Historically, spinning reels have been secured to the handle of fishing rods in one of several known ways. Perhaps the oldest way, and to date the way which has afforded the most comfort to the fisherman, was by the use of sliding rings. Although admittedly comfortable, because the sliding rings tended to squeeze the foot of the reel directly against the soft surface of the handle--often cork--the arrangement has never been acceptably secure. After one or two experiences when the reel has come loose at a most inopportune time for the fisherman, the angler normally succumbs to supplementing the rings--or replacing them--by wrapping a waterproof tape such as electricians' plastic tape, about the handle to secure the foot of the reel to the handle. Such makeshift arrangements, while comfortable, work to destroy the handle if the tape is repeatedly applied and removed, or at least precludes the convenience of having a demountable reel if the tape is left in situ.
The prior known, fixed reel seat serves to obviate the insecurity inherent to the sliding ring mounting arrangement and maintains the convenience of permitting the reel to be demountably secured to the handle. However, such arrangements are anything but comfortable. In a fixed seating arrangement a normally metallic reel seat is provided on the handle to receive the foot of the reel, and one of a variety of clamping arrangements may be selectively tightened or released by actuating mechanisms which interrupt the otherwise smoothly contoured exterior surface of the handle. One of the most commonly employed arrangements for a fixed seat arrangement employs one hooded ring which is fixedly secured to the handle and into which one distal end of the reel foot can be received. A sliding ring is provided with a hooded portion within which the opposite distal end of the reel foot is received, and a knurled lock nut moves along a threaded portion of the handle abuttingly to secure the foot of the reel between the fixed and sliding rings. The hooded rings, the exposed portion of the foot spanning therebetween, the threaded portion of the handle and the knurled lock nut all combine to provide a composite surface that irritates, and abrades, the skin on the fisherman's hand after several hours of usage.
Casting, and spin casting, reels, because the reel mounting seat is axially displaced from the portion of the handle which is gripped by the fisherman, have heretofore adapted themselves more readily to comfortable, and yet acceptably more functional mounting arrangements. One such highly acceptable mount that is particularly adapted for use with spin casting reels is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,276,160 owned by my assignee. However, because it is necessary for the fisherman to grasp the rod handle at the same location at which the spinning reel is mounted on the handle, such prior known arrangements have not been effectively adapted for use with spinning reels.