Texas rigged worm incorporating a cone at the nose. However, in this case, the cone faces backwards, and is used purely as the “head” of the worm, and as a means of rendering the fishing lure more nearly weedless by inhibiting snagging of weeds by deflecting such weeds away from the soft bodied nose of the fishing lure. It is particularly likely to be a sinking fishing lure, and would not generate any significant surface water splashing were it to be given positive buoyancy.
Therefore fishing lures heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages:
a) Very few are designed specifically to be weedless surface floating fishing lures, adapted to being retrieved over the top of weeds, logs, and other floating debris where large fish tend to hide.
b) Very few surface floating weedless fishing lures are capable of generating splashes, sounds, or water vibrations of sufficient strength to attract the attention of fish hiding at a distance or hiding out of sight underneath cover where the hiding fish cannot directly see the fishing lure lying on the water surface.c) Various existing fishing lures that are designed to splash or attract attention on the surface of the water tend to not have the benefit of natural appearing soft bodied prey. Furthermore many tend to generate sounds or vibrations by means that do not keep the fishing lure rigorously on the surface. A fishing lure that dives below the surface, even by several inches, will tend to snag debris, even if the fishing lure's hooks are theoretically rigged to be weedless.