Amnesia - A high breaking strain monofilament line used in stiff rigs. Amnesia has low "memory" hence its name.
Back Lead - A break away weight attached to the main line near to the bank to keep the line on the bottom.
Backwind - As the name implies, reeling your reel backwards to let a fish have line. Was primarily used before drags on spinning reels got very good.
Bait boat - Remote controlled boat for delivering free offerings and your rig to your chosen fishing location.
Baiting Needle - A device used to impale hard baits so they may be threaded onto a hair rig.
Baitrunner - A type of spinning reel that allows line to be pulled under minimal resistance when the baitrunner mechanism is engaged. It is used to prevent the entire rod from being pulled into the water.
Base Mix - The dry ingredients used to make boilies. Often dry base mix is sold and anglers add their own eggs, flavors and other enhancers.
Bed Chair - A lawn recliner on steroids. Makes camping out and sleeping beside the rods much more comfortable.
Beta light - A small radio-isotope that glows in the dark. Often attached in critical positions to help an angler find or position objects in the dark.
Big pit reel - A very large spooled spinning reel (often surf fishing size). Used to aid in distance casting as may be required on large flooded gravel pits common in the UK.
Bivvy - Angler’s tent, Bivvy usually green and very robust.
Blood Knot - Knot to tie two lines together
Bobbin - Almost anything hung on the line to provide a visual indication of line movement, hopefully from a fish.
Boilie - Round boiled baits usually attached to rig on a hair.
Bolt Rig - Rig were the lead is fixed causing the carp to bolt and hook itself.
Braid - A synthetic woven material used for main lines and traces.
Breadflake - The flaky white part of the bread without the crust. Lightly pinched it floats. Tightly pinched it sinks slowly. A very adaptable bait.
Brolly - Short for Umbrella. In practice, it is an umbrella big enough to camp under. Many begin to resemble open sided tents.
Buzzers - An audible bite alarm that sounds when line moves through the sensor.
Carp Care - The best way to look after and handle Carp Is By using Carp care.
Carp Rod - Fishing rod specifically designed to cope with handling and landing larger fish like carp.
Carryall - a giant duffel bag use to haul carp gear.
Centrepin - A type of reel similar to a fly reel but very finely machined to allow line to be freely pulled off along with the current.
Chemically etched - Process used in the manufacturing of hooks which gives a very sharp point.
Chick Pea - A particle bait available in dried form and tins in supermarkets. Sometimes call garbanzo bean.
Chumming - Throwing in free bait to attract the fish to an area. Often pre-baiting is conducted for many days before fishing. Extensive pre-baiting is called a baiting campaign.
Clinch Knot - To attach your line to the hook.
Clutch - The reel's drag mechanism.
Cracked Corn - Maize (hard corn) that has been roughly ground.
Critically balanced - Description of a rig type whereby the baits are exactly counteracted by a small weight near to the hook so that the bait only just floats above it.
‘D’ Rig Rig - where the bait is tied to a ‘D” shaped loop on the back of the hook shaft.
Dacron - A type of braided material used in rig traces.
Day ticket - Refers to a fishery where anglers buy a daily ticket on arrival.
Boilie dip - A solution in which boilies or other baits are dipped just prior to use. Also known as a glug.
Dropback - A type of bite when the fish swims toward you creating slack rather than swimming away.
Feature finding - A method of exploring the bottom of the water for features such as bars, shallows and dips.
Free Lining - technique where no lead is used.
Floater - A floating bait, often refers to dog biscuits or similar.
Fixed spool reel - A spinning reel.
Greedy Pig Rig - A rig holding very large baits, often 3 boilies, to avoid nuisance species or smaller carp.
Groundbait - A mixture of ingredients that may be moistened to stick together. The mixture is place near the bait on the hook to attract more fish than the bait alone might attract. It is very similar to packbait except it is usually place around a feeder or the lead rather than around the hook.
Grinner Knot - A very strong knot often used in rig tying.
Hair Rig - A method of attaching bait where the bait is threaded onto a short thin section of line or braid which hangs from the back or bottom of the hook. More info here.
Hair Stop - A little piece of plastic used to keep hard baits from sliding off the hair once they have been threaded on.
Heron heads - An early design of bite alarm that used line tension to pull two pieces of metal into contact, thereby completing a circuit and sounding an alarm.
HNV - An acronym meaning High Nutrition Value. It is a theory that carp will sense what foods (baits) are most nutritious and will preferably eat these to fulfill its needs with the least amount of effort. The theory has lead to a large number of scientifically and quasi-scientifically designed baits that attempt to provide the carp with everything it needs nutritionally.
Holdall - Not to be confused with the carryall, a hold all is a rod bag capable of hauling around several rods with reels attached an more rods without reels. Most have room for banksticks, a rod pod, the landing net, and even a brolly.
Hooklength - The bit of line tied to the hook. In the USA it is typically called a leader.
Helicopter Rig - A rig where the weight is attached at the end of the main line and the hooklength revolves around this a short distance above the weight.
Hemp - A very popular small black seed used as a particle bait, which must be prepared by soaking and boiling.
Hinge Rig - Rig which has built in flexible properties usually formed by attaching traces via small rings or loops of line.
Indicator - Any visual device used to show line movement.
Keep sack - An alternative to a stringer. A sack used to hold a live carp until release. Made of breathable fabric with a locking draw string and a means for tying off to a fixed point on shore.
Kilo - Not really British but a euro means of expressing weight. One Kilo is about 2 lbs.
King Carp - Any of the large fast growing carp strains that have been developed. The carp imported to the USA back in the late 1800's were King Carp.
Knotless Knot - A knot which is formed by whipping line to the hook with no knot as such, the tail end of which forms the hair.
Lead - A term meaning sinker. The heavy weight used to aid in casting and holding the line on the bottom.
Leader - Usually means a snag leader. This is a heavy piece of line use to prevent heavy leads from breaking off on a forceful cast.
Leather - A rare type of carp having no scales whatsoever.
Linear - A type of mirror carp (see below) having a line of scales along the lateral line.
Linebites - Fish bumping into the line and giving false indications.
Lobworm - Night crawler. A big fat variety of earthworm.
Line Aligner rig - A method of attaching a the hook that creates an optimal hooking angle. More info here.
Leadcore - Trace material which has lead within the braid causing it to stay on the bottom.
Marker floats - Large brightly coloured floats used to find and mark a chosen fishing area.
Mainline - The majority of the line on the reel not including a shock leader or backing if present.
Maize - Actually an American Indian word for corn. It specifically refers to the hard animal feed corn that is often sold as any of the following: Whole corn, cleaned corn, recleaned corn, feed corn, deer corn, or whole kernel corn.
Margin - The zone along the shoreline. Fishing "in the margins" means fishing close to shore.
Particles - A generic term meaning seeds, beans, nuts, or vegetable used for bait.
Palomar Knot - A Strong Knot often used in rig tying
Particles - Any small bait pieces such as hemp, pellets or nuts, some particles must be prepared before use.
PB - An abbreviation for Personal Best, aka the heaviest fish you have caught.
Peg - When fishing in a competition, it is the location allotted. Usually there is a drawing for pegs at the beginning of the competition.
Pod - A folding stand on which carp rods are placed usually having bite alarms on the front of the stand and normal rod rests at the rear. Prevents having to drive bank sticks into hard ground and is very stable.
Pop-Up - A bait, usually refers to boilies, which will float or pop up off of the bottom.
PVA Poly Vinyl alcohol - a material resembling cling film which dissolves in water.
PVA bag - A small bag made from PVA used to hold particles and your rig.
PVA string - String made from PVA used in tying rig sections together for casting.
PVA tape - Tape made from PVA used in tying rig sections together for casting.
Plumbing - A technique used to feel the bottom and measure the depth. Typically, a sliding sinker is placed on the line. A largish bobber is then tied to the end of the line. The combination is cast out. The bobber is reeled up tight to the sinker on the bottom. Then line is pulled from the reel in 1 ft increments. The depth is determined by counting the feet until the bobber surfaces.
Polaroids - Polarized sunglasses intended to cut the reflective glare and make it easier to see fish beneath the surface.
Pop-up - A type of boilie designed to float. Often held close to the bottom by a small weight placed on the line near the hook. Allows the bait to be fished above leaves, weeds, soft silt, etc.
Pre-baiting - chumming. Throwing in free bait to attract the fish to an area. Often pre-baiting is conducted for many days before fishing. Extensive pre-baiting is called a baiting campaign.
Quiver - A holder for transporting fishing rods. Similar to an archery quiver with the rods replacing the arrows. Does not provide as much proection for the rods as a holdall but ususally ligher.
Ready Mades Boilies - Boilies which are ready manufactured and sold in bags.
Rhino Rig - A two boilie rig with a pop-up on the normal hair and a normal bait on an extra hair from the eye of the hook facing the wrong way.
Running rig - A rig using a sliding weight. The fish should be able to move with the bait without feeling the resistance of the weight.
Semi-fixed - A means of attaching a weight so that it does not freely slide yet can slide or come off if a fish is broken off during the fight. Bolt rigs are semi-fixed. The lead is held tightly enough to hook the fish but not so tightly it cannot be pulled off when the mainline breaks.
Session - The time spent fishing. Often measured in days for Uk fishermen. Session fishing involves a combination of camping and fishing around the clock.
Shoal - A School of fish.
Shelf Life - Ready Made boilies with a long life expectancy in the bag.
Silicon Tubing - material used in rig making.
Sinker - Term referring to both leads and sinking baits such as trout pellet.
Snake bite - Coated multi-strand hook length material the coating is easily removed to expose the inner flexible part. Manufactured by Kryston.
Snake skin - A coated superbraid, the coatiing is easily removed to expose the inner flexible part. Manufactured by Kryston.
Snowman rig - A method of mounting 2 boilies 1 above the other thus resembling a snow man.
Spod - A cup like device used to cast and dump bait in a fishing area. Often the device is shaped like a rocket with fins to help it fly strait. The nose is fitted with foam so it floats up and dumps the bait cargo out the back. More info here.
Stalking - A method of fishing which involves quietly sneaking up on visible fish and presenting baits to them with great stealth so as not to frighten the fish away.
Stringer - Very different than the American meaning. Here it means a length of PVA string or tape with a few free baits attached as in a 3 bait stringer.
Stringer Needle - A baiting needle especially designed for making stringers.
Stiff Rig - Rig made from stiff material such as Amnesia that does not easily flex.
Sweetcorn - Soft kernel corn, usually used from a can but sometimes frozen. Sold for human consumption.
Swim - A fishing spot. In the UK, many waters have specially prepared areas to make for easier bank angling. Each prepared area is called a swim. Often the swims have descriptive names like "The Island Swim" or "The Bog Swim."
Swinger - A type of visual indicator which can swing up and down as a fish pulls line, but not side to side in the wind.
Syndicate - A group of anglers limited in numbers who each pay a sum of money annually enabling them exclusive fishing rights to a water.
The Method - Method of presenting groundbait and particles with your rig on an open feeder assembly.
Throwing Stick - A tubular stick used to throw spherical boiled baits long distances. The throwing stick starts with the bait near the handle. As the throwing motion is made the bait rolls toward the tip picking up speed as it travels. By the time the bait reaches the tip it is hurled at a great velocity.
Tiger Nut - The root nodules of the yellow nutsedge plant. Also called earth almonds and chufa. The nut like nodules are soaked and boiled to produce an effective carp bait that often avoids the attentions of other species.
Trace - Hooklength and associated hardware.
Unhooking Mat - A pad used to protect the fish while removing the hook. Any padded material that prevents the carp from getting cut and scraped up while lying on the bank can function as an unhooking mat. This item helps the angler return the fish in as nearly the same condition as when it was caught so other anglers can also enjoy catching a healthy fish rather than a tattered one.
Uni-Knot - Used to join two lines together.
Waggler - An elongated bobber resembling a pencil bobber. Usually used in stillwater.
Watercraft - The ability to read a water and to determine where fish will be located and feeding.
Weigh sling - A device used to cradle the fish during the weighing process. Carp are too heavy to weigh from the lip or gill without inflicting serious damage. A weigh sling is used to hold the carp while the straps from the weigh sling are attached to the scale. An honest fisherman always discounts the weight of the weigh sling when reporting the weight of the fish.
Withy Pool Rig - Rig developed at the famous Withy Pool fishery.
Zig rig - A rig used to fish a buoyant bait up in mid water. Achieved by folding the a long length of line beyond the sinker in a zig zag manner. The folded line is then tied together with dissolving PVA. Once cast, the PVA dissolves and allows the buoyant bait to float up off the bottom to the length of the folded line.
Recent Updates
Article: Great information about Vinny and Scott's Michigan trip here. Photos: New photos added to the Lake Michigan gallery. Video Blog: Come see the footage from our first fishing event of the year here.
Belleville Lake
Article: Great information about Vinny and Scott's Michigan trip here.
Photos: New photos added to the Lake Michigan gallery.
Video Blog: Come see the footage from our first fishing event of the year here.
