A to Z
117 fishing terms, explained
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A
- Action – How much of a fishing rod bends when it is loaded. A fast-action rod bends mostly near the tip, while a slow-action rod bends further down toward the handle.
- Artificial lure – Any bait that is not real food, such as plastic worms, spoons, plugs and jigs. Often just called a lure or an artificial.
- Artificial reef – Man-made structure placed on the bottom on purpose – old ships, concrete or purpose-built modules – to create habitat that attracts fish.
B
- Backing – Extra line wound onto a reel underneath the main line. It gives you more line if a big fish makes a long run, and it is standard on fly reels.
- Bag limit – The number of fish of a species one person may keep in a day. Limits are set by state and federal agencies and vary by place and season – see our fishing license guide for your state’s rules.
- Bail – The wire arm on a spinning reel. You flip it open to cast and close it to wind line back in.
- Bait ball – A tight, swirling school of baitfish pushed together by predators. Diving birds and splashing on the surface often give one away.
- Bait well – A tank on a boat that keeps live bait alive with fresh, circulating water. Many anglers use the term interchangeably with live well.
- Baitcaster – A reel that sits on top of the rod and has a spool that turns as you cast. It offers good control but takes practice to cast without tangles.
- Baitfish – Small fish, such as menhaden, sardines, mullet and shad, that bigger fish eat. Anglers use them as live or cut bait.
- Barometric pressure – The weight of the air above us, measured by a barometer. Many anglers believe changes in pressure affect how fish feed – see barometric pressure and fishing.
- Barotrauma – Injury to a fish brought up quickly from deep water, caused by gas in its body expanding. Signs include a bloated belly or bulging eyes.
- Bay boat – A mid-size, shallow-draft boat built for bays, sounds and calm nearshore water. A common inshore charter boat.
- Billfish – Fish with a long, spear-like bill, including sailfish, marlin and swordfish. Most billfish are released.
- Bite window – A stretch of time when fish are feeding actively, often linked to tide, light or weather. Solunar tables try to predict them – see solunar fishing times.
- Bottom fishing – Fishing with bait on or near the sea floor, usually over reefs, wrecks or ledges. Easy for beginners – see bottom fishing vs trolling.
- Bow – The front of the boat.
- Braid – Fishing line woven from many thin strands. It is very strong for its thickness and does not stretch, so you feel bites clearly.
- Bycatch – Fish or other animals caught by accident while targeting a different species.
C
- Captain – The licensed person in charge of the boat and everyone on it. On a charter, the captain finds the fish and makes all safety and weather calls.
- Catch and release – Letting a fish go after catching it, ideally quickly and with as little handling as possible. See our catch and release guide.
- Center console – An open boat with the steering station in the middle of the deck, leaving room to fish all the way around. Very common for nearshore and offshore charters.
- Charter – A fishing trip where you hire a licensed captain and boat for a set amount of time. Browse fishing charters by town.
- Chum – Ground or chopped fish, or other attractants, put in the water to draw fish toward the boat. The trail it makes in the current is called a chum slick.
- Circle hook – A hook with the point turned back toward the shank. It tends to hook fish in the corner of the mouth, which makes release easier, and it is required in some fisheries.
- Conventional reel – A sturdy reel that sits on top of the rod with a spool that turns as line goes out. Used for bottom fishing and trolling for larger fish.
- Current – Moving water, caused by tides, wind, rivers or ocean flows. Fish often feed where current carries food to them.
- Cut bait – Pieces of fish used as bait, as opposed to live bait or lures.
D
- Deckhand – A crew member who helps the captain by rigging lines, baiting hooks, gaffing or netting fish and cleaning the catch. Also called the mate.
- Deep dropping – Fishing in very deep water, often with electric reels and heavy weights, for species that live far down along the bottom.
- Deep-sea fishing – A common name for offshore fishing in deep water, well away from land. See our deep-sea fishing guide.
- Descending device – A tool that takes a fish back down to depth and releases it there, helping fish with barotrauma survive. Rules in some areas require one on board.
- Downrigger – A device that uses a heavy weight on a cable to hold a trolled lure at a set depth. Common on Great Lakes charters such as those out of Chicago.
- Drag – The adjustable brake on a reel that lets a strong fish pull out line without breaking it.
- Drift – Letting the boat move with the wind or current while you fish, instead of anchoring. Drift fishing covers more ground.
- Drift boat – A rowed river boat with a raised bow and stern, used by fishing guides on rivers. See drift boat vs wade fishing.
E
- Ebb tide – The falling or outgoing tide, when water flows out toward the sea. See how to read a tide chart.
- Eddy – A swirl of water where current curls back on itself, often behind a rock, point or bridge piling. Fish rest in eddies and wait for food.
F
- Fighting belt – A padded belt with a cup that holds the butt of the rod against your hips while you fight a big fish.
- Fighting chair – A heavy chair mounted to the deck of a big-game boat, with a holder for the rod, used to fight very large fish.
- Fish box – An insulated compartment built into a boat to hold the catch on ice.
- Fish finder – An electronic screen that uses sonar to show depth, bottom shape, bait and fish under the boat.
- Flats – Wide areas of shallow water, often over sand, mud or grass, where fish feed and can sometimes be spotted. See flats fishing.
- Flood tide – The rising or incoming tide, when water flows in from the sea.
- Fluorocarbon – Fishing line or leader material that is hard for fish to see underwater and resists scrapes from rocks and teeth.
- Fly fishing – Casting a very light fly with a weighted line and a long, flexible rod. See our guided fly fishing trip guide.
- Front – The boundary between two air masses. A cold front often brings wind and a weather change, and it can change how fish bite.
- Full-day trip – A charter that usually runs about 8 hours or more, giving time to reach farther fishing grounds. See half-day vs full-day.
G
- Gaff – A pole with a large hook on the end, used to lift big fish into the boat.
- Game fish – Fish valued for sport and the fight they put up, such as tarpon, tuna and bass.
- Guide – A person paid to take you fishing. The word is often used for freshwater, river and flats trips, while charter is more common for saltwater boats.
- Gunwale – The top edge of the side of the boat, pronounced “gunnel.” Rod holders are often mounted here.
H
- Half-day trip – A shorter charter, often about 4 hours. Good for beginners, families and inshore fishing.
- Head – The bathroom on a boat. Many small charter boats do not have one, so ask before you book.
- Head boat – A large boat that sells tickets to individual anglers, charging “by the head.” Also called a party boat – see party boat fishing.
- Helm – The steering station where the captain drives the boat.
- Hookset – The quick pull or reel-down that sets the hook in a fish’s mouth after a bite. With circle hooks, you usually just reel steadily instead of jerking.
I
- Ice fishing – Fishing through holes drilled in the ice of a frozen lake. See our ice fishing guide trip page.
- Inlet – A channel connecting the ocean to a bay or sound. Inlets can be very productive and can also get rough when wind blows against the tide.
- Inshore – Fishing in protected, usually shallow water such as bays, marshes, rivers and flats. See inshore vs offshore fishing.
- Inspected vessel – A boat inspected by the Coast Guard and approved to carry more than six paying passengers, up to the number on its Certificate of Inspection.
J
- Jig – A lure with a weighted head and a hook, often dressed with hair, feathers or a soft plastic body.
- Jigging – Working a jig or metal lure up and down in the water column to imitate a fleeing baitfish.
K
- Keeper – A fish that is legal to keep under size, season and bag limit rules.
- Kite fishing – Using a special fishing kite to hold baits at the surface far from the boat. Popular in South Florida for sailfish.
- Knot – A unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, used for boats and wind. It also means a tie in fishing line.
L
- Leader – A section of heavier or tougher line tied between your main line and the hook or lure, to stand up to teeth, gills and rough structure.
- Ledge – An underwater step or rock shelf where the bottom drops suddenly. Ledges often hold grouper and snapper.
- Live bait – Bait that is still alive, such as shrimp, pinfish or minnows. Kept in a bait well on the boat.
- Live well – A tank that keeps caught fish alive, common on bass boats and in tournaments.
M
- Major period – On a solunar table, the longer feeding window when the moon is directly overhead or directly underfoot. See solunar fishing times.
- Mate – Another name for the deckhand. Tipping the mate is customary – see our tipping guide.
- Minor period – On a solunar table, the shorter feeding window around moonrise and moonset.
- MLLW – Mean Lower Low Water, the average of the lower of each day’s two low tides. US tide tables measure heights from it, so a negative tide means water lower than that average.
- Monofilament – Single-strand nylon fishing line. It stretches, which makes it forgiving for beginners.
N
- Neap tide – A tide with a smaller range between high and low water, around the first and last quarter moons. Currents are usually weaker.
- Nearshore – Fishing in open water within a few miles of the beach, between inshore and offshore.
- Net – A landing net used to scoop a fish out of the water, often kinder to the fish than a gaff.
- Numbers – GPS coordinates of productive fishing spots, such as reefs and wrecks. Captains guard their numbers closely.
O
- Offshore – Fishing far from land in deep, open water for species like tuna, mahi-mahi and billfish.
- OUPV license – Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels, a Coast Guard captain’s license that allows carrying up to six paying passengers. Commonly called a six-pack license.
- Outrigger – Long poles that swing out from the sides of a boat to spread trolling lines apart and keep them from tangling.
P
- Party boat – See head boat. A large boat where you buy an individual ticket and fish alongside other anglers.
- Pelagic – Fish that live in open water rather than near the bottom, such as mahi-mahi, wahoo and tuna.
- Poling skiff – A shallow-draft boat pushed quietly across the flats with a long pole by a guide standing on a raised platform.
- Popping cork – A float that makes a popping sound when jerked, imitating feeding fish. Common for speckled trout and redfish.
- Port and starboard – The left (port) and right (starboard) sides of a boat when you face the bow.
- Private charter – A trip where your group books the whole boat. See private vs shared charters.
R
- Reef fish – Fish that live around reefs and hard bottom, such as red snapper, grouper and triggerfish.
- Rig – The setup at the end of your line – hooks, weights, swivels and leader – put together for a certain kind of fishing.
- Rip current – A narrow, strong current flowing away from the beach. If caught in one while swimming, swim parallel to shore to escape it.
- Rod holder – A tube mounted on the boat that holds a rod, especially while trolling or waiting for a bite.
- Run – When a hooked fish swims hard and pulls line off the reel. Also the boat ride from the dock to the fishing grounds.
S
- Seasickness – Nausea caused by a boat’s motion. See our seasickness guide, and ask a doctor or pharmacist about medicine before the trip.
- Shared charter – A trip where you buy individual spots and fish with other people you may not know.
- Six-pack – Slang for an OUPV-licensed charter that can carry up to six paying passengers. See group fishing charters for bigger groups.
- Skunked – Coming home without catching a fish.
- Slack tide – The short pause between incoming and outgoing tide when water barely moves. The bite often slows.
- Slot limit – A rule allowing you to keep only fish within a certain size range, protecting smaller and larger fish.
- Small craft advisory – A National Weather Service alert meaning wind or seas may be hazardous to small boats. Charters may cancel – see weather cancellations.
- Solunar – A theory that fish and animals are more active at certain times based on the moon’s position. Our report pages show daily solunar times.
- Spinning reel – A reel that hangs under the rod with a fixed spool. The easiest kind of reel for beginners to cast.
- Spread – The set of lures or baits trolled behind a boat at once, arranged to avoid tangles.
- Spring tide – A tide with a larger range between high and low water, around the new and full moons. It has nothing to do with the season.
- Stern – The back of the boat.
- Structure – Anything on the bottom or in the water that fish relate to, such as rocks, docks, ledges, wrecks, weed beds and fallen trees.
T
- Tackle – All your fishing gear – rods, reels, line, hooks, lures and weights.
- Tailing – When a fish feeds head-down in very shallow water so its tail sticks out above the surface. Classic redfish behavior on the flats.
- Teaser – A hookless lure or bait trolled to draw fish, especially billfish, up to the spread.
- Test – The breaking strength of fishing line, given in pounds – for example, 20-pound test.
- Tide chart – A table or graph showing the times and heights of high and low tide. Our coastal fishing reports include a live tide curve.
- Tippet – The thin final section of a fly-fishing leader that the fly is tied to.
- Topwater – Lures that float and are worked on the surface. Topwater strikes are some of the most exciting in fishing.
- Trolling – Pulling lures or baits behind a moving boat to cover lots of water. Common offshore for pelagic fish.
Questions
Quick answers
What does six-pack mean on a fishing charter?
A six-pack charter is run by a captain with a Coast Guard OUPV license, often called a six-pack license. It allows the captain to carry up to six paying passengers on a boat that is not Coast Guard inspected. That is why many charter prices are quoted for up to six people. Bigger groups need an inspected boat or more than one boat.
What is the difference between inshore, nearshore and offshore fishing?
Inshore fishing happens in protected water like bays, marshes, rivers and flats. Nearshore fishing is in open water within a few miles of the beach. Offshore fishing means running far out to deep water for fish like tuna, mahi-mahi and billfish. The farther out you go, the longer the run and the rougher the ride can be.
What is the difference between a mate and a captain?
The captain is licensed by the Coast Guard, drives the boat, finds the fish and makes every safety and weather decision. The mate, or deckhand, works on deck – rigging lines, baiting hooks, helping you fight and land fish and cleaning the catch. On many trips, the mate is the person you will spend the most time with.
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