Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Fly Fishing Lingo

Every sport has its own lingo. For basketball if someone could jump high they'd have "hops". If they could dribble well they had "mad handles". If you made most of your shots you were "money". A player lucky enough to have a bunch of these talents had "game." I was thinking today about fly fishing lingo. I thought maybe us fly fishing bloggers could create a glossary of fly fishing terms not so well known to those outside the fishing world. Here are the ones that came to mind.

A Broomstick - A fly rod with virtually no flex. The rod has to be over weighted about 3 line weights to load right.

A Noodle - The opposite of a broomstick. The rod has too much flex and has the flexibility of a small branch.

Pig, Toad, Hog - Labels for large fish by some fisherman. *For some fisherman a large fish is labeled after a different species once it reaches a certain size. No known reason for this behavior.

Slow Fishing - Lets be honest, slow fishing means you're not catching anything.

Lunker - Another term for big fish.

Sketchy - Usually describing an unfavorable condition. Such as sketchy wading.

Chicken - A monster fly that looks as though you've used all of the feathers off a chicken.

Speck - Depends on if you're fishing salt water or freshwater. In freshwater it means a brook trout, if it is salt water it means a speckled trout.

Bucket Mouth - Largemouth Bass

Dink - Small chub or minnow

Bait Chucker - Spin fisherman, bait caster

Blue Line - Water that is not stocked and has not been designated to hold populations of trout.

LDR - Long distance release, when you hook a fish from a distance and it comes off. *technically not a catch to some fisherman.

SDR - Short distance release. *If you touch the leader the fish is considered caught by some fisherman.

Golden Bone - Carp

Southern Salmon - American or Hickory Shad. The fish migrate from the ocean inland to spawn similar to some Salmon species.

Trash Fish - Carp, Gar, Bowfin. Coincidentally some of the greatest fighting fish on a fly rod.

Tailing - the feeding pattern of a fish where there head is down and the tail slightly breaks the surface of the water.

Mudding - Feeding pattern of fish routing in the mud and causing plumes to form. Most commonly seen when carp are feeding.

Windknot - When the wind tangles your leader into a tangled knot. *Sometimes called birds nest.

I can't believe no more come to mind. I'm sure you others can think of a ton more.

4 comments:

  1. Those are some great words of fly fish lingo. Here are a few of mine for you.

    Drifters - Fish caught drifting down into a hole, while retrieving fly upstream.

    Survivor - The fish you catch with huge scars and eagle talon marks in them.

    Thrashers - The fish you catch that thrash about on the surface, spooking every fish in that hole.

    A$$hole - The duck that swims while flapping it's wings, and spooks the next four holes in front of you :)

    Tree Hugger - The fish that heads directly for the underwater logs or branches to free themselves of the hook in their mouth.

    The Glutton - The fish that takes your fly even though they still have half a fish sticking out of their mouth.

    Tight LInes.

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  2. hehe those are pretty good. I like the "tree hugger." Thanks for playing Trout Magee.

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  3. Mud Balls - carp feeding in deeper water

    Screaming line - the sound of your line when said carp is on

    Picking Pockets - fishing deep holes in a river

    Hooking up - catching a fish...but I avoid the term because it reminds me of frat house parties ;)

    Fun post! I shall try to think of more!

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  4. Hmm... I only have a few not mentioned.

    "Bobbicator': a strike indicator that's really a bobber

    "Straight out of an Orvis catalog": someone on the stream who is wearing brand new everything and looks like they put it on for the first time

    "Flashers" big fish below the boat that give off a bright flash of their sides when they turn on their side to take something

    "Hoosiers": fly fishermen from Indiana who can't cast but think that the two miles of trout water in their state is like the Missouri

    "Hillbilly trout": smallmouth bass

    "war paint": camo markings on the side of a smallmouth's face

    "Bull dog": when a fish dives straight down and rubs its head on the bottom of the stream bed, giving a hard tug and wiggle

    hmmm...that's all I got right now Kev.

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