The Lingo of Fishing

[Manly Studson]

All sports have their lingo. In baseball a pitcher can throw a ‘heater.’ In football it’s called a ‘frozen rope.’ The language of fishing is unique too.  For example, ‘skinny water,’ ‘small water,’ and ‘slack water’—three weird terms for depth, size, and flow. One can ‘throw’ a lure but ‘cast’ a rod (if you ‘throw a rod,’ then you’re now talking about a car’s engine). When I began fishing, I found fishermen’s geographic terms to be tough to follow (e.g. main or secondary points). What fishing lingo do you find strange, interesting, or unique?

[MIbassyaker]

It took me awhile to realize "grass" meant any vegetation in the water, and not only actual grasses.

[Columbia Craw]

A frequently used term in my "lingo" is SKUNKED.

[Manly Studson]

11 minutes ago, Columbia Craw said:

A frequently used term in my "lingo" is SKUNKED.

The “s-word” is definitely something to avoid. It has 7 letters but acts like a 4-lettered word. Like all curse words, I try not to say them, except when I catch no fish (or when my wife tried to drive onto the interstate by going up the exit ramp).

[Bluebasser86]

When I'm talking about a Trap or a Jerk, it's not what most folks are thinking.

[WRB]

The terminology used is also regional without any commonality and terms get lost and changed over time making communication extremely difficult. We do have a list of common terms used on this site somewhere that may help.

Tom

[lo n slo]

me and my cousin have our own terminology. spotted bass are “spotties” and largemouth are ”silverbacks”. Zoom lizards are “greenies”. Lake Norman is sometimes called “Lake Need-a-bite”. i ain’t gonna say what we call the wake boaters and skiers. 

 

[12poundbass]

35 minutes ago, lo n slo said:

me and my cousin have our own terminology. spotted bass are “spotties” and largemouth are ”silverbacks”. Zoom lizards are “greenies”. Lake Norman is sometimes called “Lake Need-a-bite”. i ain’t gonna say what we call the wake boaters and skiers. 

 

Go a head, there are filters. ?

[Sam]

Manly, you have opened the door to a lot of funny responses.

 

The last time this topic appeared in the Forum it was really funny and imaginative.

 

Like "I want to show you my worm" means one thing to us and another thing to nonfisher people.

 

The term "shaky head" can have a different connotation to others.

 

I could go on but I will leave it to the guys to add to the list.

[12poundbass]

9 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

It took me awhile to realize "grass" meant any vegetation in the water, and not only actual grasses.

I still call it “seaweed”, I have my whole life. When I started getting serious into bass fishing and learned the term “grass”, I realized then I was lead astray as a child. I still can’t break the habit. 

[TnRiver46]

I’ve still never figured out what a secondary point or inside turn is. But I bet I’ve fished a few thousand of each 

[scaleface]

Structure is the word that causes the most confusion . To some people ,  like me , structure is the topography of a body of water . To others , even pros , structure also means fish attractants , such as  wood  . 

 

 I call anglers that look for fishing spots by watching others , sometimes using binoculars , "Jackalls."

[roadwarrior]

Gonna need a bigger boat.

 

[GioFromNJ]

lunks, donks, dinks, hogs, toads, big'n, flipper, lipper, flippin, jiggin, sauce'n...

[FryDog62]

2 hours ago, lo n slo said:

me and my cousin have our own terminology. spotted bass are “spotties” and largemouth are ”silverbacks”. Zoom lizards are “greenies”. Lake Norman is sometimes called “Lake Need-a-bite”. i ain’t gonna say what we call the wake boaters and skiers. 

 

A friend of mine, we refer to going out to catch “Big Smallies” as fishing for oxymorons...

[Chunk_Chaser]

We pounded them today boys. 

[Hower08]

Jerking off. Out favorite dock talk term around others. Makes them not follow us around... Most of the time

 

Getting jiggy. Worm heading. Etc .... Few of us know exactly what we are truly talking about we mostly just get goofy ass looks from others 

[Choporoz]

bite; strike; hit; 'knocked three foot of slack'; 'slammed it'; 'hit like a truck'; nibble; 'picked it up'; 'jammed me at the boat'; 'ate it'.....

[J Francho]

"Dink" is what most outsiders don't understand.

[DitchPanda]

He pantsed me...something that may have happened to yourself or somebody you know in middle school... To me it means a fish that ripped your soft plastic off your T rig or jig without getting hooked

Chucking a blade means throwing a spinnerbait or chatterbait...it does not however mean throwing a knife at someone 

[Catt]

10 hours ago, WRB said:

The terminology used is also regional without any commonality

 

Tight eyes: means a small bass because their eyes are tight together.

 

Hawg not pig, hogs are bigger than pigs.

 

Stick or hammer: a very good angler

[MIbassyaker]

3 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

I still call it “seaweed”, I have my whole life. When I started getting serious into bass fishing and learned the term “grass”, I realized then I was lead astray as a child. I still can’t break the habit. 

Yeah, actually, I called it seaweed as a kid too. I think the adults just said "weeds", or it got shortened to weeds at some point, because that's what I call it now. 

[soflabasser]

13 hours ago, Manly Studson said:

What fishing lingo do you find strange, interesting, or unique?

I find it interesting how a fish can have many different names. For example a largemouth bass has many names such as bucketmouth bass, bigmouth bass, green bass, and green trout to name a few. Another example is bowfin where some people call them mudfish, grinnel, dogfish and other names.

[J._Bricker]

11 hours ago, WRB said:

The terminology used is also regional without any commonality

So very true Tom...
 

Tules- pronounced (too Lee’s) known everywhere else as a cattails or reeds. And tule-dippin became what we know as flipping

 

rat- a small, undersized black bass 

 

Delta rat- someone who primarily fishes Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta 

 

 

[Vilas15]

1 hour ago, MIbassyaker said:

Yeah, actually, I called it seaweed as a kid too. I think the adults just said "weeds", or it got shortened to weeds at some point, because that's what I call it now. 

I say they theyre in the weeds or weedlines. I think "grass" is a southern thing (or maybe eveywhere but the northern states). To me weeds can encompass coontail, cabbage, milfoil, grass, you name it.