This is a complete glossary of fly fishing terms that you’ll need to learn in order to understand what people are talking about.
Fly fishing can be extremely intimidating to get into. Not only will you catch more trees than trout for the first few weeks but words like nymph, tippet and hackle will have you scratching your head.
We alphabetized it in order to help you find what fishing words you need faster. Simply click the letter to in the drop-down menu below and you’ll head to where you need to go. For more of the fly fishing basics see here.
Fly Fishing Terms
A
Action – An elusive, but important characteristic of a beginner fly rod. Rods are said to have fast or slow action. Fast action rods are generally stiffer overall, but bend more at the tip, generating higher line speeds and longer casts, especially into the wind. Slow action rods, appear to flex their entire length, giving the sense of a more compliant feel. See also Rod Flex.
Adult – the winged stage of aquatic insects; reproductive stage.
Albright knot – A common knot used for tying the backing to the fly line.
Anadromous – A term to describe fish that travel from the sea upriver to spawn in freshwater like salmon. Fish that migrate from freshwater to the sea for spawning are catadromous.
Angler – One who seeks to catch fish with a hook (an “angle”), usually fixed to the end of a line.
Anti-Reverse – A feature of fly reels where the spool handle does not turn as the line is pulled out from the reel.
Attractor – A style or variety of fly that is effective in eliciting strikes, but has few apparent characteristics of a natural food item. Often an attractor is flashy and bigger than life.
Arbor – The center part of a fly reel where line and backing (first) are wound.
Arbor knot – A knot used for tying backing to the arbor of the fly reel.
B
Backcast – During the cast, throw the line behind you in preparation for the forward cast, keeping the line and fly in the air. The backward counterpart of the forward cast acts to create a bending action on the fly rod, setting up the conditions to generate the forward cast and present the fly.
Backing – The first segment of line on a reel, usually braided and used to build up the arbor. The backing provides extra running room when playing a fish and provides a larger spool, winding more line per revolution of the reel, which aids in retrieving fish.
Badger – A feather of a specially bred or chosen chicken that has colors that change from brown-black to black at the center of the quill to ginger or white on the outer edges.
Baetis – widely distributed genus of mayflies typically found in sizes 16 to 22
Bamboo – the oldest rod building material still in use; the classical fly rod material.
Barbless – Barbless hooks are either manufactured without a barb or the barb is squeezed down. This feature makes it easier to remove a hook and minimizes the handling and potential damage of a fish you may want to release.
Barrel knot – See blood knot
Bass Bug – the name used to describe a large number of surface bass flies usually tied with hollow hair (such as deer hair).
Bass Bug Taper – a special weight forward floating fly line with a short front taper so that the generally wind-resistant bass bugs can turn over (see weight forward and turn over).
Beadhead – Usually but not always a fly with a bead immediately behind the hook eye. Beads come in many materials, from brass to nickel-brass to ceramic. Some beads help a fly sink, but others are floaters.
Belly – A tapered fly line has several components, with a fairly sharply tapered tip (at the fly end). The middle portion of the line is called the belly.
Belly boat – Originally using a tractor or truck inner tube, this is a one-person craft with a seat across the bottom on which the fly fisher sits. Feet are in the water and scuba fins are used to move the tube around. This type of fishing boat is very popular with warm water fly fishers and with individuals who fish high mountain lakes. Also called a belly boat. See kick boat.
Bimini Twist – A knot used in saltwater fly fishing. It has a loop and a double line section making it especially strong.
Blank – Fiberglass and graphic fly rods (which also have fiberglass) are produced by wrapping sheets of graphite and fiberglass around a carefully tapered steel rod (called a mandrel). The hollow rod that results from this process is called a blank. It has no guides, ferrules, or reel seat.
Blood knot – A widely-used knot, best known for its strength in tying monofilaments of different diameters and materials together. It is not easy to tie on the water. A blood knot is often used to make a fly leader of several different diameter monofilament segments. Also known as a barrel knot.
Bobbin – A fly tying tool and term borrowed from seamstresses. A bobbin holds the tying thread.
Bodkin – A bodkin is a tool best described as a needle with a handle. It can be easily made from a piece of wooden doweling and a needle. It is used in fly tying used to deposit cement or lacquer to a fly.
Braided loop connector – A way of putting an in-line loop at the end of your fly line so as to use the loop on the leader to do a loop-to-loop connection between the leader and the fly line. The braided loop connector works like the so-called Chinese finger torture.
Breaking Strength – the amount of effort required to break a single strand of unknotted monofilament or braided line, usually stated in pounds (example: 6 lb. test).
Bucktail – A streamer fly tied to imitate a fish. This fly usually features a long segment of hair, played back from the eye to the bend of the hook. That hair often is from a deer’s tail.
Butt section – The thicker end of a tapered leader that is tied to the fly line.
C
Caddis – one of the three most important trout flies used by fly fishermen; found worldwide in all freshwater habitats; adult resembles a moth when in flight; at rest, the wings are folded in a tent shape down the back; the most important aquatic state of the caddis is the pupa, which is its emerging stage (also see larva, pupa, and emerger).
Callibaetis – a widely distributed genus of mayfly that is commonly found in lakes – is often called the “Speckled Wing Dun” because of the speckled markings on the leading edge of the adult’s wings. Callibaetis are usually found in sizes 16 & 18.
Casting Arc – the path that the fly rod follows during a complete cast, usually related to the face of a clock.
Catch and release – A practice originating in the late 1930s to conserve fish populations by unhooking and returning a caught fish to the water in which it was caught. Catch & release highly successful practice in warm water, cold water, and saltwater settings.
Caudal fin – Caudal is an anatomical term meaning “the back”. The caudal fin is the tail fin or tail of a fish.
Char – A species of fish that is related to trout, that prefers cold water and is found in many places in the world, including both east and west United States. Examples of char are brook trout, lake trout, arctic char, and Dolly Varden.
Click-drag – A mechanical system on many inexpensive fly reels used to slow down or resist the pulling efforts of a fish, so as to slow the fish down and tire it to the point where it can be landed. Basically, a clicking sound is created by a triangular steel ratchet snaps over the teeth of the gear in the reel spool. The term singing reels refers to the high-frequency clicking associated with a big fish pulling out a line.
Clinch Knot – universally used knot for attaching a hook, lure, swivel, or fly to the leader or line; a slight variation results in the improved clinch knot, which is an even stronger knot. It has the advantage of being very easy to tie without using many lines.
CDC – stands for “Cul de Canard” which literally translates to “butt of the duck”. Used both to refer to the feathers from the area around the duck’s preen gland. and also to the flies tied with these feathers. They are naturally waterproof and incredibly lifelike on the water. Great for tying any dry or emerger fly pattern.
Collar – A ring of feathers or hair placed immediately behind the head of the fly.
Comparadun – series of no-hackle dry flies developed by Caucci & Nastasi in the 1970’s using a hair wing tied in a 180° flair. They are very effective patterns in slow-moving clear water where an imitative (as opposed to impressionistic) pattern is needed.
Co-Polymers – mixtures of various nylons and plastics along with anti-UV chemicals that have resulted in the exceptionally high breaking strength of modern tippet material. This is certainly one of the biggest advancements in fly fishing in the last 50 years. It allows us to use very fine tippets with breaking strengths two to four times as strong as regular nylon monofilament. Co-polymers are not as abrasion-resistant as regular nylon monofilament.
Curve cast – A casting technique that allows an angler to cast a fly around an obstacle. It is also used to minimize the influence of water current or wind on the fly or the fly line.
D
Damping – reducing excess vibrations in the rod blank when unloading the rod during a cast. This causes fewer waves in your fly line resulting in more power & distance for less effort.
Damsel fly – an important still water aquatic insect most commonly imitated in the nymphal form; usually hatches in early to mid-summer. The adult looks like a dragonfly but folds its wings along its back when at rest.
Dapping – A relatively ancient technique of presenting a fly on the surface of the water where the fly is connected to a short piece of line on a long rod. The fly is then touched on the surface of the water, immediately over a place where a fish might lie.
Dead Drift – a perfect float (the fly is traveling at the same pace as the current); used in both dry fly and nymph fishing (see mending line and “S” cast).
Deer Hair – most commonly used of the hollow hairs for fly tying.
Disk drag – A mechanical system on more expensive fly reels whereby resistance is created to the line as a fish pulls it out. This resistance is intended to slow the fish and tire it. The resistance proper is created by applying pressure between two disks. Different from the click-drag, the disk drag is smoother and less likely to create a sudden force that will break the line
Double haul – The term for the cast where the caster quickly pulls and releases the line on both the back cast and the forward cast. It is used to create greater line speed, enabling the caster to reach farther or cut through the wind.
Double taper – DT or double taper refers to a fly line that is reduced in diameter on both ends. When one end of a DT fly line wears out, you can take it off the reel, turn it around and use the other end. This is an excellent line for short-to-moderate length casts, and for roll casting, but it is not as well suited for distance casts. DT line is commonly available in floating or sinking styles.
Drag – This term has two meanings in fly fishing: (1) An unnatural pulling of a floating or submerged fly such that it moves at a different rate than the current, often (at least on the surface) creating a “V” in the water. Fish are commonly put off by drag. (2) A mechanical system that applies resistance to the reel spool to prevent it from turning faster than the line leaving the spool and is used in playing larger fish.
Drag Free – see Dead Drift
Dragonfly – important Stillwater aquatic insect most commonly imitated in the nymphal form; usually hatches in early to mid-summer. Unlike the Damselfly, the Dragonfly adult holds its wings straight out (like an airplane) when at rest.
Dropper – A practice of fishing two flies at the same time, often one on the surface and a second underwater. This increases the chances of getting a successful fly in front of a fish.
Dry fly – A fly constructed of water-resistant, lightweight, and buoyant materials so as to imitate an insect that alights or floats on the surface of the water.
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