Advancements in fishing tackle have resulted in fishing rod and reel combinations costing hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. Understandably, owners attempt to take great care of their fishing tackle. As one example of such care, deep sea fishing anglers commonly store their fishing rods in upright holders during transit to and from fishing locations. The upright holders support the rods in a conveniently stored position and prevent the rod from lying on the deck of the boat where the rod may be trampled over and broken.
The upright holders, which are shaped as cylindrical tubes for receiving the end of a fishing rod, attempt to store the fishing rods by relying on the weight of the fishing rod and tackle to prevent inadvertent removal from the holder. Although such an arrangement generally works during calm sea conditions or when the boat is traveling at low speeds, loss of rods and reels are common during rough sea conditions and during high speed traveling. For instance, if a boat is traveling at a high rate of speed and it encounters a sizeable wave, the rods, with all of their expensive tackle, may be inadvertently ejected from the rod holders and, sometimes, fall out of the boat.
Although anglers can travel slowly to help prevent the loss of rods and reels, in many fishing competitions, high speed travel to a distant fishing location can provide the advantage of more time spent fishing, and less time spent traveling. Thus, it is routine for anglers, particularly competition anglers, to travel to a desired fishing location at very high speeds to minimize traveling time and to maximize fishing time. These anglers, in particular, use very expensive fishing rods, reels and tackle and these anglers have used various devices to help secure the fishing rods to upright holders to prevent loss.
For instance, some anglers use a plurality of elastic cords to secure the fishing rods to the upright holders. To secure a rod to the upright holder with elastic cords, the cords are hooked to various parts of the fishing rod and reel and to the upright holder. Such an arrangement is inherently imprecise and can be ineffective in the event that an angler does not hook the elastic cord to appropriate locations on the rod and/or the holder. Accordingly, even with the use of elastic cords, fishing rods can still be lost. Further, it is not uncommon for a few of the plurality of elastic cords to become unhooked during travel and become ensnarled with the fishing rod, line and tackle creating a tangled and inoperable fishing rod that ultimately results in the loss of fishing time.
Accordingly, there is a need for an easy to operate device for securing fishing rods to upright holders. There is also a need for the device to allow quick removal of the rod from the upright holder.