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I'm wanting to incorporate some terminology in to a document I am working on to help explain to newbies what slang is used in fishing. The likes of rotton bottom, scrathcing etc.
If anyone has any slang (trying to keep to fishing slang rather than colloquialisms as this document will probably be used around the country) they would like to put on here with a description it would be much appreciated. Will also be a great sticky for the site if we can get a full list.
Some of these are class lads and thanks for all your input. I will keep trying to update this bit with the most up-to-date terminology. Apologies to any of you if yours hasn't appeared on here but will be for various reason lol.
Tackle
Shocker - shock leader line
drag,gripper,spider – weight with gripe wires on it
plunders/leads/sinkers - weight
Lures or shads – artificial baits (usually rubber or plastic) with hooks attached used to simulate fish in order to temp larger fish to bite. Have both surface (lures which don’t sink) and diving lures (have a lip on the front which forces them under the water.
Feathers, Hockeyes, daylights or muppets- (type of artificial lures and usually around 5 to each trace)
Bungee – Silicone tubing used for bait stops or float stops (instead of tying extra knots in your line)
Poppers – surface lures with a flat face. They make a popping noise as you pull them along the surface of the water
Duffer - line to rig clip
Spinner – metal lure
pirks – a large metal bar with hooks on end (kind of a large spinner)
Rigs
Rig – the end tackle which is used (consists of your hooks and weight)
Rotten bottom - weak line link to your weight to save losing whole rig and aid getting fish back (Various types).
clipped down – when you use a rig which allows you to clip your bait to it. This helps aid further casting but also prevents your bait from coming off or falling apart during cast
running ledger – when your hook length is free to run up and down your line (ie not fixed)
snood – the length of line
pennel – a hook length with 1 hook above another
Paternoster - a rig in which the line has a weight tied to the end, and the snood, or snoods are attached to the mainline above to weight.
Wishbone - a snood which is Y shaped with a hook on the end of two of the branches.
Two up, one down. 3 up, one up one down etc – Variations of snoods (amount and positioning)
Equipment
Birds nest – when your reel overruns and the line all comes out (looks like a birds nest)
Egg whisk, egg beater or mangle - fixed spool reel
wobbly stick - cheap rods (usually very bendy/flexible and will move around a lot with wind/tide
tip light - small chemical or battery operated light that's fixed to the end of your rod.
Reducer – a small section of rod blank which is inserted into the butt to assist in reeling in when the reel is fitted in the low position. It increases the length of your rod which is often helpful when beach fishing or fishing from a cliff edge.
Poker – when a rod is very stiff
Eyes, guides or line guides – the metal rings set along your rod which your line feeds through
Level wind – a device which can be found on some multipliers which automatically helps the line to lay on your reel perfectly
multi or multiplier – barrel shaped reel used for sea fishing.
Coasters - adjustable clips for attaching reels to rods, not the ones you put cups on
Tilly - a static lamp/light used to aid fishing in the dark.
Mag - Form of magnetic braking which aids in controlling the speed at which a spool spins.
gimbal – cross shaped holes cut out of the bottom of boat rods. When put in holders a metal bar holds rod in place by slotting in to gimbal to stop it moving
Clothing
floaty - a flotation suite . a warm suit one piece or two . used to say warm and afloat if you fall in
Chesties – chest waders
Smock – usually heavy linen or wool. Overgarment worn to help protect your clothing and keep you warm whilst fishing.
Fishing
Heads – means someone is casting near you so be aware (duck down)
snagged/fast hard/plugged/stuck/heft – when your line is stuck on the sea bed or on a rock
crack off – when your weight/line has snapped off during cast
handball – when you have to pull a fish up the side with your hands
slack liner – when a fish swims towards you and your line goes slack rather than you seeing the bite
pull for the break, pull it out or rip it out – when you are stuck on the bottom and you need to pull your line hard to either free it or snap it
lost the lot – when your line has snapped off and all your tackle is left in the sea
chuck,hoy,kest – to cast out
give it slack line – let lots of line out of your reel (usually if you are stuck on the bottom this could help the tide free your line
broke my ring – one of the eyes of your rod has cracked or broken
up or down the butt – sometimes people fish with the reel further up the rod and use the top hand holding reel/line or the reel can be further down the rod and bottom hand used for holding reel/line
flatty bashing – targeting flatfish
spinning - using lures (spinners) to fish wile casting and retrieving them
Pirking - up and down motion of an artificial lure to catch fish (boat fishing)
Pendulum casting - swinging lead around head for further distance (not recommended when fishing next to other anglers or the public)
fish on – means you have a fish attached to your line
Have a knock or have a bite – means there’s a fishing biting your bait
PB- New personal best size fish (largest fish you have caught of that species)
The set – the tide line
Scratching – using small hooks and baits to try and find any fish which is out there
Tangle – when your lines gets caught in other line (usually the person fishing next to you)
Bray – Big cast
Plop or lob – short cast
Laying your line – When reeling in you make sure your line is spread on to your reel evenly (only applies to a multiplier)
Thumbing – When you lightly keep your thumb on your multiplier during cast to help control it or slow it down
High Sticking – keeping your rod pointed to high on retrieve rather than keeping it on an angle (this can result in putting too much pressure on your rod and snapping it)
Kelp, grass or cabbage - seaweed
Blanked – didn’t manage to catch a fish during that session
Two patting - keeping a spare trace baited up so it can be swapped for the one on the line to save time when the line is retrieved. This is more used in match fishing.
Birds nest, ravel, frap up, over run or tangle – when your reel lets off loads more line than was needed and it all tangles up
Trolling - fishing a lure by towing it behind a boat, not looking for trolls)
Touch ledgering - Usually to hold the rod feeling for bites ,as opposed to leaving it on the rest.
Rattle - a type of bite associated with a small fish
Free line - to fish with just a hook attached and no other terminal tackle.
jigging – to use a lure off a boat and pull it up and down to simulate an injured fish
Downtiding – when fishing off a boat and letting your line run down with the tide
Uptiding – casting uptide from a boat
Tipping off – to put a small amount of an alternative bait on the end of the same hook with another bait
Sayings
tackle tart – someone likes designer fishing tackle rod reels or just loads of it
macky bashing - fishing for mackerel
ebb or back water – when the tide is going out
flood or coming water - when the tide is coming in
over high – fishing near the top of the tide
over low – fishing near the bottom of the tide
neap tide - lowest level of a high tide
spring tide - highest level of a tide
Slack water - period when the tide is not flowing
tide times – what time is high water/low water
big tide – when the tide is very low and very high (ie less than 1 meter at low and close to 5 meter at high)
tackle graveyard or snaggy – fishing somewhere that has very rough ground
Dodgy caster - Someone who casts too close to you and could be dangerous
howling or blowing a hoolie – very windy
haversack- to jump in next to someone fishing (etiquette says you shouldn’t really do this as can cause arguments)
Anything doing – is anything being caught
swim – an area of water to fish
White horses – when the waves are coming over the pier
Hit a mark – fishing a particular venue
worth a shot – it is worth your time fishing somewhere
sized – when a fish is of legal sized
undersized – when a fish is too small and would be illegal to keep
Protected – when a fish is a protected species and it would be illegal to take home
Dump – when the waves crash on the beach
Holding bottom – Referring to the lead to staying anchored on the bottom
sleck - very loose or runny mud
traps - tyres lined out for crabs
Bagging up – catching loads of fish
sacking it- call it a night
Crabbed off – When the crabs have eaten all of the bait on your hooks
Fish
Granny fish - scorpion fish
whitie, ting or sea chicken - whiting
tommy – small codling (usually undersize)
pig or whopper – big fish (usually referring to fish close to or above a double figure)
tiddler – small fish
stumpy – a codling which is a lot shorter but head and stomach look quite big (these usually have much more prominent markings than a normal cod)
poor cod – is actually a different species of cod to the normal cod (sometimes people mistake this for stumpy looking cod but it looks quite different from a normal cod)
Blegg, scochy or pout - another name for a pouting (Scotch haddock)
Dustbin lid – a large flat fish (size meant to resemble a dustbin lid)
Billet – small coalfish
Scotchie – a scotch haddock or pouting
Reddie or Kelpy – Red cod which lives in the kelp
Bootlace – small ling
Slimey or snotty - Eel
Smut or smoothy – Smoothhound
Schoolie (Small bass, hangs around in schools)
silver bar – bass
Strap - small conger eel
joey - small mackerel
Slugs - rockling
Bait
peeler or pillen - crab that is shedding its shell . used for bait
Softy – a crab that has peeled its shell. Often called a jelly if it has just peeled.
Slappy blacks – black lug worm which has had its insides removed but will toughen up if it is thrown on to the ground
runnydown – black lug worm which has had its insides removed and has been
luggy or lug - lugworm
raggy or rag - ragworm
blacks – black lugworm
yellow tails - a type of large lugworm around 4 to 5 cm in size with a yellow coloured tail
silvers, snakes or whites - white rag worm
poppers - peeler crabs whose shells have started to lift
Crinkly or tinny - crab which has peeled and started to harden
maddies - harbour rag
cart – red insides of a brown crab which is frozen and put in to sausages (usually in mesh) and bound to hooks to be used as bait
Livey – live bait (Be careful as most forms of this is illegal)
If anyone has any slang (trying to keep to fishing slang rather than colloquialisms as this document will probably be used around the country) they would like to put on here with a description it would be much appreciated. Will also be a great sticky for the site if we can get a full list.
Some of these are class lads and thanks for all your input. I will keep trying to update this bit with the most up-to-date terminology. Apologies to any of you if yours hasn't appeared on here but will be for various reason lol.
Tackle
Shocker - shock leader line
drag,gripper,spider – weight with gripe wires on it
plunders/leads/sinkers - weight
Lures or shads – artificial baits (usually rubber or plastic) with hooks attached used to simulate fish in order to temp larger fish to bite. Have both surface (lures which don’t sink) and diving lures (have a lip on the front which forces them under the water.
Feathers, Hockeyes, daylights or muppets- (type of artificial lures and usually around 5 to each trace)
Bungee – Silicone tubing used for bait stops or float stops (instead of tying extra knots in your line)
Poppers – surface lures with a flat face. They make a popping noise as you pull them along the surface of the water
Duffer - line to rig clip
Spinner – metal lure
pirks – a large metal bar with hooks on end (kind of a large spinner)
Rigs
Rig – the end tackle which is used (consists of your hooks and weight)
Rotten bottom - weak line link to your weight to save losing whole rig and aid getting fish back (Various types).
clipped down – when you use a rig which allows you to clip your bait to it. This helps aid further casting but also prevents your bait from coming off or falling apart during cast
running ledger – when your hook length is free to run up and down your line (ie not fixed)
snood – the length of line
pennel – a hook length with 1 hook above another
Paternoster - a rig in which the line has a weight tied to the end, and the snood, or snoods are attached to the mainline above to weight.
Wishbone - a snood which is Y shaped with a hook on the end of two of the branches.
Two up, one down. 3 up, one up one down etc – Variations of snoods (amount and positioning)
Equipment
Birds nest – when your reel overruns and the line all comes out (looks like a birds nest)
Egg whisk, egg beater or mangle - fixed spool reel
wobbly stick - cheap rods (usually very bendy/flexible and will move around a lot with wind/tide
tip light - small chemical or battery operated light that's fixed to the end of your rod.
Reducer – a small section of rod blank which is inserted into the butt to assist in reeling in when the reel is fitted in the low position. It increases the length of your rod which is often helpful when beach fishing or fishing from a cliff edge.
Poker – when a rod is very stiff
Eyes, guides or line guides – the metal rings set along your rod which your line feeds through
Level wind – a device which can be found on some multipliers which automatically helps the line to lay on your reel perfectly
multi or multiplier – barrel shaped reel used for sea fishing.
Coasters - adjustable clips for attaching reels to rods, not the ones you put cups on
Tilly - a static lamp/light used to aid fishing in the dark.
Mag - Form of magnetic braking which aids in controlling the speed at which a spool spins.
gimbal – cross shaped holes cut out of the bottom of boat rods. When put in holders a metal bar holds rod in place by slotting in to gimbal to stop it moving
Clothing
floaty - a flotation suite . a warm suit one piece or two . used to say warm and afloat if you fall in
Chesties – chest waders
Smock – usually heavy linen or wool. Overgarment worn to help protect your clothing and keep you warm whilst fishing.
Fishing
Heads – means someone is casting near you so be aware (duck down)
snagged/fast hard/plugged/stuck/heft – when your line is stuck on the sea bed or on a rock
crack off – when your weight/line has snapped off during cast
handball – when you have to pull a fish up the side with your hands
slack liner – when a fish swims towards you and your line goes slack rather than you seeing the bite
pull for the break, pull it out or rip it out – when you are stuck on the bottom and you need to pull your line hard to either free it or snap it
lost the lot – when your line has snapped off and all your tackle is left in the sea
chuck,hoy,kest – to cast out
give it slack line – let lots of line out of your reel (usually if you are stuck on the bottom this could help the tide free your line
broke my ring – one of the eyes of your rod has cracked or broken
up or down the butt – sometimes people fish with the reel further up the rod and use the top hand holding reel/line or the reel can be further down the rod and bottom hand used for holding reel/line
flatty bashing – targeting flatfish
spinning - using lures (spinners) to fish wile casting and retrieving them
Pirking - up and down motion of an artificial lure to catch fish (boat fishing)
Pendulum casting - swinging lead around head for further distance (not recommended when fishing next to other anglers or the public)
fish on – means you have a fish attached to your line
Have a knock or have a bite – means there’s a fishing biting your bait
PB- New personal best size fish (largest fish you have caught of that species)
The set – the tide line
Scratching – using small hooks and baits to try and find any fish which is out there
Tangle – when your lines gets caught in other line (usually the person fishing next to you)
Bray – Big cast
Plop or lob – short cast
Laying your line – When reeling in you make sure your line is spread on to your reel evenly (only applies to a multiplier)
Thumbing – When you lightly keep your thumb on your multiplier during cast to help control it or slow it down
High Sticking – keeping your rod pointed to high on retrieve rather than keeping it on an angle (this can result in putting too much pressure on your rod and snapping it)
Kelp, grass or cabbage - seaweed
Blanked – didn’t manage to catch a fish during that session
Two patting - keeping a spare trace baited up so it can be swapped for the one on the line to save time when the line is retrieved. This is more used in match fishing.
Birds nest, ravel, frap up, over run or tangle – when your reel lets off loads more line than was needed and it all tangles up
Trolling - fishing a lure by towing it behind a boat, not looking for trolls)
Touch ledgering - Usually to hold the rod feeling for bites ,as opposed to leaving it on the rest.
Rattle - a type of bite associated with a small fish
Free line - to fish with just a hook attached and no other terminal tackle.
jigging – to use a lure off a boat and pull it up and down to simulate an injured fish
Downtiding – when fishing off a boat and letting your line run down with the tide
Uptiding – casting uptide from a boat
Tipping off – to put a small amount of an alternative bait on the end of the same hook with another bait
Sayings
tackle tart – someone likes designer fishing tackle rod reels or just loads of it
macky bashing - fishing for mackerel
ebb or back water – when the tide is going out
flood or coming water - when the tide is coming in
over high – fishing near the top of the tide
over low – fishing near the bottom of the tide
neap tide - lowest level of a high tide
spring tide - highest level of a tide
Slack water - period when the tide is not flowing
tide times – what time is high water/low water
big tide – when the tide is very low and very high (ie less than 1 meter at low and close to 5 meter at high)
tackle graveyard or snaggy – fishing somewhere that has very rough ground
Dodgy caster - Someone who casts too close to you and could be dangerous
howling or blowing a hoolie – very windy
haversack- to jump in next to someone fishing (etiquette says you shouldn’t really do this as can cause arguments)
Anything doing – is anything being caught
swim – an area of water to fish
White horses – when the waves are coming over the pier
Hit a mark – fishing a particular venue
worth a shot – it is worth your time fishing somewhere
sized – when a fish is of legal sized
undersized – when a fish is too small and would be illegal to keep
Protected – when a fish is a protected species and it would be illegal to take home
Dump – when the waves crash on the beach
Holding bottom – Referring to the lead to staying anchored on the bottom
sleck - very loose or runny mud
traps - tyres lined out for crabs
Bagging up – catching loads of fish
sacking it- call it a night
Crabbed off – When the crabs have eaten all of the bait on your hooks
Fish
Granny fish - scorpion fish
whitie, ting or sea chicken - whiting
tommy – small codling (usually undersize)
pig or whopper – big fish (usually referring to fish close to or above a double figure)
tiddler – small fish
stumpy – a codling which is a lot shorter but head and stomach look quite big (these usually have much more prominent markings than a normal cod)
poor cod – is actually a different species of cod to the normal cod (sometimes people mistake this for stumpy looking cod but it looks quite different from a normal cod)
Blegg, scochy or pout - another name for a pouting (Scotch haddock)
Dustbin lid – a large flat fish (size meant to resemble a dustbin lid)
Billet – small coalfish
Scotchie – a scotch haddock or pouting
Reddie or Kelpy – Red cod which lives in the kelp
Bootlace – small ling
Slimey or snotty - Eel
Smut or smoothy – Smoothhound
Schoolie (Small bass, hangs around in schools)
silver bar – bass
Strap - small conger eel
joey - small mackerel
Slugs - rockling
Bait
peeler or pillen - crab that is shedding its shell . used for bait
Softy – a crab that has peeled its shell. Often called a jelly if it has just peeled.
Slappy blacks – black lug worm which has had its insides removed but will toughen up if it is thrown on to the ground
runnydown – black lug worm which has had its insides removed and has been
luggy or lug - lugworm
raggy or rag - ragworm
blacks – black lugworm
yellow tails - a type of large lugworm around 4 to 5 cm in size with a yellow coloured tail
silvers, snakes or whites - white rag worm
poppers - peeler crabs whose shells have started to lift
Crinkly or tinny - crab which has peeled and started to harden
maddies - harbour rag
cart – red insides of a brown crab which is frozen and put in to sausages (usually in mesh) and bound to hooks to be used as bait
Livey – live bait (Be careful as most forms of this is illegal)
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