Angler’s Dictionary

I often receive letters and e-mails from readers out there who don’t fish but read this column anyway. Occasionally, somebody will ask me to define some of the fishing terms that I rattle off here — they say that it sounds to them like I’m speaking a foreign language. So, I figured it was time for a little Angler Vocab 101. Okay, kiddies, in your seats, please. Here we go…there will be a quiz at the end of the semester.

Bass Fishing

1. An excuse for anglers to get together, drink beer, listen to country music and buy expensive boats. See Catfishing.

Cabela’s

1. To be “Cabela’d” is to be bankrupt, busted, out ‘o cash.
2. A mail order fishing and hunting retailer where it is quite easy to spend the kid’s college fund in a hurry.

Catfishing

1. An excuse for anglers to get together, drink beer, listen to country music and buy cheap lawn chairs.

Fly Fishing

1. An awesome sport overrun by big city yuppies and wanna-be outdoorsmen, who, by the way, have caused a dramatic increase in the price of fly fishing gear. Thanks, Robert Redford!
2. A fishing method in which fish are fooled into eating artificial insects and minnows made of feathers and glue (called flies). Unlike spincasting, the weight of the line, rather than the weight of the lure, is what is cast in fly fishing.

Kastmaster

1. The grand master of the Ninja Fishing Team.
2. A thin, dense metal spoon-type lure that is often trolled or casted for trout and many other species. It resembles a small minnow or baitfish.

Fluorocarbon

1. The new double-duty copy machine toner that also fights cavities.
2. A new type of fishing line that is almost completely invisible underwater.

Lazy Ike

1. That crazy ol’ uncle of yours who hasn’t worked since the 70’s and is always hitting you up for some cash.
2. A Banana-shaped plastic lure that is used for trout, bass, steelhead and walleye.

Mooching (to mooch)

1. The use of sweet, sappy language and/or actions to acquire a beer from one’s buddy’s cooler.
2. A method of taking salmon in the ocean in which one uses fresh herring or anchovies for bait from a drifting boat.

Popper

1. Contrary to popular belief, not a shot of tequila and 7-Up.
2. A floating plastic or balsa lure that is fished on the surface for species like bass and stripers. Often retrieved with a splashing or “popping” motion.

Power Bait

1. Fish steroids.
2. A commercially-produced trout bait that comes in several extremely bright (and stinky) varieties. Like fish steroids, not at all good for a trout’s health — especially when equipped with a cleverly-concealed treble hook.

Rat-L-Trap

1. Your first car.
2. That weird neighbor of yours who just won’t shut up about his 18 kitties. 3. A minnow-shaped bass and striper lure that wobbles side to side when reeled in and produces a loud rattling noise thanks to several internal BB’s.

Sinker

1. What an un-opened beer becomes when handled with fish slime-coated hands aboard a boat.
2. What a fishing buddy becomes after he’s “released” too many beers over the side.
3. A chunk of lead that is designed to get a bait or lure down in the water column. Comes in countless shapes and sizes.

Sling Blade

1. Billy Bob Thornton’s freshman effort in Hollywood.
2. In trolling: a small, thin, shiny teardrop shaped piece of metal attached to fishing line 12 to 36 inches ahead of a lure or bait that is designed to add fish-attracting flash and vibration to one’s offering. Most often used for trout and kokanee trolling.

Texas Rig

1. The biggest, baddest, 18 wheeler you’ve ever seen, blowing by you on the freeway like a hurricane, sportin’ Lone Star State plates.
2. A way to rig a plastic worm to make it weedless in which the hook point is buried in the worm’s body and a bullet-shaped sinker is run flush to the head of the bait.

Weedless

1. Definitely NOT what Jeff Spacoli was in the movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”
2. A lure that is designed to be used in heavy vegetation without fouling.

Wild Thing

1. Your teenage daughter.
2. Your teenage daughter’s boyfriend — you know, “Mr. Cool”…the one with the blue hair, the multiple body piercings and the audacity to call you “dude.”
3. A striper lure that’s been taking the Delta and Sacramento River by storm the last couple of seasons. It’s actually just a regular broken-backed Rebel plug with an after-market Hootchie skirt and grub tail added. Actually, looks pretty stupid…but it works!

Yo-Zuri

1. The newest Pokemon critter…or Pokeyman…or Poke-what-ever-the-hell they call those dumb things.
2. A fairly new line of minnow-imitating lures that have become all the rage at put-and-take trout lakes like San Pablo Reservoir and Camanche Lake.

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