Swivel device for supporting a balanced or semi-balanced fishing rod and indicating when a fish strikes

Claim 1

A swivel device for supporting a fishing rod at or near the center of gravity of the rod and in which the rod is free to swing about a vertical and horizontal axis and can be freely lifted in a vertical direction off from the swivel device and comprising: (a) a clevis shaped support having vertically extending and spaced apart side walls integral with a web portion of the clevis, the planes of the side walls paralleling each other and each side wall having a vertical slot extending downwardly from its upper edge, the bottom of each slot lying in the same horizontal plane; (b) a trunnion bearing having a base with diammetrically extending trunnions projecting beyond said base and rockably receivable in said slots so that when the trunnions are supported by the bottoms of said slots, the aligned axes of said trunnions will lie in said horizontal plane; (c) a fishing pole clamping member permanently and pivotally connected to the top of the base member of said trunnion bearing and freely swingable about said pivotal connection, the axis of said pivotal connection being normal to and intersecting the common axis of said trunnions; and (d) whereby said clamping member is free to swing about the pivotal connection between the clamping member and the trunnion bearing base as the fishing pole may be swung laterally, said trunnion bearing base being free to swing about the common axis of said trunnions to permit the fishing pole to likewise freely swing in a plane normal to said same horizontal plane, and the pole and said clamping member with its attached trunnion bearing beikng moved when a fish strikes to attract the fisherman, and permitting him to grasp the pole and freely lift it in a vertical direction to free the trunnions from the slots in said clevis side walls so that the fisherman can play the fish immediately and capture it.