Action: An elusive, but important characteristic of fly rods. Rods are said to have fast or slow action. Fast action rods are generally stiffer overall, but bend more at the tip, generating higher line speeds longer casts, especially into the wind. Slow action rods, appear to flex their entire length, giving the sense of a more compliant feel.
Albright knot: A common knot used for tying the backing to fly line.
Anadromous: A term to describe fish that travel from the sea upriver to spawn in fresh water like salmon. Fish that migrate from freshwater to the sea for spawning are catadromous.
Angler: One who seeks to catch fish with a hook (an "angle"), usually fixed to the end of a line.
Anti-Reverse: A feature of fly reels where the spool handle does not turn as line is pulled out from the reel.
Attractor: A style or variety of fly that is effective in eliciting strikes, but has few apparent characteristics of a natural food item. Often an attractor is flashy and bigger than life.
Arbor: The center part of a fly reel where line and backing (first) is wound.
Arbor knot: A knot used for tying backing to the arbor of the fly reel.
Back cast: The casting of line in a direction opposite to the direction the fly is intended to go. The backward counterpart of the forward cast which acts to create a bending action on the fly rod, setting up the conditions to generate the forward cast and present the fly.
Backing: The first segment of line on a reel, usually braided and used to build up the arbor and to offer additional distance for a strong fish to pull out line. An unusually strong fish will take you "into your backing".
Badger: A feather of a specially bred or chosen chicken that has colors which change from brown--black to black at the center of the quill to ginger or white on the outer edges.
Barbless: Barbless hooks are either manufactured without a barb or the barb is squeezed down. This feature makes it easier to remove a hook and minimizes the handling and potential damage of a fish you may want to release.
Barrel knot: See blood knot
Beadhead: Usually but not always a fly with a bead immediately behind the hook eye. Beads come in many materials, from brass to nickel brass to ceramic. Some beads help a fly sink, but others are floaters.
Belly: A tapered fly line has several components, with a fairly sharply tapered tip (at the fly end). The middle portion of the line is called the belly.
Belly boat: Originally using a tractor or truck inner tube, this is a one-person craft with a seat across the bottom on which the fly fisher sits. Feet are in the water and scuba fins are used to move the tube around. This type of fishing boat is very popular with warmwater fly fishers and with individuals who fish high mountain lakes. Also called a belly boat. See kick boat.
Bimini Twist: A knot used in saltwater fly fishing say for tarpon. It has a loop and a double line section making it especially strong.
Blank: Fiber glass and graphic fly rods (which also have fiber glass) are produced by wrapping sheets of graphite and fiber glass around a carefully tapered steel rod (called a mandrel). The hollow rod that results from this process is called a blank. It has no guides, ferrules or reel seat.
Blood knot: A best known for its strength in tying monofilaments of different diameter and material together. It is rather difficult to tie on the water and commercially-made blood knot tyers are available to make the job easier. A blood knot is often used to make a fly leader of several different diameter monofilament segments. Also known as a barrel knot.
Bobbin: A fly tying tool and term borrowed from seamstresses. A bobbin holds the tying thread.
Bodkin: A bodkin is a tool best described as a needle with a handle. It can be easily made from a piece of wooden dowling and a needle. It is used in fly tying used to deposit cement or lacquer to a fly.
Braided loop connector: A way of putting an in-line loop at the end of your fly line so as to use the loop on the leader to do a loop-to-loop connection between the leader and the fly line. The braided loop connector works like the so-called Chinese finger torture.
Breakoff: A term of defeat and excitement for a fly angler describing the event of a hooked fish breaking your tippet or leader. Usually a break off results from an unusually strong or big fish.
Bucktail: A streamer fly tied to imitate a fish. This fly usually features a long segment of hair, layed back from the eye to the bend of the hook. That hair often is from a deer's tail.
Butt section: The thicker end of a tapered leader that is tied to the fly line.
Caddis: A common aquatic insect found in many streams and rivers. They are a favorite food of trout and other fish. They have a number of distinct stages, including an underwater pupa and an above the water surface adult. Caddis have tent shaped wings and are known in both lakes and rivers to fly down upon he water to deposit their eggs.
Catch and release: A practice originating in the late 1930s to conserve fish populations by unhooking and returning a caught fish to the water in which it was caught. This is a highly successful practice in many warmwater, cold water and saltwater settings.
Caudal fin: Caudal is an anatomical term meaning "the back". The caudal fin is the tail fin or tail of a fish.
Char: A species of fish that is related to trout, that prefers cold water and is found many places in the world, including both east and west United States. Examples of char are brook trout, lake trout, arctic char and Dolly Varden.
Click drag: A mechanical system on many inexpensive fly reels used to slow down or resist the pulling efforts of a fish, so as to slow the fish down and tire it to the point where it can be landed. Basically a clicking sound is created by a triangular steel ratchet snaps over the teeth of the gear in the reel spool. The term singing reels refers to the high frequency clicking associated with a big fish pulling out line .
Clinch knot: A very popular knot for tying the tippet to the fly. It has the advantage of being very easy to tie and not using much line. See improved clinch.
Collar: A ring of feathers or hair placed immediately behind the head of the fly.
Curve cast: A casting technique that allows an angler to cast a fly around an obstacle. It is also used to minimize the influence of water current or wind on the fly or the fly line.
Dapping: A relatively ancient technique of presenting a fly on the surface of the water where the fly is connected to a short piece of line on a long rod. The fly is then touched on the surface of the water, immediately over an place where a fish might lie.
Dead drift: A term applied to the way that artificial flies must drift with the current to appear natural. This requires that the fly line, leader and tippet move with the fly and cause unnatural drag or a "v" that will result in most fish refusing the fly.
Disk drag: A mechanical system on more expensive fly reels whereby resistance is created to the line as a fish pulls it out. This resistance is intended to slow the fish and tire it. The resistance proper is created by applying pressure between two disks. Different from the click drag, the disk drag is smoother and less likely to create a sudden force that will break the line
Double haul: The term for the cast where the caster quickly pulls and releases the line on both the back cast and the forward cast. It is used to create greater line speed, enabling the caster to reach farther or cut through wind.
Double taper: DT or double taper refers to a fly line that is reduced in diameter on both ends. When one end of a DT fly line wears out, you can take it off the reel, turn it around and use the other end.
Drag: This term has two meanings in fly fishing: (1) An unnatural pulling of a floating or submerged fly such that it moves at a different rate than the current, often (at least on the surface) creating a "V" in the water-fish are commonly put off by drag. (2) A mechanical system that is part of a fly reel to resist and slow the speed at which line is pulled off the reel by a hooked fish
Dropper: A practice of fishing two flies at the same time, often one on the surface and a second underwater. This increases the chances of getting a successful fly in front of a fish.
Dry fly: A fly constructed of water resistant, lightweight and buoyant materials so as to imitate a insect that alights or floats on the surface of the water.
Dubbing: Fly tying material (usually strands or fibrous, including fur, yarn, wool, or synthetic fibers) that are wrapped onto a thread (commonly using wax) and wrapped around the shank of the hook to imitate the abdomen and/or thorax of an artificial fly.
Duncan's loop: A monofilament knot used most often to tie a tippet to the eye of a hook. Also called a uni-knot.
Dun: This word has two related uses in fly fishing: (1) a grayish or grayish blue (dull) color often seen in the wings of mayfly adults, (2) an aquatic insect in a life stage just as it has emerged from the water and can fly.
