The Lingo of Fishing

[Hawkeye21]

Hammer handle or cigar is a really small northern pike. 

A derp is a fish with it's upper lip missing.

Bronzeback for smallmouths.

Fresh water drum are called sheephead in my area.

Slaunch donkey is a huge bass.

[Catt]

Down here grass fishing encompasses Hydrilla, Coontail Moss, & Milfoil on lakes & reservoirs.

 

Marsh fishing has every type of vegetation known to mankind.

[J Francho]

"Junk Fishing"

[WRB]

Being a west coast angler we have different terms for fishing then the heartland or southern states. My early trips to the south was confushing trying to discuss bass fishing with locals. As noted earlier grass met any aquatic form of vegetation lumped into one term. The entire sunfish family was called bream pronounced brim in lieu of bluegill, Red Ear, Green sunfish, pumpkin seeds etc. Sometimes crappie called specs are included as bream. Green trout covers several fish. Largemouth bass are bass, Smallmouth are brown bass or smallies, Spotted bass are usually called spots everywhere.

Plugs are crankbaits, traps are any lipless crankbait, frogs are hollowbodies, toads are solid body frogs, pig& jig is any bass jig with a trailer, a trailer is anything added to a jig or spinnerbait. Creatures are soft platics except worms. Thin water is shallow water, deep water is any depth over 20'. Structure and cover is everything that makes up a lake except water, no consensus between them.

Fishing Terms get redefined every year. Flipping was flipping a lure without using the reel now flipping and pitching are the same presentation. A paddle tail was a worm with a flatten tail like a canoe paddle, now it's a any soft plastic with a boot tail. Swimbait...can't define it anymore.

Tom

 

[TnRiver46]

8 minutes ago, WRB said:

Being a west coast angler we have different terms for fishing then the heartland or southern states. My early trips to the south was confushing trying to discuss bass fishing with locals. As noted earlier grass met any aquatic form of vegetation lumped into one term. The entire sunfish family was called bream pronounced brim in lieu of bluegill, Red Ear, Green sunfish, pumpkin seeds etc. Sometimes crappie called specs are included as bream. Green trout covers several fish. Largemouth bass are bass, Smallmouth are brown bass or smallies, Spotted bass are usually called spots everywhere.

Plugs are crankbaits, traps are any lipless crankbait, frogs are hollowbodies, toads are solid body frogs, pig& jig is any bass jig with a trailer, a trailer is anything added to a jig or spinnerbait. Creatures are soft platics except worms. Thin water is shallow water, deep water is any depth over 20'. Structure and cover is everything that makes up a lake except water, no consensus between them.

Fishing Terms get redefined every year.

Tom

 

And any soft drink is a coke 

[FryDog62]

Northern Pike are aka:

 

•Toothy Critters

•Snot Rockets

•Scud Missiles

•Jimmy Durante

[GReb]

There’s only 3 types of green: grass, pads, and cheese.  
 

Must say though crappie fisherman lingo puts bass fisherman to shame. 

[Manly Studson]

Jackfish, Mudfish, chain pickerel—same fish, three different fishermen.

[N Florida Mike]

21 minutes ago, Manly Studson said:

Jackfish, Mudfish, chain pickerel—same fish, three different fishermen.

Not where I’m at. Mudfish are bowfins. Chain pickerel are jacks, in fresh water anyway. 

[N Florida Mike]

@WRB was right about us lumping all sunfish into one term “ bream”

Bluegills are copperheads here. Redears are shellcrackers, spotted  sunfish are stumpknockers, red breasts are... red breasts!!

we call crappies “ Specks” We just call largemouths “bass”. If it’s a subspecies we say the specific name, like Suwannee bass, etc

We call yellow bullhead catfish “ butter “ cats, and brown bullheads are usually called just bullheads or maybe river cats.

One of the old cracker terms I don’t hear much anymore is a large fish or nice buck was called “ a HAIRY one” and usually had “SON” as a prefix or suffix.?

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, FryDog62 said:

Northern Pike are aka:

 

•Toothy Critters

•Snot Rockets

•Scud Missiles

•Jimmy Durante

I feel as though I’ve also heard them called snakes 

[MN Fisher]

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I feel as though I’ve also heard them called snakes 

Yep - that's another one.

[RB 77]

10 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. 

 

 

"lake lice"

[Chunk_Chaser]

1 hour ago, Manly Studson said:

Jackfish, Mudfish, chain pickerel—same fish, three different fishermen.

Mudfish is a new one for a pike. Mudfish are bowfin everywhere I’ve been.

[The Bassman]

7 hours ago, J Francho said:

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

And lest we forget, the one-eyed Sammy that outfished any spook you ever threw.

[Manly Studson]

58 minutes ago, Chunk_Chaser said:

Mudfish is a new one for a pike. Mudfish are bowfin everywhere I’ve been.

I’m not sure why someone called it a mud fish. They were in shallow water and going for top water lures. I was in middle GA when someone called a pickerel a mud fish.

[Fishingmickey]

I dunno if I got her hooked good after throwing a turd in her bed and she picked it up then I crossed her eyes. If I can just keep this Hydrilla gorilla money fish pinned and it's in the mouth it will be a serious cull.

FM

[JediAmoeba]

One that really gets under my skin, that I hear all kinds of new people using, is "chew" or any variations thereof.  I have shut videos off when they say a bass chewed a lure.  I dont know why, but I hate it with a burning passion.

 

 

 

[haggard]

Catch: "Hey Buddy!"

Release: "Thanks Buddy."

 

[J Francho]

2 hours ago, The Bassman said:

And lest we forget, the one-eyed Sammy that outfished any spook you ever threw.

Thought I lost it, but found it while organizing for spring. That bait and my Popmax are all I really need!

Speaking of catch and release, this is a concept most non anglers are baffled by.  I mean, when you sink a put, do you take the cup with you?

[Fishingmickey]

16 hours ago, JediAmoeba said:

One that really gets under my skin, that I hear all kinds of new people using, is "chew" or any variations thereof.  I have shut videos off when they say a bass chewed a lure.  I dont know why, but I hate it with a burning passion.

 

 

 

Probably just about as much as I hate hearing the description "Ripping Lips".  I'm sure there is no better way to arm the PETA crowd then to have someone's overheard conversation about how they ripped the lips off of a fish being used to describe how they caught a bass.

[WRB]

Texas rig....

[J Francho]

I've never seen an armed PETA crowd.

[WRB]

I remember my father inlaw talking about catching big lawyers while lake trout fishing and didn't have a clue what a lawyer was. Had to look it up and it was a burbot (fresh water ling). My inlaws had least 3 names for pike; hammer handle for juevnile size, Jack for everything under 5 lbs and northern for larger size pike. We call juevnile size bass dinks, mid size keeper, anything over 7 lb a Lunker and giant bass depends on who catching it.

Tom

[J Francho]

2 minutes ago, WRB said:

I remember my father inlaw talking about catching big lawyers while lake trout fishing and didn't have a clue what a lawyer was. Had to look it up and it was a burbuit or fresh water ling.

They're both slimy bottom feeders.