Fly Fishing Terms- 30 Common Terms You Should Know

Fly fishing involves a quite many conventional terms which should be known by every fly fisher. Most of these words have varied meanings and are unusual when referenced to the art of fly fishing. The list below would manifest a few of the unusual words often used by fly fishers.

Action

Action is a generic term usually used to describe the rod’s feel; be it slow, hard or soft.

Attractor

Attractor is an intensely colored fly which is not often tied so as to imitate any particular variety of food.

Blank

Blank is a rod which has no reel seat, guides or a handle.

Belly

Belly is more of the sagging part of some fly fishing line.

Chalk Stream

It is a stream that is often found in the valleys which is always slow moving and spring fed with heavy vegetation.

Blood Knot

Blood knot is another name for the barrel knot.

Complex Hatch

The hiding or masking of the hatch of small insects by another hatch of larger insects occurring on the same day is a complex hatch.

Dapping

Dapping is a fly fishing method where the fly repeatedly bounces off and on up on the water surface.

Cutthroat trout

It is a true trout which is commonly found in western parts of the States.

Down Eye Hook

It is a hook having an eye bent below the shaft.

Emerger

Emerger is a term for describing an insect which moves up to the water’s surface with the preparation of hatching into the stage of an adult.

Dropper

Dropper is a secondary fly which is attached to the leader in the cast of flies.

Feeding Lie

It is where the trout goes, so as to actively feed.

Freestone Streams

They are tumbling, fast moving streams with a rock covered bottom.

Flat-butt leader

In Fly fishing, this is a fly having the butt section formed to a shape of a ribbon.

French Snap

It is a small clamp generally used by fly fishermen for attaching the net to the vest.

Leisenring Lift

It is a technique in nymph fly fishing. Here the line is lifted so that the imitation fly moves upwards just in front of the trout’s suspected lie.

Holding Lie

It is where the trout usually stays when it is not feeding actively.

Natural

It is a living insect unlike any man made or an artificial fly or insect.

Midge Rod

It is a light weight short rod.

Nymphing

It is one of the fishing techniques where the fly fisherman usually presents the animation of the insect when in the underwater stage.

Rise

It is an act of any fish trying to take an insect from the surface of water.

Run

This term is often used to talk about a specific stretch of moving water

Presentation

This is a method to place the fly in a position where the fish would most likely see it. It included the way how the cast completes and the manner in which the fly gets fished.

Shooting

It is a technique of casting

Spate

High waters are referred to as spate.

Stripping

It is the act of retrieving or pulling the line quickly from the reel.

Terrestrial

It relates to an insect that spends its life cycle completely spent on land or upon plants.

Waders’ staff

Waders’ staff is a sturdy rod which is quite high; about the armpit of the person. It is often used in fly fishing for the support required in heavy water

There are various terms and words that are not so familiar to a lot of people; however it would not matter to those who do not enjoy fly fishing.

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