craft

en-noun

craft (countable and uncountable, plural craft or crafts)

From Middle English craft (“strength, skill”), from Old English cræft (“strength, skill”), from Proto-West Germanic *kraftu, from Proto-Germanic *kraftuz (“strength, power”); further origin obscure.
Cognate with German Kraft (“strength, power, force, energy, employee”) and Danish kraft (“strength, power, force”).

johtamistaito

skill in making plans and carrying them into execution

And whereas the continual Interruption of the Courſe and Paſſage of the Fiſh up the Rivers, by the daily drawing of Seins and other Fiſh-Craft, tends to prevent their Increaſe,[…]

a. 1784, T. Green, “An Act for encouraging and regulating Fiſheries”, in Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut, in America, page 79:

The whaling craft consists of harpoons, lances, lines, and sealskin buoys, all of their own workmanship.

1869 April 27, C. M. Scammon, “On the Cetaceans of the Western Coast of North America”, in Edward D. Cope, editor, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, volume 21, page 46:

From the mate’s boat they removed, at his direction, all whaling gear and craft except the oars and a single lance.

a. 1923, Charles Boardman Hawes, “A Boy Who Went Whaling”, in The Highest Hit: and Other Selections by Newbery Authors, Gareth Stevens Publishing, published 2001, →ISBN, page 47:

[…]Temple, a negro of New Bedford, who made ‘whalecraft’, that is, was a blacksmith engaged in working from iron the special utensils or ‘craft’ of the whaling trade.

1950, Discovery Reports, volume 26, Cambridge University Press, page 318:

The men raced about decks collecting the whaling craft and gear and putting them into the boats, while all the time the lookouts hollered from above.

1991, Joan Druett, Petticoat Whalers: Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820–1920, University Press of New England, published 2001, →ISBN, page 55:

(countable, fishing) Implements used in catching fish, such as net, line, or hook. Modern use primarily in whaling, as in harpoons, hand-lances, etc. .


head

en-verb

head (third-person singular simple present heads, present participle heading, simple past and past participle headed)

heads (present singular third-person)
heading (participle present)
headed (participle past)
headed (past)
heed (alternative obsolete)
hed (alternative obsolete)
'ead (alternative UK pronunciation-spelling)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *kap-
Proto-Indo-European *káput-
Proto-Germanic *haubudą
Old English hēafod
Middle English heed
English head
From Middle English hed, from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; chief”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput.
The modern word comes from Old English oblique stem hēafd-; the expected Modern English outcome for hēafod would be *heaved (similar to the Middle English word). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, chef, chief, and Howth.
Cognate with Scots heid, hede, hevid, heved (“head”), Old English hafola (“head”), North Frisian hood (“head”), Dutch hoofd (“head”), German Haupt (“head”), Swedish huvud (“head”), Danish hoved (“head”), Icelandic höfuð (“head”), Latin caput (“head”), Sanskrit कपाल (kapāla, “skull”), Hindi कपाल (kapāl, “skull”).

doublet

Near-synonyms: behead, dehead

The salmon are first headed and then scaled.

(fishing, transitive) To remove the head from (a fish).


nigger

niggers (plural)
n****r (alternative)
n-word (alternative euphemistic)
nigga (alternative pronunciation-spelling)
niggah (alternative pronunciation-spelling)
nigguh (alternative pronunciation-spelling)

desctree

>? Sranan Tongo: nengre
Aukan: nengee
Saramaccan: në́ngë

→ Danish: nigger

→ Dutch: nikker

→ German: Nigger

→ Norwegian: nigger

→ Swedish: nigger

Probably immediately from Middle French nègre or Spanish and Portuguese negro (“a black person”); ultimately from Latin niger (“black”), thus a doublet of negro and noir. Compare Danish nigger, Swedish neger, German Nigger, Dutch nikker. First use appears c. 1577, in the writings of Edward Hellowes (fl. 1574–1601). The expected Modern English pronunciation would be with /iː/; compare neger. The modern pronunciation with /ɪ/ may be due to influence from the Latin etymon (compare the older Southern US pronunciation of negro with /ɪ/), but compare the dialectal American pronunciations of eagle and eager as /ˈɪɡəl/ and /ˈɪɡɚ/.

чёрный

note: негр m (negr) and негритя́нка f (negritjánka) are neutral terms

حبشی

offensive if intended otherwise 'Male Ethiopian/Abyssian'

حبشن

offensive if intended otherwise 'Female Ethiopian/Abyssinian'

(now offensive) Any of various dark animals:

(UK, Cornwall, fishing, archaic) A kind of sea cucumber, Holothuria forskali, the cotton-spinner.


cow

en-noun

cow (countable and uncountable, plural cows or cattle or (archaic or dialectal) kine)

cows (plural)
cattle (plural)
kine (archaic dialectal plural)

bull

antonym(s) of “female domesticated ox or other bovine”

Sranan Tongo: kaw

Tok Pisin: kau

q

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">cows</i>

→ Abenaki: kaoz (from cows)

→ Maori: kau

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws
Proto-Germanic *kōz
Proto-West Germanic *kō
Old English cū
Middle English cou
English cow
Inherited from Middle English cou, cu, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (“cow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).
Cognate with Sanskrit गो (go), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina, “beef”), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian ku (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”) (whence English beef), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef.
The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cūna (“cows', of cows”), genitive plural of cū (“cow”).

etymon

the cow knows not the worth of its tail till it loses it

why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

(fishing, slang) A fish that is very large for its species, such as a large striped bass or large bluefin tuna.


cast

New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *kas-
Proto-Germanic *kastōną
Old Norse kastabor.
Middle English casten
English cast
From Middle English casten, from Old Norse kasta (“to throw, cast, overturn”), from Proto-Germanic *kastōną (“to throw, cast”), of unknown origin.
Cognate with Scots cast (“to cast, throw”), Danish kaste (“to throw”), Swedish kasta (“to throw, cast, fling, toss, discard”), Icelandic kasta (“to pitch, toss”). In the sense of "flinging", displaced native warp.
The senses relating to broadcasting are based on that same term; compare -cast.

cog

I went out on the timber boom and made a few casts, but with little success.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 152:

(fishing) An instance of throwing out a fishing line.


fish

en-verb

fish (third-person singular simple present fishes, present participle fishing, simple past and past participle fished)

fishes (present singular third-person)
fishing (participle present)
fished (participle past)
fished (past)

From Old English fiscian, from Proto-West Germanic *fiskōn, from Proto-Germanic *fiskōną.

`What you need are frogs,' said the veteran. `Fish them at night. There's nothing like them on big cork floats.'

1983, The Fisherman Who Laughed, page 40:

(fishing, transitive) To use as bait when fishing.


fresh

fresh (third-person singular simple present freshes, present participle freshing, simple past and past participle freshed)

freshes (present singular third-person)
freshing (participle present)
freshed (participle past)
freshed (past)

Grandwizard Theodore & the Fantastic Five

From Middle English fressh, from Old English fersċ (“fresh, pure, sweet”), from Proto-West Germanic *frisk (“fresh”), from Proto-Germanic *friskaz (“fresh”), from Proto-Indo-European *preysk- (“fresh”). The verb is from Middle English freshen (“to freshen”), from the adjective.
Cognate with Scots fresch (“fresh”), West Frisian farsk (“fresh”), Dutch vers (“fresh”), Walloon frexh (“fresh”), German frisch (“fresh”), French frais (“fresh”), Norwegian and Danish frisk (“fresh”), fersk, Icelandic ferskur (“fresh”), Lithuanian prėskas (“unflavoured, tasteless, fresh”), Russian пре́сный (présnyj, “sweet, fresh, unleavened, tasteless”). Doublet of fresco and frisk.
Slang sense possibly shortened form of “fresh out the pack”, 1980s routine by Grand Wizzard Theodore.

cog

With the exception of about 1800 crans which were "rough packed," all the herrings landed during the winter months were freshed and kippered.

1921, Commonwealth Shipping Committee, Report - Volume 12:

Aided by government propaganda, herring became an important British war-time food, not pickled, but 'freshed' (packed loosely in ice) and kippered.

1960, Nigel Nicolson, Lord of the Isles: Lord Leverhulme of the Hebrides, page 84:

Smoked abalone is prepared by smoking the salted and freshed abalone, the smoked meat is packed with vegetable oil.

1971, Eiichi Tanikawa, Marine Products in Japan: Size, Technology and Research, page 189:

(commercial fishing) To pack (fish) loosely on ice.


squid

en-verb

squid (third-person singular simple present squids, present participle squidding, simple past and past participle squidded)

squids (present singular third-person)
squidding (participle present)
squidded (participle past)
squidded (past)

Unknown. Perhaps a sailors' alteration of squirt.

(fishing) To fish with a squid fishhook.


GT

(fishing) Initialism of golden trevally.


draw

draw (third-person singular simple present draws, present participle drawing, simple past drew, past participle drawn or (colloquial and nonstandard) drew)

draws (present singular third-person)
drawing (participle present)
drew (past)
drawn (participle past)
drew (colloquial nonstandard participle past)
draw (infinitive)
draw (first-person present singular)
drew (first-person past singular)
draw (present second-person singular)
drawest (archaic present second-person singular)
drew (past second-person singular)
drewest (archaic past second-person singular)
draws (present singular third-person)
draweth (archaic present singular third-person)
drew (past singular third-person)
draw (plural present)
drew (past plural)
draw (present subjunctive)
drew (past subjunctive)
draw (imperative present)
drawing (participle present)
drawn (participle past)

The verb is derived from Middle English drauen, drawen, draȝen, dragen (“to drag, pull; to draw (out); to attract; to entice, lure; to lead; to make a drawing; to move, travel; etc.”), from Old English dragan (“to drag, draw”), from Proto-West Germanic *dragan (“to carry; to haul”), from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to carry; to pull, draw”); further etymology uncertain, often said to be from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to pull, draw”), but possibly from a non-Indo-European substrate root which is also the source of Latin trahō (“to pull, draw; etc.”). Doublet of drag and draught.
The noun is derived from Middle English drau, draue (“action of shooting with a bow”), from drauen, drawen (verb).
cognates
* Albanian dredh (“to turn, spin”)
* Danish drage
* Dutch dragen
* German tragen (“to carry”)
* Old Armenian դառնամ (daṙnam, “to turn”)
* Sanskrit ध्रजस् (dhrájas, “gliding course or motion”)
* West Frisian drage

vyluhovávat

of drinks: to leave temporarily so as to allow the flavour to increase

изтеглям

cardgames: to take the top card of a deck into hand

every miller draws water to his own mill

one hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pair of oxen

Senses relating to exerting force or pulling.

(transitive, fishing) to haul in (a fishing net) which has been cast; also, to drag (a fishing net) alongside a boat.

Senses relating to extracting or selecting.

(transitive, fishing) To fish by dragging a fishing net along (a shore) or in (a body of water).


cork

en-verb

cork (third-person singular simple present corks, present participle corking, simple past and past participle corked)

corks (present singular third-person)
corking (participle present)
corked (participle past)
corked (past)

From Middle English cork (“oak bark, cork”), from Middle Dutch curc (“cork (material or object)”), either from Spanish corcho (“cork (material or object)”) (also corcha or corche) or from Old Spanish alcorque (“cork sole”). Doublet of cortex.

der

Kate remembered then, the family fish camp a mile or so up Amartuq Creek, the very creek across the mouth of which Yuri Andreev had tried to cork Joe Anahonak not half an hour before.

1998, Dana Stabenow, Killing Grounds, →ISBN, page 8:

But its soon apparent that there are more boats than fish—at least for the moment. We all drift quietly, keeping an eye out for other boats and other nets. Corking another guy's net is a screaming—bastard offense.

2003, George Lowe, Fisherman: The Strife and Times of Ronald K. Peterson of Ballard, →ISBN:

You're pissed if someone sets too close to you and especially if he sets his net right along yours, "corking" you and intercepting the fish that seem headed to your own net. I was close to this guy's outside net, but definitely not corking him.

2008, Bert Bender, Catching the Ebb: Drift-fishing for a Life in Cook Inlet, →ISBN, page 249:

(fishing) To position one's drift net just outside of another person's net, thereby intercepting and catching all the fish that would have gone into that person's net.


fly

From Middle English flye, flie, from Old English flȳġe, flēoge (“a fly”), from Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ (“a fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly”). Cognate with Scots flee, Saterland Frisian Fljooge, Dutch vlieg, German Low German Fleeg, German Fliege, Danish flue, Norwegian Bokmål flue, Norwegian Nynorsk fluge, Swedish fluga, Icelandic fluga.

you attract more flies with honey than vinegar

you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar

you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

you catch more flies with honey than vinegar

you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

I went on trying for fish along the western bank down the river, but only small trout rose at my flies, and a score was the total catch.

(fishing) A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.


rod

From Middle English rodde, from Old English *rodd or *rodde (attested in dative plural roddum (“rod, pole”)), of uncertain origin, but probably from Proto-Germanic *rudd- (“stick, club”), from Proto-Indo-European *rewdʰ- (“to clear land”). Compare Old Norse rudda (“club”). For the root, compare English rid. Presumably unrelated to Proto-Germanic *rōdō (“rod, pole”).

When I hooked a snake and not a fish, I got so scared I dropped my rod in the water.

(fishing) A long slender usually tapering pole used for angling; fishing rod.


spin

en-verb

spin (third-person singular simple present spins, present participle spinning, simple past spun or (uncommon) span or (nonstandard) spinned, past participle spun or (nonstandard) spinned)

spins (present singular third-person)
spinning (participle present)
spun (past)
span (past uncommon)
spinned (nonstandard past)
spun (participle past)
spinned (nonstandard participle past)

From Middle English spinnen, from Old English spinnan, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁-. Compare Low German spinnen, Dutch spinnen, German spinnen, Danish spinde, Swedish spinna.

(fishing) To fish with a swivel or spoonbait.


stick

en-noun

stick (countable and uncountable, plural sticks)

From Middle English stiken (“to stick, pierce, stab, remain embedded, be fastened”), from Old English stician (“to pierce, stab, remain embedded, be fastened”), from Proto-Germanic *stikōną (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tig-, *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”).
See also the related Proto-Germanic *stikaną, whence West Frisian stekke, Low German steken, Dutch steken, German stechen; compare also Danish stikke, Swedish sticka.
Cognate with the first etymology (same PIE root, different paths through Germanic and Old English), to stitch, and to etiquette, via French étiquette – see there for further discussion.

inh

Problem: A lot of stick and a lack of energy on the forward stroke.

2004, Simon Gawesworth, Spey Casting, →ISBN, page 47:

(uncountable) That which sticks (remains attached to another surface).

(fishing) The amount of fishing line resting on the water surface before a cast; line stick.


strike

en-verb

strike (third-person singular simple present strikes, present participle striking, simple past struck or (non-standard) striked or (all obsolete) strook or stroke or strake, past participle struck or (see usage notes) stricken or (both obsolete) strucken or strook)

strikes (present singular third-person)
striking (participle present)
struck (past)
striked (nonstandard past)
strook (obsolete past)
stroke (obsolete past)
strake (obsolete past)
struck (obsolete participle past)
stricken (obsolete participle past)
strucken (obsolete participle past)
strook (obsolete participle past)

→ German: streiken

From Middle English stryken, from Old English strīcan, from Proto-West Germanic *strīkan, from Proto-Germanic *strīkaną, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to stroke, rub, press”).
Cognate with Dutch strijken, German streichen, Danish stryge, Icelandic strýkja, strýkva.

der

lightning does not strike twice in the same place

lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place

lightning never strikes twice in the same place

Of course, almost any fool could strike a fish if it lay quiet in very shallow water.

1894, Outing and the Wheelman, volume 24, page 56:

(transitive, fishing) To hook (a fish) by a quick turn of the wrist.


strike

→ Danish: strike

→ Dutch: strike

→ French: strike

→ German: Strike

→ Italian: strike

→ Japanese: ストライク (sutoraiku)

→ Korean: 스트라이크 (seuteuraikeu)

→ Portuguese: strike

→ Russian: страйк (strajk)

→ Spanish: strike

→ Swedish: strike

→ Danish: strejke

→ Esperanto: striko

→ Hungarian: sztrájk

→ Japanese: ストライキ (sutoraiki)

desctree

→ German: Streik, Strike (obsolete, 19th c.)
→ Kashubian: sztrajk
→ Macedonian: штрајк (štrajk)
→ Serbo-Croatian: štrȁjk /штра̏јк
→ Slovak: štrajk

→ Polish: strajk
→ Belarusian: страйк (strajk)
→ Ukrainian: страйк (strajk)

→ Swedish: strejk

→ Welsh: streic

I must admit that my focus was divided, which limited my fishing success. I made a few casts, then arranged my inanimate subjects and took photos. When my indicator went down on my first strike, I cleanly missed the hook up.

2014, Michael Gorman, Effective Stillwater Fly Fishing, page 87:

(fishing) A nibble on the bait by a fish.


leader

→ Catalan: líder

→ Czech: lídr

→ Galician: líder

→ Japanese: リーダー (rīdā)

→ Korean: 리더 (rideo)

→ Polish: lider

→ Portuguese: líder

→ Romanian: lider

→ Russian: ли́дер (líder)

→ Spanish: líder

→ Turkish: lider

→ Ukrainian: лі́дер (líder)

From Middle English leder, ledere, from Old English lǣdere (“leader”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijārī (“leader”), equivalent to lead + -er. Cognate with Scots ledar, leidar (“leader”), West Frisian lieder (“leader”), Dutch leider (“leader”), German Leiter (“leader, conductor, manager”), Danish leder (“leader, manager”), Swedish ledare (“leader, conductor, director”), Icelandic leiðari (“leader, conductor”).

cog

Someone or something that leads or conducts.

(fishing) A section of line between the main fishing line and the snell of a hook, intended to be more resistant to bites and harder for a fish to detect than the main fishing line.

when two wheels geer together, the one which communicates the motion to the other is called the driver or leader; and the wheel impelled is the follower

1852, D. Gilbert, “Geering”, in Appleton's dictionary of machines, mechanics, engine-work, and engineering, page 786:

(fishing) A net for leading fish into a pound, weir, etc.


mop

en-noun

mop (countable and uncountable, plural mops)

→ Canadian French: moppe

→ German: Mopp

→ Irish: mapa

→ Spanish: mopa

From Middle English mappe (also as mappel), perhaps borrowed from Walloon mappe (“napkin”), from Latin mappa (“napkin, cloth”). Believed to be from a Semitic source, variously claimed as Phoenician or Punic (the latter by Quintilian). Compare Modern Hebrew מַפָּה (mapá, “a map; a cloth”) (shortened from מַנְפָּה (manpah, “fluttering banner, streaming cloth”)). Doublet of map, nape, and nappe.

(fishing) A row of ropes dragged along the seabed for catching starfish.


bullet

bullet (countable and uncountable, plural bullets)

From Middle English bullet (“an official tag or badge of registration or identification”), from Old French bullete, diminutive of boule (“ball”). Later influenced by Middle French boulette and French boulet.


sail

en-noun

sail (countable and uncountable, plural sails)

From Middle English saile, sayle, seil, seyl, from Old English seġl, from Proto-West Germanic *segl, from Proto-Germanic *seglą. Cognate with West Frisian seil, Low German Segel, Dutch zeil, German Segel, Danish sejl, Swedish segel.

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make lofty ships carry low sails

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails

We caught three sails today.


pole

From Middle English pole, pal, from Old English pāl (“a pole, stake, post; a kind of hoe or spade”), from Proto-West Germanic *pāl (“pole”), from Latin pālus (“stake, pale, prop, stay”), perhaps from Old Latin *paxlos, from Proto-Italic *pākslos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to nail, fasten”). Doublet of peel, pale, and palus.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots pale, paill (“stake, pale”), North Frisian pul, pil (“stake, pale”), Saterland Frisian Pool (“pole”), West Frisian poal (“pole”), Dutch paal (“pole”), German Pfahl (“pile, stake, post, pole”), Danish pæl (“pole”), Swedish påle (“pole”), Icelandic páll (“hoe, spade, pale”), Old English fæc (“space of time, while, division, interval; lustrum”).

cog

poll (one pronunciation or with the doll–dole merger)

not touch something with a ten-foot pole


dress

en-verb

dress (third-person singular simple present dresses, present participle dressing, simple past dressed, past participle dressed or (obsolete) drest)

dresses (present singular third-person)
dressing (participle present)
dressed (past)
dressed (participle past)
drest (obsolete participle past)
dress (infinitive)
dress (first-person present singular)
dressed (first-person past singular)
dress (present second-person singular)
dressed (past second-person singular)
dresses (present singular third-person)
dressed (past singular third-person)
dress (plural present)
dressed (past plural)
dress (present subjunctive)
dressed (past subjunctive)
dress (imperative present)
dressing (participle present)
dressed (participle past)
drest (participle past)

→ Sranan Tongo: dresi

PIE word
 *dwís
The verb is from Middle English dressen, dresse (“to arrange, put in order”), from Anglo-Norman, Old French dresser, drecier (modern French dresser), from Late Latin *directiare (“to guide, direct”). Doublet of direct.
The noun is derived from the verb.

aantrek

to put clothes on (oneself or someone, etc.) — see also clothe

self aantrek

to put on clothes — see also get dressed

koristaa

to adorn or ornament (something) — see also adorn, ornament

siistiä

to fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose — see also get ready

whakahuene

referring to preparing rough sawn timber

To fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.

(fishing) To prepare (an artificial fly) to be attached to a fish hook.


tartan

en-noun

tartan (countable and uncountable, plural tartans)

→ Catalan: tartà

→ Scottish Gaelic: tartan

The noun is an unadapted borrowing from Scots tartan, from Old Scots tartane, tertane, probably from Old French tertaine, tiretaine (“cloth of wool mixed with cotton or linen”), probably from tiret (“kind of precious cloth”) + -aine modelled after futaine (“woven cloth made from cotton mixed with linen or silk”). Tiret is derived from tire (“kind of silk cloth”), from Medieval Latin tyrium (“cloth dyed with Tyrian purple”), a noun use of Latin tyrium, an inflection of tyrius (“of Tyre, Tyrian”), from Latin Tyrus (“Phoenician city of Tyre (in modern Lebanon)”) (from Ancient Greek Τῠ́ρος (Tŭ́ros), from Phoenician 𐤑𐤓 (ṣr) or 𐤑𐤅𐤓 (ṣwr)) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives).
Another suggestion is that the Scots noun is from Middle English tartaryn (“rich cloth (probably silk) imported from the East, probably from China through Tartary”), from Old French (drap) tartarin (literally “cloth of Tartary”), from Medieval Latin Tartarīnus (“of Tartary or the Tatars”), from Latin Tartarus, Tatarus (“Tatar person”) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that tartarin referred to a more expensive fabric.
Noun sense 2.2 (“type of fly used in fly fishing”) may refer to its use in Scotland: see the 1837 quotation. Sense 2.3 (“young person who is a member of a Protestant gang in Northern Ireland”) is from the fact that they were traditionally supporters of Rangers Football Club based in Glasgow, Scotland.
The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun, while the verb is also derived from the noun.

طرطان

woven woollen fabric with a distinctive pattern of coloured stripes intersecting at right angles originally associated with Scottish Highlanders

What is called the tartan-fly kills well in the Highlands at the clearing of the water. The tail must be yellow, mixed with a little red; and tipt with silver-thread; the body must be of five or six different colours, yellow, blue, orange, green, red, and black; the colours must join; […]

1837, John Kirkbride, “Salmon-fishing”, in The Northern Angler; or, Fly-fisher’s Companion, Carlisle, Cumbria: C[harles] Thurnam; London: Edwards, […]; [Charles] Tilt, […], →OCLC, page 73:

(countable, fishing) A type of fly used in fly fishing, often to catch salmon.


frog

frogs (plural)
frock (alternative dialectal)
frosk (alternative dialectal)
frosh (alternative dialectal)

→ Esperanto: frogo

→ Hawaiian: poloka

→ Irish: frog

From Middle English frogge, from Old English frogga, from Proto-West Germanic *froggō (“frog”). Cognate with Old Norse frauki.
Possibly related to Saterland Frisian Poage (“frog”), German Low German Pogg, Pogge (“frog”).
Sense 5 is a calque of Ancient Greek βάτραχος (bátrakhos).

calque

squirrel tree frog (Dryophytes squirellus

(fishing) A type of fishing lure that resembles a frog.


underwater

underwaters (plural)
under water (alternative)
under-water (alternative)

/ʌndɚˈwɔtəɹ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underwater.wav

Practically all wobbling underwaters will take fish aplenty in the hands of a man who really knows how to put them through their stints.

1923, Sheridan R. Jones, Bait Casting: The Short Rod and How to Use It, page 57:

(fishing) A type of lure which lies beneath the water surface.


gig

The noun is derived from a clipping of fishgig, fizgig, possibly from Spanish fisga (“harpoon”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

On toward dusk some little gypsy boys whittled gigs from river-birch limbs and went to a backwater and gigged frogs until they had a basketful.

1997, Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 122:

(fishing) Synonym of fishgig or fizgig (“a spear with a barb on the end of it, used for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals”).


gig

en-verb

gig (third-person singular simple present gigs, present participle gigging, simple past and past participle gigged)

gigs (present singular third-person)
gigging (participle present)
gigged (participle past)
gigged (past)

(transitive) To spear (fish, etc.) with a gig or fizgig.

(intransitive) To catch or fish with a gig or fizgig.


leger

leger (third-person singular simple present legers, present participle legering, simple past and past participle legered)

legers (present singular third-person)
legering (participle present)
legered (participle past)
legered (past)

/ˈlɛd͡ʒə(ɹ)/

Night-lines are made of water-cord, with the hooks about half-a-yard apart, baited with worms, loach, gudgeons, &c.; a brick is fastened to each end of the line to sink it, or a peg at one end and a brick at the other, and laid obliquely across the stream. They are also often taken when Legering for Barbel, […]

1864, “Otter” [pseudonym; H. Jervis Alfred], “Eel, Lamprey and Lampern”, in The Modern Angler, Containing Instructions in the Art of Fly-fishing, Spining and Bottom-fishing, […], London: Alfred & Son, […], →OCLC, part I, page 68:

Messrs. E. Frost and Tomkins, at Monkey Island, in two days, caught 80 lbs. weight of chub, dace, and roach with the fly and cheese paste, and in legering a trout of 2¼ lbs.

1878, “The Fishing Season”, in Once a Week, volume VIII (Fourth Series), London: Published at the offices, 19, Tavistock Street, W.C., →OCLC, page 95, column 1:

The added advantage of legering a small bait rather than freelining one is that you can tighten up harder to the bait and so spot runs earlier.

1997, Paul Gustafson, “Rigs”, in How to Catch Bigger Pike from Rivers, Lochs and Lakes, London: Collins Willow, HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN; republished as How to Catch Big Pike: All the Insight and Technique You Need to Catch Bigger Pike, whatever the Location, London: Robinson, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, 2016, →ISBN, page 160:

The flounder spends its life between the tideline and the 25 to 30 fathoms mark, but they are often caught several miles upstream in freshwater rivers by anglers legering worms or gentles.

1998, Martin James, “Flounder”, in Paul Morgan, editor, Saltwater Flyfishing: Britain and Northern Europe, Machynlleth, Powys: Coch-y-Bonddu Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 156:

(ambitransitive, British, fishing) Alternative form of ledger (“to use (a certain type of bait) in bottom fishing; to engage in bottom fishing”).


nymph

nymph (third-person singular simple present nymphs, present participle nymphing, simple past and past participle nymphed)

nymphs (present singular third-person)
nymphing (participle present)
nymphed (participle past)
nymphed (past)
nymphe (alternative archaic rare)

From Middle English nimphe, from Old English nymphē and Old French nimphe, both from Latin nympha (“nymph, bride”), from Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride”). Doublet of nympha.

Kuster meanwhile nymphed the middle of the Snag. When I joined him, I threw my streamer between the main channel's flow and the skinnier side-channel flow, […]

2019, James W. White, Fly-fishing the Arctic Circle to Tasmania, page 253:

(fishing) To fish using a nymph larva as bait.


bab

The worms were threaded onto the yarn until we had 4 or 5 feet of big juicy worms threaded through. We would coil it all up and put an old rusty nut at the centre and tie it on a bit of string on an old ash pole — this was the bab.

2006 February 1, John Meiklejohn, “Babbing for eels”, in BBC - WW2 People's War:

(fishing, East Anglia) A bait for eels, consisting of a bundle of live worms.


bab

bab (third-person singular simple present babs, present participle babbing, simple past and past participle babbed)

babs (present singular third-person)
babbing (participle present)
babbed (participle past)
babbed (past)

The babbers follow the eels, and you may see fifteen boats as close together as possible, babbing away, and catching as much as four stone-weight of eels per boat of a night.

1884, George Christopher Davies, Norfolk Broads and Rivers, W. Blackwood and sons, page 244:

Sometimes we trolled or set liggers for pike, we seldom babbed for eels, it was such a slimy job.

1948, William Guy, Mostly Memories: Some Digressions, C. J. Cousland, page 24:

Another classic example was babbing for eels; he would come along and say — ‘Goodnight for babbing, make you some babs’.

(intransitive, fishing, East Anglia) To fish for eels using a bab.


torch

torch (third-person singular simple present torches, present participle torching, simple past and past participle torched)

torches (present singular third-person)
torching (participle present)
torched (participle past)
torched (past)

The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin *torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
Sense 2.3 (Verbascum thapsus) is either due to the plant’s spike of yellow flowers, or because its leaves and stalks were used to make torches (noun sense 1). Sense 3.2 (“precious cause, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others”) is derived from Latin lampada trādere, from Ancient Greek λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι (lămpắdă părădidónai, “to hand over the torch”), a reference to the torch race held at various festivals such as the Panathenaic Games in Ancient Greece, which involved a relay where a torch was passed from one runner to another.
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι

(US, fishing) To catch fish or other aquatic animals by torchlight; to go torch-fishing.

kalastaa soihdunvalossa

to catch fish or other aquatic animals by torchlight


chopstick

chopsticks (plural)
chop-stick (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-chopstick.wav

Apparently a compound of chop + stick, but the sense of the first element is not clear. The eating utensil sense (attested since 1637) is presumably a transfer of sense from the earlier fishing tackle sense (attested from 1615), based on physical resemblance.
The common derivation from Chinese Pidgin English chop(-chop) (“quick”), a supposed calque from Chinese 筷子 (kuàizi, “chopstick”), derived from 快 (kuài, “quick”), is chronologically impossible as Chinese Pidgin English did not come into existence until the 18th century.

der

I pray pardon me for that Capt' Adams' hast to goe downe causeth me to be breefer then I would, wishing you to luffe as fast as you can in the heigh of hogg faces, for these climates of Meaco yeald nothinge but shirrow & chopp-stickes.

1615 October 23, Richard Wickham, letter; in Anthony Farrington, editor, The English Factory in Japan, 1613-1623: Volume I, London: The British Library, 1991, page 330:

The Fisherman has a Line of 90 Fathom long, or more, with a Lead at the end of it called a Deep-sea-lead, of about 6 or 7 pounds weight, to sink it; above which is a cross-stick, termed a Chop-stick, with 2 Lines and Hooks at them, with Baits[.]

1726, Nathan Bailey, Dictionarium Rusticum, Urbanicum and Botanicum, London: James and John Knapton et al., page s.v. Iceland:

The spreader is passed through the hole in the sinker, c, until its centre is reached, when the edges of the holes must be closed in tightly with a small hammer, which will, if properly done, retain the spreader securely in its place. This arrangement is generally known amongst fishermen as a set of "chop-sticks."

1862, W.B. Lord, Sea Fish and How to Catch Them, London: Bradbury, Agnew and Co., page 44:

One great advantage of this rig is that the lead and its appendage are always hauled up endways, thus offering less opposition to the water than those fitted with the different chop-sticks.

1905, P. L. Haslope, Practical Sea-fishing: A Handbook for Sea Anglers, London: L. Upcott Gill, page 30:

(obsolete, fishing) A long straight stick forming part of various fishing tackle arrangements.


propeller

propellers (plural)
propellor (alternative nonstandard rare)

→ Dutch: propeller

→ German: Propeller

→ Swedish: propeller


spoon

From Middle English spoon, spoune, spone, spon (“spoon, chip of wood”), from Old English spōn (“sliver, chip of wood, shaving”), from Proto-West Germanic *spānu, from Proto-Germanic *spēnuz (“chip, flake, shaving”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peh₂- (“chip, shaving, log, length of wood”).
Cognate with Scots spun, spon (“spoon, shingle”), West Frisian spoen, Dutch spaan (“chip, flinders”), German Span (“chip, flake, shaving”), Swedish spån (“chip, flake”), Norwegian Nynorsk spon (“chip, spoon”), Faroese spónur (“wood chip; spoon”), Ancient Greek σφήν (sphḗn, “wedge”)(though the connection to the Greek is likely impossible by modern reconstructions of PIE). Eclipsed non-native Middle English cuculer, coclear (“spoon”), from Old English cuculer, cuceler, cucler, borrowed from Latin cochlear (“spoon”).
The "metaphoric unit of personal energy" sense was coined by writer and disability advocate Christine Miserandino in 2003 (see spoon theory).

coinage

he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon

(fishing) A type of metal lure resembling the concave head of a tablespoon.


sockdolager

sockdolagers (plural)
socdolager (alternative)
sockdologer (alternative)
sogdolloger (alternative)

[ˌsɑkˈdɑːɫ.ə.d͡ʒɚ]

Unknown, 1827 US, presumably fanciful variant of sock (“to hit”); compare contemporary fanciful American coinages.
Various speculative etymologies have been suggested, such as corruption of doxology, due to this occurring at the end of church worship, hence “finality”.

(US, fishing) A combination of two hooks which close upon each other, by means of a spring, as soon as the fish bites.


haaf

From Old Norse haf (“the sea”). Cognate with Danish hav, Old English hæf (Etymology 2).

The banks to which they repair for the haaf fishing, are often many miles distant from the station where the fish is dried; so that they are always twenty or thirty hours absent, frequently longer; and under unfavourable circumstances of wind and tide, they remain at sea, with a very small stock of provisions, and in a boat of a construction which seems extremely slender, for two or three days, and are sometimes heard of no more.

1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

The haaf-boat was as well maintained as any vessel in the islands; her master had a reputation for thoroughness, for all he was barely twenty years of age.

2003, Juliet Marillier, Foxmask (Saga of the Light Isles; 2), page 28:

(fishing, Shetland, Scotland) the open sea, especially as a place to fish

Although men concentrated at the main haaf stations during the summer fishing season, they reverted to their homes in crofting townships for the remainder of the year.

2005, James Coull, “7: The development of fishing communities with special reference to Scotland”, in Jonathan Potts, Hance D. Smith, editors, Managing Britain's Marine and Coastal Environment: Towards a Sustainable Future, page 145:

(fishing, Shetland) the practice of sea fishing for such as cod, ling and tusk


noodle

en-verb

noodle (third-person singular simple present noodles, present participle noodling, simple past and past participle noodled)

noodles (present singular third-person)
noodling (participle present)
noodled (participle past)
noodled (past)

Unknown; perhaps related to guddle (“to catch (fish) with the hands”).

(to catch with the hands):

Fred had several lacerations on his hands from noodling flathead in the river.

(transitive, fishing) To catch (fish (usually very large catfish), turtles, or other aquatic animals) with the hands; also, to catch (fish) using a gaff or fishing spear; to gaff.


slot

From Middle English slot, from Old French esclot, likely from Old Norse slóð (“track”). As a gambling machine, via clipping of slot machine. Compare sleuth. The scheduling (calendar) sense is by a metaphor whereby the time span is equated with the segment of a page or part of a device that represents it.

(fishing) A fish that is within regulation size limits and hence can be caught and kept.


structure

en-noun

structure (countable and uncountable, plural structures)

/ˈstɹʌkt͡ʃɚ/

[ˈstʃɹɐktʃə]

From Middle French structure, from Latin structūra (“a fitting together, adjustment, building, erection, a building, edifice, structure”), from struere, past participle structus (“pile up, arrange, assemble, build”). Compare construct, instruct, destroy, etc.

der

There's lots of structure to be fished along the west shore of the lake; the impoundment submerged a town there when it was built.

(fishing, uncountable) Underwater terrain or objects (such as a dead tree or a submerged car) that tend to attract fish


lance

From Middle English launce, from Old French lance, from Latin lancea.

(fishing) A spear or harpoon used by whalers and fishermen.


plug

→ Gulf Arabic: بلاك (blāk)

→ Burmese: ပလတ် (pa.lat)

→ Japanese: プラグ (puragu)

From Dutch plug, from Middle Dutch plugge (“peg, plug”), from Old Dutch *pluggi, from Proto-West Germanic *plugi. Further origin unknown. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *plugjaz, but the word seems originally restricted to northern continental West Germanic. Perhaps ultimately from the same source as Dutch plag (“cut-out sod”), itself considered to be from a substrate.
Compare German Low German Plüg, Norwegian plug (“peg, wedge”, probably borrowed from Middle Low German), German Pflock (“peg”, restricted to Central German and phonetically divergent). Possibly akin to Lithuanian plúkti (“to strike, hew”).

unk

unknown

cog

The fisherman cast the plug into a likely pool, hoping to catch a whopper.

(fishing) A type of lure consisting of a rigid, buoyant or semi-buoyant body and one or more hooks.


blitz

en-noun

blitz (countable and uncountable, plural blitzes)

Clipping of blitzkrieg, from German Blitzkrieg (literally “lightning war”).

der

(fishing) An occurrence in which large numbers of fish, typically striped bass or bluefish, feed on a school of baitfish, typically one in which the occurrence can be seen from the surface.


gorge

From Middle English gorge (“esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten”), a borrowing from Old French gorge (“throat”) (modern French gorge (“throat; breast”)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour, swallow; to eat”). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (“throat”), Italian gorga, gorgia (“gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat”), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”), Spanish gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”). Doublet of gour.

cog

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-gorge.wav

Hooks of willow wood or bone (often from wishbone) and copper gorges (thin bipointed rods with a fishline attachment in the middle) could be baited with fish scrap or meat.

2001, Frederick Matthew Wiseman, “The Land Becomes Warm: The Years of the Log Ships (6,500 to 1,000 Winters Ago)”, in The Voice of the Dawn: An Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation, Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, →ISBN, pages 44–45:

Examining this piece of worked stone, which once belonged to a prehistoric man living in that valley, we find it fairly well polished, though the action of countless years has slightly "weathered" or disintegrated its once smooth surface. In the center, a groove has been cut, and the ends of the stone rise slightly from the middle. It is rather crescent-shaped. It must have been tied to a line, and this stone gorge was covered with a bait; the fish swallowed it, and, the gorge coming crosswise with the gullet, the fish was captured. […] In the Swiss lakes are found the remains of the Lacustrine dwellers. Among the many implements discovered are fish-gorges made of bronze wire. When these forms are studied, the fact must be recognized at once that they follow, in shape and principle of construction, the stone gorges of the Neolithic period.

2010, Barnet Phillips, “The Primitive Fish-hook”, in Nick Lyons, editor, The Best Fishing Stories Ever Told, New York, N.Y.: Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN, part I (Early Days—of It and Us), page 7:

(fishing) A primitive device used instead of a hook to catch fish, consisting of an object that is easy to swallow but difficult to eject or loosen, such as a piece of bone or stone pointed at each end and attached in the middle to a line.


balk

From Middle English balke, from Old English balca, either from or influenced by Old Norse bálkr (“partition, ridge of land”), from Proto-Germanic *balkô. Cognate with Dutch balk (“balk”), German Balken (“balk”), Italian balcone (“balcony”).

der

(fishing) The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together.


dun

We have besides for this Month a little Dun call'd a whirling Dun (though it is not the whirling Dun indeed, which is one of the best Flies we have) and for this the dubbing must be of the bottom fur of a Squirrels tail and the wing of the grey feather of a Drake.

1676, Charles Cotton, The Compleat Angler. Being Instructions how to Angle for a Trout or Grayling in a Clear Stream, London: Richard Marriott, and Henry Brome, →OCLC, March, page 59:

(countable, fishing) A fly made to resemble the mayfly subimago.


hackle

en-noun

hackle (countable and uncountable, plural hackles)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-hackle.wav

From Middle English hakle (compare the compound meshakele), from Old English hæcla, hacele, from Proto-Germanic *hakulǭ, equivalent to hack + -le. Cognate with Dutch hekel, German Hechel.

(fishing) A feather used to make a fishing lure or a fishing lure incorporating a feather.


jig

Unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern French gigue is borrowed from English.

They were waked out of their bunks one black night by yells of "Squid O!" from Salters, and for an hour and a half every soul aboard hung over his squid-jig—a piece of lead painted red and armed at the lower end with a circle of pins bent backward like half-opened umbrella ribs.

1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:

(fishing) A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.


jig

en-verb

jig (third-person singular simple present jigs, present participle jigging, simple past and past participle jigged)

jigs (present singular third-person)
jigging (participle present)
jigged (participle past)
jigged (past)


jigger

→ Catalan: gigre

From jig + -er (agent suffix). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”).

(fishing) A device used by fishermen to set their nets under the ice of frozen lakes.


popper

en-noun

popper (countable and uncountable, plural poppers)

From Middle English poppere, equivalent to pop + -er (suffix forming agent noun).
Sense 8 ("capsule of amyl nitrite") is derived fro the popping sound when the capsule is broken open; from which sense 9 also derives.

(fishing) A floating lure designed to splash when the fishing line is twitched.


creel

From Middle English crele, possibly from an Old French root *creille, variant of greille (compare French grille), from Latin crāticula. Alternatively, this word may have originally been of Scottish origin.

Return with a creel of trout for supper.

1895, R. D. Blackmore, Slain By The Doones, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 6:

Her great creel forehead-slung, she wanders nigh,
 Easing the heavy strap with gnarled, brown fingers

A woven basket, especially a wicker basket and especially as follows:

(fishing) An osier basket that anglers use to hold fish.


deck

From Middle English dekke, borrowed from Middle Dutch dec (“roof, covering”), from Middle Dutch decken, from Old Dutch thecken, from Proto-West Germanic *þakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *þakjaną. Formed the same: German Decke (“covering, blanket”). Doublet of thatch and thack.

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic

Wily carp are quickly put on their guard by tight lines cutting through the water, so another common measure is to use a back lead to keep the line on the deck.

2012, Peter Kaminsky, Greg Schwipps, “Part IV: Now You're Fishing”, in Fishing for Dummies, UK edition, Adapted by Dominic Garnett, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., page 298:

(British, fishing) The bottom of a water body.


sedge

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-sedge.wav

(fishing) A dry fly used in fly fishing, designed to resemble a sedge or caddis fly.


shack

shack (countable and uncountable, plural shacks)

Obsolete variant of shake. Compare Scots shag (“refuse of barley or oats”).

(fishing) Bait that can be picked up at sea.


sliver

From Middle English slivere, sliver from Middle English sliven (“to cut, cleave, split”), from Old English slīfan (as in tōslīfan (“to split, split up”)).

треска

long piece cut or rent off; a sharp, slender fragment

(fishing) Bait made of pieces of small fish.


snag

en-verb

snag (third-person singular simple present snags, present participle snagging, simple past and past participle snagged)

snags (present singular third-person)
snagging (participle present)
snagged (participle past)
snagged (past)

From earlier snag (“stump or branch of a tree”), from Middle English *snagge, *snage, from Old Norse snagi (“clothes peg”) (compare Old Norse snag-hyrndr (“snag-horned, having jagged corners”)), perhaps ultimately from a derivative of Proto-Germanic *snakk-, *snēgg, variations of *snakaną (“to crawl, creep, wind about”).
Compare Norwegian snag, snage (“protrusion; projecting point”), Icelandic snagi (“peg”). Also see Dutch snoek (“pike”).

cog

We snagged for spoonbill from the eastern shore of the Mississippi River.

(fishing) To fish by means of dragging a large hook or hooks on a line, intending to impale the body (rather than the mouth) of the target.

さびく

fishing: to fish by means of dragging a large hook or hooks on a line


snap

en-noun

snap (countable and uncountable, plural snaps)

From Dutch snappen (“to bite; seize”) or Low German snappen (“to bite; seize”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *snappōn, from Proto-Germanic *snappōną (“to snap; snatch; chatter”), intensive form of *snapāną (”to snap; grab”, whence Old Norse snapa (“to get; scrounge”)), from Proto-Indo-European *snop-; compare Lithuanian snãpas (“beak, bill”). (One alternative hypothesis links the Germanic words to *snu-, an expressive root deriving words meaning “nose”, “snout”, “sniff” etc., but this is phonetically unsound.) In any case influenced by onomatopoeia; note expressions such as snip-snap, containing the formally unrelated snip.
Cognate with West Frisian snappe (“to get; catch; snap”), German schnappen (“to grab”), Swedish snappa (“to snatch”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

gloss

”to snap; grab”, whence Old Norse <i class="Latn mention" lang="non">snapa</i> (“to get; scrounge”)

sound-symbolic

expressive

onom

onomatopoeia

cog

(fishing) A small device resembling a safety pin, used to attach the bait or lure to the line.


troll

en-verb

troll (third-person singular simple present trolls, present participle trolling, simple past and past participle trolled)

trolls (present singular third-person)
trolling (participle present)
trolled (participle past)
trolled (past)
troll (infinitive)
troll (first-person present singular)
trolled (first-person past singular)
troll (present second-person singular)
trollest (archaic present second-person singular)
trolled (past second-person singular)
trolledst (archaic past second-person singular)
trolls (present singular third-person)
trolleth (archaic present singular third-person)
trolled (past singular third-person)
troll (plural present)
trolled (past plural)
troll (present subjunctive)
trolled (past subjunctive)
troll (imperative present)
trolling (participle present)
trolled (participle past)
trowl (alternative)
trowle (alternative)

Spanish: trolear

The verb is derived from Middle English trollen (“to go about, wander; to move (something) to and fro, rock; to roll; to turn”) [and other forms], of uncertain origin; perhaps in part from Old French troller (“to run here and there; to walk aimlessly, ramble, stroll; (hunting) to wander about looking for game”) (modern French troller); further etymology uncertain, yet probably from or related to Middle High German trollen (“to stroll, walk with short strides”) (modern German trollen (“to move slowly, trundle; to push off, toddle off”)), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *truzlōną (“to lumber”), which is probably related to *trudaną (“to step on, tread”) (see further at etymology 1). Doublet of trull.
Verb sense 4.2.2 (“to fish using a line and bait or lures trailed behind a boat”) is possibly influenced by trail and/or trawl.
The noun is probably derived from the verb. Noun sense 4 (“person who makes or posts inflammatory or insincere statements in an attempt to lure others into combative argument”) is possibly influenced by troll (etymology 1).
Cognates
* Middle Low German drullen (“to stroll”) (Low German trullen (“to troll”))

unc

uncertain

laulaa vuoroin

(transitive, intransitive) to sing the parts of (a catch, round, or similar song) in succession

laulella

to sing (a song) freely or in a carefree way, or loudly

tokaista

(transitive, intransitive) to say (something) lightly and quickly

kalastama

(transitive, intransitive) to fish in (a place) using a running fishing line

Chearful at morn he vvakes from ſhort repoſe, / Breaſts the keen air, and carrols as he goes; / VVith patient angle trolls the finny deep, / Or drives his vent'rous plovv-ſhare to the ſteep.

1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or A Prospect of Society. A Poem. […], London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 10:

(fishing) To fish in (a place) using a running fishing line (that is, a line with a hook on the end which is drawn along the water surface, possibly a line which would originally have been spooled on to a troll (etymology 2, noun sense 8.1)).

I, nor chuſe to bear / The thieviſh nightly net, not barbed ſpear: / Nor drain I ponds the golden carp to take, / Nor trovvle for pikes, diſpeoplers of the lake.

1713, John Gay, “Rural Sports. A Georgic. Inscribed to Mr. [Alexander] Pope.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, volume I, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], and Bernard Lintot, […], published 1720, →OCLC, page 16, lines 261–264:

My flies alone disturbed the placid waters. A half-grown-up lad, who was standing behind me on the bank, advised me to "troll with bait"—a cluster of worms fastened to the hook, which is dragged in jerks over the surface of the water—and offered to find the bait for me.

1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “Legends of the Mill”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 153:

(fishing) To fish using a running fishing line.

Senses relating to fishing.
To fish using a running fishing line.

Their young men […] trolled along the brooks that abounded in fish.

1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:

(fishing, Scotland, US) To fish using a line and bait or lures trailed behind a boat similarly to trawling.


troll

→ Korean: 트롤 (teurol)

→ Spanish: trol

→ Ukrainian: троль (trolʹ)

→ Welsh: trol (“cart”)

unc

uncertain

An act of fishing by using a running fishing line, or by trailing a line with bait or lures behind a boat.

vetouistelu

A fishing line, bait, or lure used to fish in these ways.


chugger

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-chugger.wav

(fishing) A type of fish lure or fly that makes a popping or chugging sound when twitched.


clip

→ Japanese: クリップ (kurippu)

→ Portuguese: clipe

From Middle English clippen, cleppen, clüppen, from Old English clyppan (“to hug, embrace, cherish, clasp”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *glemb-, *glembʰ- (“lump, clump, clod, clamp”). Cognate with Old Frisian kleppa, klippa (“to hug, embrace”), Middle High German klimpen, klimpfen (“to contract tightly, constrict, squeeze”).

inh

(fishing, UK, Scotland) A gaff or hook for landing the fish, as in salmon fishing.


swivel

en-noun

swivel (countable and uncountable, plural swivels)

From Middle English swyvel, swivel, from a derivative of Old English swīfan (“to revolve”), + -el, an instrumental suffix, equivalent to swive + -el.

(fishing) A small, usually ball- or barrel-shaped device used in angling to connect sections of fishing lines, consisting of two rings linked via a thrust bearing pivot joint.


RSA

RSA (countable and uncountable, plural RSAs)

(fishing) Initialism of recreational sea angler.


gentle

[ˈd͡ʒɛ̃ɾ̃l̩]

From Middle English gentil (“courteous, noble”), from Old French gentil (“high-born, noble”), from Latin gentilis (“of the same family or clan”), from gens (“[Roman] clan”). Doublet of gentile, genteel, and jaunty.

der

Pooh! the whole thing is as alive and wrigging as an angler's box of gentles

1846, Douglas William Jerrold, “The History of St. Giles and St. James”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

Years ago, on Victoria's Port Phillip Bay, the recognised bait for garfish were `gentles', a genteel word for maggots, which were especially grown for gar fishermen.

1983, The Fisherman Who Laughed, page 67:

(fishing) A maggot used as bait by anglers.


northern

From Middle English northerne, from Old English norþerne, from Proto-West Germanic *norþrōnī, from Proto-Germanic *nurþrōnijaz. Cognate with Old High German nordrōni and Old Norse norrœnn.
Morphologically north + -ern.

As is the case with northerns, the female muskie, trailed by her attendant males, may broadcast eggs over several hundred yards.

1993, Barry Reynolds, John Berryman, Pike on the Fly: The Flyfishing Guide to Northerns, Tigers, and Muskies:


dap

en-verb

dap (third-person singular simple present daps, present participle dapping, simple past and past participle dapped)

daps (present singular third-person)
dapping (participle present)
dapped (participle past)
dapped (past)

Onomatopoeic, from the sound made when a person runs while wearing daps.

(fishing) To drop the bait gently onto the surface of the water.


minnow

minnows (plural)
minnie (alternative)
minny (alternative)
minow (alternative)
menow (alternative)
menoe (alternative)

The noun is derived from Late Middle English menew, menowe (“small fish; (specifically) common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus); or stickleback (possibly the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus)”), from Old English *mynwe, an oblique form of *mynu, a variant of myne (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *muniwu (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small”). Possibly influenced by Anglo-Norman menu (“small”) and Old French menu (“small”), and English minim (“anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like”).
The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.
Cognates
* Middle Low German mone, möne (Dutch meun, West Frisian meun)
* Old High German muniwa, munuwa, munewa (modern German Münne (“minnow”))
* Latin mēna (“small sea-fish”)

cog

[…] I have (which I will show you) an artificial minnow, that will catch a trout as well as an artificial fly, and it was made by a handsome woman that had a fine hand, and a live minnow lying by her: […]

1676, Izaak Walton, “[The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation: Part I […].] More Directions How to Fish for, and How to Make for the Trout an Artificial Minnow and Flies; with Some Merriment.”, in Richard Le Gallienne, editor, The Compleat Angler, 5th edition, London; New York, N.Y.: John Lane, The Bodley Head, published 1897, →OCLC, page 107:

(fishing) An artificial bait in the form of a small fish.


minnow

en-verb

minnow (third-person singular simple present minnows, present participle minnowing, simple past and past participle minnowed)

minnows (present singular third-person)
minnowing (participle present)
minnowed (participle past)
minnowed (past)

To fish for minnows (noun sense 1 and subsenses).

To fish, especially for trout, using minnows as bait.


opener

(fishing) A period of time when it is legal to commercially fish.


flatline

flatlines (plural)
flat line (alternative)

From flat + line. Refers to a continuous straight line (asystole) on an ECG (EKG) or EEG, indicating death.

(fishing) A line that is run low to the water from the rod tip, generally off a release clip of some type.


flatline

flatline (third-person singular simple present flatlines, present participle flatlining, simple past and past participle flatlined)

flatlines (present singular third-person)
flatlining (participle present)
flatlined (participle past)
flatlined (past)

(fishing, intransitive) To fish using a flatline.


kipper

en-adj

kipper (comparative more kipper, superlative most kipper)

more kipper (comparative)
most kipper (superlative)

From Old English cypera (“male salmon”), perhaps related to Old English coper (“reddish-brown metal”) (see copper), on resemblance of color. Another theory connects it to kip (“sharp, hooked lower jaw of the male salmon in breeding season”), from Middle English kippen (“to seize, snatch”), but OED doubts this.

inh

These were kipper salmon, and an acquaintance of mine living at Burton Rowbottom who was trolling for pike at Yoxall, near to King's Bromley, got a run, five years ago, and caught a beautiful salmon weighting 25 lbs.

1861, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Reports from Commissioners - Volume 23, page 523:

the milner of Brignall for that he doth usually keep in the back beck a fishlock in the river called Gill Beck, below his mill and the forebeck of another fishlock [sic] above the mill, whereby he taketh and destroyeth much fish, to wit —routs, at his pleasure, and taketh, etc. divers fish when they are kipper and out of season;

1888, Great Britain. Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace (North Riding of Yorkshire), John Christopher Atkinson, Quarter Sessions Records - Volume 6, page 43:

Walton next tells us that the he-salmon is usually bigger than the spawner; that he is more kipper and less able to endure a winter in the fresh water than she is, yet she is, at that time of looking less kipper and better, as watery and as bad meat.'

1898, Alfred Erskine Gathorne-Hardy, The Salmon, page 15:

Three weeks ago 25 per cent of the salmon running were kipper salmon.

1923, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, Journal. Appendix, page 17:

(fishing, especially of salmon) Out of season.


glory hole

(Canada, fishing) An especially good place to fish, a particularly rich fishing spot.


spod

Origin unknown; possibly related to English spud, in the sense of a potato.

(fishing) A container used to distribute a large amount of bait in a single cast.


spod

en-verb

spod (third-person singular simple present spods, present participle spodding, simple past and past participle spodded)

spods (present singular third-person)
spodding (participle present)
spodded (participle past)
spodded (past)


whiff

whiff (third-person singular simple present whiffs, present participle whiffing, simple past and past participle whiffed)

whiffs (present singular third-person)
whiffing (participle present)
whiffed (participle past)
whiffed (past)

The noun is possibly:
* partly a variant of Middle English wef, weffe (“bad smell, stench, stink; exhalation; vapour; tendency of something to go bad (?)”) [and other forms], possibly a variant of either:
** waf, waif, waife (“odour, scent”), possibly from waven (“to move to and fro, sway, wave; to stray, wander; to move in a weaving manner; (figuratively) to hesitate, vacillate”), from Old English wafian (“to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”); or
** wef (“a blow, stroke”), from weven (“to travel, wander; to move to and fro, flutter, waver; to blow something away, waft; to cause something to move; to fall; to cut deeply; to sever; to give up, yield; to give deference to; to avoid; to afflict, trouble; to beckon, signal”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old English wefan (“to weave”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”)), or from wǣfan (see bewǣfan, ymbwǣfan); and
* partly onomatopoeic.
Noun sense 6 (“name of a number of flatfish”) is possibly derived from sense 1 (“brief, gentle breeze; a light gust of air”), sense 4 (“small quantity of cloud, smoke, vapour, etc.”), and other such senses.
The verb and adjective are derived from the noun. Verb sense 2.6 (“to catch fish by dragging a handline near the surface of the water from a moving boat”) is possibly derived from sense 1.1 (“to carry or convey (something) by, or as by, a whiff or puff of air”), sense 2.2 (“to be carried, or move as if carried, by a puff of air”), and other such senses.
The interjection is derived from noun sense 7.4 (“a sound like that of air passing through a small opening; a short or soft whistle”).

inh

(fishing) To catch fish by dragging a handline near the surface of the water from a moving boat.


lure

lore (some speakers with the pour–poor merger)

From Anglo-Norman lure, from Old French loirre (Modern French leurre), from Frankish *lōþr, from Proto-Germanic *lōþr-, perhaps ultimately related to *laþō (“invitation, calling”), or from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (“to hide”). Compare English allure, also from Old French. Probably related to German Luder (“bait”).

(fishing) An artificial bait attached to a fishing line to attract fish.


tackle

en-noun

tackle (countable and uncountable, plural tackles)

From Middle English takel (“gear, apparatus”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German takel (“ship's rigging”), perhaps related to Middle Dutch taken (“to grasp, seize”). Akin to Danish takkel (“tackle”), Swedish tackel (“tackle”). More at take.

der

(fishing, uncountable) Equipment (rod, reel, line, lure, etc.) used when angling.


chum

Originally American English, from the 1850s. Perhaps from Powhatan.

The whale’s floating body also forms a chum slick on the surface—a trail of blood, oil, and chunks of fat and flesh that might stretch for miles across the water. […] This chum slick is what attracts sharks from afar. Seabirds are drawn to it too.

2021 March 18, Sarah Zhang, “A Gruesome Feeding Frenzy in the Atlantic Ocean”, in The Atlantic:

Most of us have seen the movie “Jaws”. Sheriff Brody is complaining about being the lucky one in charge of creating a chum line out of the back of the boat. The bucket is full of an awful combination of fish parts and blood. As he ladles scoop after scoop into the ocean, clearly, it was ^([sic]) working…

2020, “The Best Methods to Go Chumming”, in Bait Binder, Coastal Baits, LLC, archived from the original on 2020-09-27:

(fishing, chiefly Canada, US) A mixture of (frequently rancid) fish parts and blood, dumped into the water as groundbait to attract predator fish, such as sharks.


chum

en-verb

chum (third-person singular simple present chums, present participle chumming, simple past and past participle chummed)

chums (present singular third-person)
chumming (participle present)
chummed (participle past)
chummed (past)

He began to chum for sharks, using whale oil and chopped whale meat.

1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 176:

Small live baitfish are effective, and they will take bits of fresh cut fish when chummed strongly.

1996, Frank Sargeant, The Reef Fishing Book: A Complete Anglers Guide:

(fishing, ambitransitive) To cast chum into the water to attract fish.


sideboard

Conversely, in fisheries with increasing sideboards, economic benefit could be denied to the sideboarded sectors.

2012, Federal Register - Volume 77, Issue 50, page 15226:

(fishing) A restriction on using the right to catch a certain number of fish that was granted in relation to a different fishery.


drifter

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-drifter.wav

(fishing) One who takes part in drift fishing.

(fishing) A boat used for drift fishing.


leister

From earlier leyster, lister, perhaps via Middle English *lēster, *līster, from Old Norse ljóstr (“leister”), from ljósta (“to smite, strike; to hit, strike (with an arrow or spear)”), from Proto-Germanic *leustaną (“to hit, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *lew-s- (“to loosen (by knocking)”); the word is cognate with Danish lyster (“fish spear, gig, leister”), Icelandic ljósta (“to hit, strike”), Norwegian Bokmål lyster (dialectal Norwegian lioster), Swedish ljuster.

refn

From the collection of the Immigration Museum of the State of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

cog

The methods of catching the ſalmon in this pariſh are ſimilar to thoſe deſcribed in the ſtatiſtical account of Dornock, p. 15. excepting that there is no raiſe-net fiſhing, and that the leiſter is only about 10 or 12 feet long, conſequently better calculated for throwing to any diſtance.

1792, William Wright, “Number XII. Parish of Newabbey. (Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.)”, in John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland. […], volume II, Edinburgh: Printed and sold by William Creech; [et al.], →OCLC, footnote, pages 132–133:

Rob Runchy, as a forlorn hope, once threw his clodding leister at a drowning man floating down the Yarrow in a high flood, and hauled him out with the lyams unharmed.

1843, William Scrope, chapter IX, in Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing in the Tweed; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 199–200:

Andy, who had been a moment behind getting his leister out of the fish he had killed, came up, and both he and Jock made several random strokes, when Jock, in his eagerness, slipped his foot, and fell headforemost into the water, the leister flying from his hand just as I caught sight of the fish they were after, lying close in to the bank; […]

1850, “Agricola” [pseudonym], “‘Burning the Water’—A Tweedside Sketch”, in The New Sporting Magazine, volume 116, London: Published at the office, 34, Norfolk Street, Strand, →OCLC, page 57:

Old Sandy fished down the river, but he could kill no more salmon that night, […] He missed one; wounded another on the tail; and struck a third on the rigback, where no leister can pierce a fish, till he made him spring above water.

1865, “the Ettrick Shepherd” [pseudonym; James Hogg], Thomas Thomson, “The Siege of Roxburgh”, in The Works of the Ettrick Shepherd. […], new edition, volume I, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh: Blackie & Son, […], →OCLC, chapter VII, page 632, column 1:

The leister is a spear composed of four or more barbed prongs, something like the manure fork or graip of the agriculturist, and firmly fixed to a light straight pole about twelve or fourteen feet in length. […] The leisterer looks into the river to find a fish, he spears it if he can and must keep it from wriggling off his leister after it is pierced.

1878 April 26, “a special correspondent” [pseudonym], “River Poaching on the Borders.—No. IV.”, in The Fishing Gazette, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, →OCLC, page 194, column 1:

Although leisters and harpoons cannot be called the most important implement in the fishing economy of the North American Indians, they are probably of more value as evidence of culture-historical movements than most of the other fishing artifacts, and for two reasons.

1952, University of California Publications in Geography, volume 9, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 108:

The shaft parts taper slightly upwards, have rounded outer surfaces and flat or slightly concave inner surfaces which are adapted to the shape of the leister pole.

2004, Jørgen Skaarup, “Artefacts”, in Jørgen Skaarup, Ole Grøn, translated by Anne Bloch Jøorgensen and David Earle Robinson, Møllegabet II: A Submerged Mesolithic Settlement in Southern Denmark (BAR International Series; 1328), Oxford: Archaeopress, →ISBN, archived from the original on 2018-12-20, section V.a.4.2 (Leister Prongs), page 88, column 2:

These Aborigines possessed the entire Tasmanian toolkit plus hundreds of additional specialized tools, including a fine array of bone tools, leisters, spear throwers, boomerangs, mounted adzes (for wood working), many multipart tools, a variety of nets for birds, fish, and wallabies, sewn-bark canoes with paddles, string bags, ground-edge axes, and wooden bowls for drinking.

2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 12, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN:

(fishing) A spear armed with three or more barbed prongs for catching fish, particularly salmon.

тризъбец

spear with barbed prongs for catching fish


biter

From Middle English biter, bitere, equivalent to bite + -er. Cognate with West Frisian biter (“biter”), Dutch bijter (“biter”), German Low German Bieter (“biter”), German Beißer (“biter”).

She tried the same cast several times. I signaled her to switch flies. After two such changes we still couldn't move the fish. Some steelhead are biters; some are not.

2007, John Shewey, On the Fly Guide to the Northwest, page 79:

(fishing) A fish that tends to take bait.


purse seine

(fishing) A fishing seine consisting of a purse cable which acts as a draw string for the bottom of the net allowing entire schools of fish to be enclosed and brought up.


trotline

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-trotline.wav

He scrubbed the deck every morning, spliced broken lines, climbed nimbly amongst the yards and ratlines to let out or take in sails, ran trotlines from the stern to augment their meals with fresh fish and served spells at the helm, although never on his own and never at night.

2022, Paul McAuley, Beyond the Burn Line, Gollancz, pages 162-163:

(fishing) A long fishing line with many shorter lines and hooks attached to it (usually suspended between buoys).


sinker

Hook the sinker onto this loop.

Then the caplin moved off, and five minutes later there was no sound except the splash of the sinkers overside, the flapping of the cod, and the whack of the muckles as the men stunned them.

1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:

(fishing) A weight used in fishing to cause the line or net to sink.


kipe

From Middle English kipe, kype, from Old English cȳpe, cȳpa (“basket”), from Proto-Germanic *kipǭ, *kippǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *gey- (“to bend, twist”).
Akin to Middle Low German kīpe ("basket"; > German Low German Kiep, Kiepke (“basket”), German Kiepe (“carrying basket”)), Norwegian kaup (“wooden box; crate”).

gloss

The completed kipe looks like a crinoline made for a giantess; from the slender waist the skirts swell to a diameter of eight feet at the hem.
The kipe is only the mouth to the fisherman's elaborate trap and is fixed so that it faces up-river.

1947, Brian Waters, Severn Tide, J. M. Dent, page 149:

(fishing) An osier basket used for catching fish.


zonker

(fishing) A lure resembling a small baitfish.


stringer

"Okay, that's a keeper," Harold said as he netted the 3-pounder and put him on a stringer over the side of the boat.

1970, Field & Stream, volume 75, number 7, page 76:

(fishing) A cord or chain, sometimes with additional loops, that is threaded through the mouth and gills of caught fish.


Adams

Adamses (plural)
Addams (alternative rare)

(fishing fly): Named after Charles Adams, who asked his friend Leonard Halladay to design the fly.

Although I still carry traditionally tied Adamses and a few Ginger Quills and the like, I now fish paraduns almost exclusively when […]

1991, Ed Engle, Fly Fishing the Tailwaters, page 96:

(fishing) A kind of dry fly primarily used for trout.


streamer

From Middle English stremer, stremere, equivalent to stream + -er.

Kuster meanwhile nymphed the middle of the Snag. When I joined him, I threw my streamer between the main channel's flow and the skinnier side-channel flow, […]

2019, James W. White, Fly-fishing the Arctic Circle to Tasmania, page 253:

(fishing) In fly fishing, a variety of wet fly designed to mimic a minnow.


midge

midges (plural)
midgie (alternative Northern-England Scotland)
midgy (alternative Northern-England Scotland)
midgey (alternative Northern-England Scotland)
minge (alternative US archaic dialectal)

From Middle English mydge, migge, from Old English mygg, myċġ (“midge, gnat”), from Proto-West Germanic *muggju, from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mū- (“fly, midge”), *mu-, *mew-.
Cognates
* Scots mige (“midge”)
* Saterland Frisian Määge (“gnat, mosquito”)
* West Frisian mich (“fly, mosquito”)
* West Flemish meezje (“midge, mosquito”)
* Dutch mug (“midge, gnat, mosquito”)
* German Low German Mügge (“midge, gnat, mosquito”)
* German Mücke (“midge, gnat, mosquito”)
* Swedish mygg, mygga (“midge, gnat, mosquito”)
* Icelandic mý (“midge, gnat, fly”)
The Proto-Indo-European root was also the source of
* Latin musca
* Ancient Greek μυῖα (muîa)
* Russian му́ха (múxa)
* Latvian muša
* Czech muchnička
* Albanian mizë
* Armenian մուն (mun)

cog

(fishing) any bait or lure designed to resemble a midge


madrague

(fishing) A large fish pound used for the capture of tuna in the Mediterranean, now a forbidden practice in places.


tippet

From Middle English tippet, Old English tæppet, from Latin tapete (“cloth”).

(fishing) In fly fishing, the part of the leader that attaches to the fly.


topping

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-topping.wav

From Middle English toppyng; equivalent to top + -ing.

(fishing) The tail of an artificial fly.


swirl

From Middle English swirlen (“to eddy, swirl”), probably from Old Norse *svirla (“to swirl”), a frequentative form of Old Norse sverra (“to swing, twirl”). Cognate with Scots swirl, sworl (“to eddy, swirl”), Norwegian Nynorsk svirla (“to whirl around; swirl”), Swedish sorla (“to murmur, buzz”), Dutch zwirrelen (“to swirl”). Compare also West Frisian swiere (“to reel, whirl”), Dutch zwieren (“to reel, swing around”), German Low German swirren (“to whizz, whirl or buzz around”), German schwirren (“to whirr, whizz, buzz”), Swedish svirra (“to whirr about, buzz, hum”), Danish svirre (“to whizz, whirr”). Related to English swarm.

cog

(fishing) The upward rushing of a fish through the water to take the bait.


ledger

ledgers (plural)
leidger (alternative)
leiger (alternative)
leger (alternative)

From Middle English liggere, ligger, leger (“large breviary; beam, plank; dweller, inhabitant”), from liggen, leggen, variants of līen (“to lie down; to bow, kneel, prostrate; to die; to be located (somewhere); to remain in place, stay”), from Old English liċġan (“to lie down; to be situated”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie down”). The word is cognate with Dutch legger (“daybook; layer”) (from leggen (“to lay”), liggen (“to lie down”)), and is related to English ledge, lie (“to be prostrate”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

refn

From the collection of the Museum der Alltagskultur (Museum of Everyday Culture) in Waldenbuch, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

tilikirja

book or other scheme for keeping accounting records

[W]hen fishing for Eels with a ledger line as well as a floated line, don't be in too much haste to strike when you see a bite, for Eels generally gorge the bait, and consequently hook themselves, if you give them time, […] I always use two hooks on my ledger, placing the top one about two feet above the bottom, and to prevent it from moving from its proper place, fix a shot above it and below it, […]

1823, T[homas] F[rederick] Salter, “Directions How to Angle for and Take the Anguilla, or Eel”, in The Angler’s Guide, Being a New, Plain and Complete Practical Treatise on the Art of Angling for Sea, River, and Pond Fish; […], 5th corrected and enlarged edition, London: Printed by R. Carpenter and Son, […], and sold for the author; by T[homas] Tegg, […], →OCLC, 1st part (Bottom Fishing), page 121:

Stream fishing is, as I have said, subdivided into fishing with a travelling or tripping bait, with or without a float, and also with a stationary one, with or without float. The first of these latter is termed "tight corking," and the latter ledgering or ledger fishing. […] If the angler likes it better, a combination of ledger and float can be made, which is the acmè of tight corking and one of the most killing methods employed. It is simply to use a light ledger lead instead of fixed shots.

1877, Francis Francis, “Introductory—Bottom Fishing”, in Angling, London: “The Field” Office, […], →OCLC, page 10:

(fishing) Ellipsis of ledger bait (“fishing bait attached to a floating line fastened to the bank of a pond, stream, etc.”) or ledger line (“fishing line used with ledger bait for bottom fishing; ligger”).


ledger

en-verb

ledger (third-person singular simple present ledgers, present participle ledgering, simple past and past participle ledgered)

ledgers (present singular third-person)
ledgering (participle present)
ledgered (participle past)
ledgered (past)
leger (alternative)

The added advantage of legering a small bait rather than freelining one is that you can tighten up harder to the bait and so spot runs earlier.

1997, Paul Gustafson, “Rigs”, in How to Catch Bigger Pike from Rivers, Lochs and Lakes, London: Collins Willow, HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN; republished as How to Catch Big Pike: All the Insight and Technique You Need to Catch Bigger Pike, whatever the Location, London: Robinson, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, 2016, →ISBN, page 160:

The flounder spends its life between the tideline and the 25 to 30 fathoms mark, but they are often caught several miles upstream in freshwater rivers by anglers legering worms or gentles.

1998, Martin James, “Flounder”, in Paul Morgan, editor, Saltwater Flyfishing: Britain and Northern Europe, Machynlleth, Powys: Coch-y-Bonddu Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 156:

(transitive, fishing) To use (a certain type of bait) in bottom fishing.

In the fashion pursued by the fishermen who require to cast a long line on the Thames, for ledgering or spinning more particularly, the line is drawn off the reel and laid loosely in coils at the fisherman's feet, […]

1872, Francis Francis, “Bottom-fishing—Continued”, in A Book on Angling: Being a Complete Treatise on the Art of Angling in Every Branch: […], 3rd revised and improved edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 59:

The best baits for ledgering are, firstly, worms; secondly, greaves; and, thirdly, a bunch of gentles, though some people occasionally catch barbel with raw beef or ham; […]

1877, Francis Francis, “The Gudgeon (Cyprinus Gobio)”, in Angling, London: “The Field” Office, […], →OCLC, page 35:

[T]he salmon were playing hard to get. So were the trout. So, come to that, were any fresh water shrimps that might be around. Obviously the recommended bunch of worms on a large hook ledgered to the bottom was an insufficient inducement.

1976, Simon Brett, chapter 13, in So Much Blood: A Crime Novel (Gollancz Thriller), London: Gollancz, →ISBN; republished as So Much Blood (A Charles Paris Mystery; 2), [Sutton, Surrey]: Severn House Publishers, 2011, →ISBN:

(intransitive, fishing) To engage in bottom fishing.


teaser

→ German: Teaser

→ Japanese: ティーザー (tīzā)

→ Korean: 티저 (tijeo)

→ Russian: ти́зер (tízɛr)

(fishing) A lure, especially one without a hook, used to attract fish to another lure or lures.

(fishing) A lure used in addition to a bucktail used for fluke fishing.


hurdy-gurdy

Probably onomatopoeic in imitation of the sound produced by the stringed instrument. Compare obsolete hirdy-girdy (“an uproar; noise”). Attested from the 1740s.

A pair of oars, a small mast and sail, pen boards to contain the fish, a bailer, a water jar, a bait knife, a compass, a small wooden winch called a hurdy gurdy, a fish gaff, and the tubs, trawls, floats, and anchors used to set gear was all that was required to equip it.

2009, Keith McLaren, A Race for Real Sailors, page 20:


wobbler

(fishing) A fishing lure made to resemble a prey fish and that wobbles in the water; plug, minnow.


boof

boof (third-person singular simple present boofs, present participle boofing, simple past and past participle boofed)

boofs (present singular third-person)
boofing (participle present)
boofed (participle past)
boofed (past)

Imitative. Kayaking sense from the onomatopoeic sound a kayak makes when it lands on the water after “ski jumping” the waterfall forming the backwash; generally attributed to whitewater kayaking aficionados in the eastern United States in the mid- to late 1970s.

onomatopoeic

onomatopoeic

(intransitive, fishing, of fish, especially barramundi) To surface quickly and catch prey by gulping, a behaviour which produces an audible sound.


ligger

liggers (plural)
liggar (alternative Scotland)

Inherited from Middle English liggere; equivalent to lig + -er. Doublet of ledger.
Many senses (especially sense 5) are likely formed anew from lig rather than continuations of the preceding senses.

(fishing) A baited fishing line attached to a float, for night fishing, etc.


bobber

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(fishing) A buoyant device (frequently made of cork or hollow plastic) attached to a line so as to suspend the end of the line with the hook (and bait or lure) above the bottom.


treble hook

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(fishing) A fishhook where three hooks share a single shank, each point separated by 120º.


fly fishing

flyfishing (alternative)
fly-fishing (alternative)

(fishing) A form of angling whereby the weight of the line is used to cast a lure visually resembling a fly.


dry fly

(fishing) A fly used in fly fishing, designed to float in or on the surface of the water


catch and release

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(fishing) A variety of angling where the fish are released after capture, as a conservation measure.


gamefish

en-noun

gamefish (plural gamefishes or gamefish)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gamefish.wav

(fishing) Fish deemed suitable for the sport of angling, as opposed to those caught primarily for food.


wet fly

[…] it was with the wet fly that he really knew happiness, trailing it, subtly, seductively under the surface, tempting the fish on to the hook, feeling their play and reading their mind from the tug and pressure beneath the surface of the water.

1987, Edward Rutherford, Sarum, New York: Crown Publishers, page 875:

(fishing) A lure for fly fishing designed to be fished beneath the surface of the water.


wet fly

[…] he had a spinning rod and a fly rod, but the rivers were too shallow and too swift for spinning, and he preferred to fish wet fly.

1952, Nevil Shute, chapter 4, in The Far Country, London: Heinemann:


dropper

(fishing) A fly that drops from the leaden above the bob or end fly.


paternoster

/ˈpɑtəɹˌnɔstɚ/

From Middle English paternoster, pater noster, from Old English Paternoster, from Latin Pater noster (“our father”) (the first two words of the Oratio Dominica (“the Lord's prayer”)), from pater (“father”) + noster (“our”). The lift and the fishing equipment are named from their resemblance to a rosary.

A paternoster is any style of hook rig where the hook(s) are on droppers above a fixed sinker. One or two hooks are used on a paternoster rig. The droppers are tied using dropper loops tied directly in the line. The twisted dropper is an ideal knot as it stands out at right angles to the line.

2011, Jamin Forbes, “Tackle”, in Cod Cod Cod, Croydon, Vic.: Australian Fishing Network, →ISBN, page 56:

In plain terms, the paternoster is a rig with the weight at the bottom and hook traces (sometimes called snoods by sea anglers) attached above in fixed positions. Besides a tidy presentation, this arrangement allows the sea angler to try more than one bait and you'll often find paternosters with two hooks (or even three or four). Effectively this allows us to hedge our bets and try more baits (which could be the same or different types), thereby increasing the scent and attraction.

2012, Peter Kaminsky, Greg Schwipps, Dominic Garnett, Fishing for Dummies, UK edition, Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

PATERNOSTER TWIN This rig is slightly more complicated than the single paternoster, however this rig has the added advantage of having two hooks, these can be different sizes and be baited with different baits.

2016, D[avid] A. Weaver, Sea Angling Rig Book, rev. edition, [s.l.]: M. P. Dawn Publications:

(fishing) A tackle rig with a heavy sinker at the end of the line, and one or more hooks on traces at right angles spaced above the sinker.


paternoster

en-verb

paternoster (third-person singular simple present paternosters, present participle paternostering, simple past and past participle paternostered)

paternosters (present singular third-person)
paternostering (participle present)
paternostered (participle past)
paternostered (past)

/ˈpɑtəɹˌnɔstɚ/

(fishing, transitive) To try to catch (fish, etc.) with a paternoster rig.


stinkbait

en-noun

stinkbait (countable and uncountable, plural stinkbaits)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-stinkbait.wav

Deke mashed a wad of stinkbait onto the treble hook, then rinsed his fingers in the water to reduce the foul stench before lifting his beer can.

(fishing) A form of bait composed of malodorous ingredients, designed to attract fish (primarily catfish) that hunt by scent.


jugline

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(fishing) A kind of trotline using an empty jug (such as a bleach jug) as a float at one end of the line, the other end either free-floating or anchored with a weight.


spear gun

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(fishing) A form of mechanical gun that fires a spear as a projectile; generally used under water when spearfishing.


dragnet

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dragnet.wav

From drag + net, probably based on the model of Middle English draynet, dreynett (“dragnet”), Old English dræġnet, dræġnett (“dragnet”), equivalent to dray + net. Cognate with Swedish dragnät, Norwegian dragnett, from Icelandic dragnet.

Anchovy dragnets are an important part Korea's fishing sector. Over 99% of catches found in anchovy dragnets are anchovy. Although the annual total catches of anchovy have fluctuated, dragnets catch 55 to 70% of the total annual catch of anchovy. The remaining portion is caught with drift gill nets (10%) and other fishing methods.

2000, Transition to Responsible Fisheries Economic and Policy Implications, OECD Publishing, →ISBN, page 228:

(fishing) A net dragged across the bottom of a body of water.


dragnet

en-verb

dragnet (third-person singular simple present dragnets, present participle dragnetting, simple past and past participle dragnetted)

dragnets (present singular third-person)
dragnetting (participle present)
dragnetted (participle past)
dragnetted (past)

When ponds are cleaned out periodically, fish are trapped or dragnetted and finally the pond is drained to remove all fish.

2013, Brian Andrews, Ornamental Fish Farming:

(fishing, transitive) To drag a net across the bottom of a body of water.


centrepin

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(fishing) a fishing reel consisting of a revolving drum with attached handles


guddle

guddle (third-person singular simple present guddles, present participle guddling, simple past and past participle guddled)

guddles (present singular third-person)
guddling (participle present)
guddled (participle past)
guddled (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-guddle.wav

From Scots guddle, imitative of the splashing of water, and modelled after words like muddle and puddle, perhaps influenced by Scots gutter (“to spatter with mud”).

(ambitransitive, Scotland, fishing) To catch (fish) with the hands, especially by groping at the bank of a stream or under stones.


ganging

/ˈɡæn.d͡ʒɪŋ/

The object of the snood swivels, in which the gangings are so easily adjustable, is to save time in removing the fish and in baiting the hooks.

1887, George Brown Goode, The fisheries and fishery industries of the United States:

The full length of each tub was just under half a mile and had a total of 270 gangings and hooks if it was a nine-foot rig. Each line was coiled into a wooden barrel three feet in diameter and thirty inches high.

2011, Brenda Bishop Booma, Hugh Peabody Bishop, Marblehead's First Harbor:

(fishing) A leader used to attach a fishhook to the main line, especially in commercial fishing.


sounder

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gamely

en-adj

gamely (comparative gamelier or more gamely, superlative gameliest or most gamely)

gamelier (comparative)
more gamely (comparative)
gameliest (superlative)
most gamely (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gamely.wav

From game + -ly; compare Old English gamenlīċ (“belonging to games, sportive, theatrical, ridiculous”) and Middle High German gāmelich, gemelich (“joyful”).

cog

The black bass was strongly recommended as a gamely creature and as excellent for the table, and it was put into Meeting-house Pond.

1893, William Sweetzer Heywood, History of Westminster, Massachusetts:

(hunting, fishing, etc.) Of or pertaining to game.


whitefish

en-noun

whitefish (plural whitefishes or whitefish)

whitefishes (plural)
whitefish (plural)
white-fish (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-whitefish.wav

Bear Lake whitefish Prosopium abyssicola

(cooking, fishing) Any of several species of demersal fish with fins, particularly cod, whiting, and haddock, as opposed to the oily or pelagic fishes.


hellgramite

hellgramites (plural)
hellgamite (alternative)
helgramite (alternative)
hellgrammite (alternative)

(fishing) A lure designed to mimic a hellgramite.


seaming

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-seaming.wav

(fishing) The cord or rope at the margin of a seine, to which the meshes of the net are attached.


schoolie

schoolies (plural)
schooly (alternative)
skoolie (alternative)

From school + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

1997 August, Lawrence Pine, Massachusetts′s Plymouth Rock Bass, Field & Stream, page 94,
Poppers and Clouser-style flies can produce large numbers of schoolies that average 16 to 24 inches, with a sprinkling of fish from 24 to 28 inches.

Oklahomans Jim Campbell and Gary Tyler caught 123 peacocks (including two teeners) by concentrating on the schoolies with jigs and other small lures that day.

2003, Larry Larsen, Amazon Peacock Bass Fishing: Top Tactics for Top Locations, page 150:

Schoolies tend to concentrate inside harbors and along beaches, often moving far inside tidal creeks and salt ponds.

2009, Tom Rosenbauer, Nick Lyons, The Orvis Guide to Beginning Fly Fishing: 101 Tips for the Absolute Beginner, page 88:

(US, fishing) A juvenile gamefish (especially striped bass) at a stage where it tends to swim with others in schools rather than stay to itself.


clonk

onom

Imitative

(fishing) A stick-like tool used to strike the surface of the water and produce a sound that causes nearby fish to attack the bait.


mainline

mainlines (plural)
main line (alternative)

(fishing) In longline fishing the central line to which the branch lines with baits are attached.


fizgig

fizgigs (plural)
fisgig (alternative)
fish gig (alternative)
fishgig (alternative)
fissgig (alternative)

Possibly from Spanish fisga (“harpoon”).

At day break we were cloſe by the Peninſule Mozambique (part of Quiloa) inhabited by Negroes; abundant in Gold, Silver, and Ambergreece; […] [A]n Armado of Dolphins aſſaulted us; and ſuch we ſaulted as we could intice to taſte our hooks or fiſſgiggs: […]

1638, Tho[mas] Herbert [Sir Thomas Herbert, 1st Baronet], Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique. […] , rev. and enl. (2nd) edition, London: Printed by R[ichard] Bi[sho]p for Iacob Blome and Richard Bishop, →OCLC, book I, page 24:

FIZGIG, ſ[ubſtantive] [a ſort of dart or harpoon with which ſeamen ſtrike fiſh.] Sorte de harpon.

[1785, A[bel] Boyer, Lewis [i.e., Louis] Chambaud, J[ean-]B[aptiste] Robinet, “FIZGIG”, in A. Boyer’s New Dictionary English and French: and French and English. Containing the Signification of Words, with Their Different Uses; the Terms of Arts, Sciences and Trades; the Constructions, Forms of Speech, Idioms, and Proverbs Used in Both Languages: the Whole Extracted from the Best Writers; Corrected, Improved and Enlarged, volume II (Containing the English before the French), Paris: C[harles-Joseph] Panckoucke; Amsterdam: D. J. Changuion and B. Vlam; Utrecht: B. Wild, →OCLC, page 206, column 3:

[T]he inhabitants of this bay appeared to possess, in general, a very pointed difference from, if not a superiority over, those of New South Wales, particularly in their net-works. There was no doubt but they were provided with nets for catching very large fish, or animals; […] Mr. [Matthew] Flinders was of opinion, that this mode of procuring their food would cause a characteristic difference between the manners, and perhaps the dispositions of these people, and of those who mostly depend upon the spear or fizgig for a supply.

1811, [G. Paterson], chapter XXXI, in The History of New South Wales, from Its First Discovery to the Present Time; Comprising an Accurate and Interesting Description of that Vast and Remarkable Country; […] , Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Printed and published by Mackenzie and Dent, St. Nicholas' Church-yard, →OCLC, page 357:

[T]wo of these red Indians in a boat, and they just paddle soft, paddle soft, as still as still, and they come up to the turtles as they lie asleep in the sea, and then. Whang. They dart their fizgigs. They never miss.

1908, John Masefield, Captain Margaret: A Romance, London: G. Richards, →OCLC, page 104:

(fishing) A spear with a barb on the end of it, used for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals; a type of harpoon.

тризъбец

spear with a barb on the end of it, used for catching fish, etc.


drawnet

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-drawnet.wav


herl

(fishing) an artificial fly made with this barb


squidgy

(Australia, fishing) A soft plastic lure.


fishfinder

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fishfinder.wav

(fishing) An electronic device that uses sonar to measure water depth and shows outlines of fish and bottom features on a LCD or CRT screen


flossing

en-noun

flossing (countable and uncountable, plural flossings)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-flossing.wav

(fishing, uncountable) The use of a weighted hook that pierces the fish's mouth from the outside.


trimmer

(fishing) A float bearing a baited hook and line, used in fishing for pike.