Fishing Pole Holder

The present invention relates to a holder for releasably securing a fishing pole at a fixed location along a rail of a boat or dock whereby a fisherman may leave his pole unattended or may maintain several poles in operation at the same time.

Different types of devices have been previously employed for mounting and holding fishing poles. Two such devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,192,112 and 4,0036,368. Both are relatively expensive and require a screw clamping connection to a boat seat or rail, which has proven to be unsatisfactory under actual and repeated use conditions.

The present invention overcomes the foregoing shortcomings of the prior art by providing a holder which may be formed of relatively inexpensive plastic or rubber-like material and which may be easily and quickly attached to a rail simply by wrapping a holder strap around the rail and into a pole receiving channel in a top of the holder base member transverse to the direction of the rail.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the holder of the present invention secured to a dock rail and holding a fishing pole at a fixed location along the rail.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the holder.

FIG. 2A is a bottom view of an end portion of the strap shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 is an end view of the holder of FIG. 2 looking in the direction of the arrows 3--3.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the holder and rail taken along the lines 4--4 in FIG. 1.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the present invention comprises a holder 10 releasably connected to a rail 12 for securing a fishing pole 14 at a fixed location along the rail.

More specifically, the holder 10 is composed of a resilient hard rubber and comprises a generally rectangular base member 16 having an elongated bottom channel 18 for receiving a top of rail 12 to assist in locating the holder on the rail. A strap 20 extends laterally from a side of the base member 16 transverse to the direction of the bottom channel 18 to wrap around the rail 12 and a top of the base member, thereby releasably securing the holder 10 to the rail. Preferably, the strap 20 is a flat elongated strap having its flat surface adapted to engage and wrap around the rail. The strap 20 carries a fastener 22 comprising a series of projections 24, such as rivits, normal to the strap adjacent the base member 16 and a series of holes 26 in the strap adjacent an opposite end thereof for releasably receiving the projections as shown in FIG. 4.

In addition to the base member 16 and strap 20, the holder 10 includes a pair of resilient arms 28 and 30 extending upwardly from a top of the base member and spaced in the direction of the bottom channel 18 on opposite sides of the strap. The arms 28 and 30 face each other with parallel base portions 32 and 34 defining the base 36 of a top channel 38 for receiving and guiding the strap 20 as it wraps around the top of the base member 16 between the arms. From the parallel base or sidewall portions 32 and 34, the arms 28 and 30 curve outwardly and upwardly from each other to define a generally circular central region for the top channel 38 into which the fishing pole 14 may rest upon being inserted into the channel. From the central region, the arms extend upwardly toward each other at upper ends 40 and 42. The ends 40 and 42 are adapted to separate as the pole is inserted downwardly into the channel 38 and to snap over a top of the pole as the pole nests in the channel.

Thus constructed, it is a simple and quick task to connect the holder 10 to the rail 12 and secure the pole 14 to the holder. The fisherman simply places the base of the holder on the rail with the bottom channel 18 in line with the rail and wraps the strap around the rail securing the fastener 22. He then rests the pole in the top channel 38 as illustrated in FIG. 1. To release the pole and disconnect the holder the process is simply reversed.