Fishing Glossary: Angling Terms Explained

By Alex Clayton · Updated 23 October 2026

“Stick a pinkie on an 18 to a 0.10mm hooklength and fish the far margin of peg 12.” In a tackle shop, that is normal advice. To a beginner, it sounds like code.

This page explains the fishing terms UK anglers actually use, from bank talk to the angling terms written into law. Words are grouped by topic and discipline, then listed A-Z inside each group, so you can jump to the part you need. Rules terms are checked against GOV.UK and Environment Agency guidance, and US words like bobber and sinker are translated near the end.

Basic words: swims, pegs and sessions
Rules and legal terms
Rod, reel and line terms
Terminal tackle, rigs and knots
Bait and feeding
Bites, playing and landing
Predator and lure fishing
Fly fishing and game
Sea fishing
UK slang and US terms

If you are brand new, read this alongside our fishing for beginners guide.

Basic Fishing Words: Swims, Pegs and Session Terms

Learn these fishing words first and a fishery notice board or match result becomes readable.

Angler: anyone fishing with rod and line. “Angling” is the everyday UK word for the sport.

Bag: your total catch for a session, usually weighed together on a match or a commercial fishery.

Blank: a session where you catch nothing. It happens to every angler.

Coarse fishing: fishing for freshwater species other than salmon and trout, such as bream, roach, carp, tench, pike and perch.

Day ticket: a permit to fish a venue for one day. Prices and rules vary, so check with the fishery before you travel.

Drop-off: the point where the bottom shelves away into deeper water. Fish often patrol along it.

Game fishing: fishing for salmon, trout and grayling, often with a fly.

Margin: the water close to your own bank. Carp and tench often feed tight to it, especially at dawn and dusk.

Match fishing: competitive angling over a fixed number of hours, with each angler’s catch usually held in a keepnet and weighed at the end.

Peg: a numbered fishing position on the bank. On match waters you draw your peg.

Specimen or specialist fishing: targeting big individual fish, such as large bream, tench, chub or barbel, with stronger tackle.

Stillwater: any lake, pond, reservoir or gravel pit.

Swim: the area of water you are fishing. The peg is where you sit; the swim is the water in front of it.

Venue or fishery: the water you fish and the business or club that runs it.

New to fishing? Start here. If you only learn three words today, make them swim, peg and day ticket.

Fishing Rules and Legal Terms: Close Season, Byelaws and Licences

A lead weight heavier than 28.35g (1oz) is legal, and so is dust shot of 0.06g or less. Lead anywhere in between is not, and the rule reaches as far as your split shot.

These angling terms cover England, from GOV.UK and Environment Agency guidance. Wales has separate regulations from Natural Resources Wales, and Scotland and Northern Ireland differ, so check the relevant authority there.

Barbless hook: a hook with no barb. The GOV.UK tackle rules do not require them nationally, but many fisheries and some byelaws do, so check the fishery rules. See our barbless hooks guide.

Byelaw: a local rule that applies alongside the national ones. Byelaws cover tackle, the size of fish you can keep and closed seasons.

Close season: a ban on fishing for certain species. On rivers, streams and drains in England, you cannot fish for coarse fish or eels from 15 March to 15 June. Canals and most enclosed stillwaters are open all year, but check local byelaws, and private waters can set their own close seasons. See our fishing seasons guide.

Foul-hooked: a fish hooked anywhere other than the mouth or throat. It must be returned alive.

Lead weights: legal only at 0.06g or less, or more than 28.35g. Use non-lead shot in between.

Livebait and fish as bait: you may only use a fish you have taken as bait on the same water you caught it from. Crayfish must never be used as bait.

Rod licence: needed in England (except the River Tweed) and Wales to fish for salmon, trout, freshwater fish, smelt or eel with a rod and line, including on club and private waters. Under 13s need no licence, and the junior licence for 13 to 16 year olds is free. Check the current price on GOV.UK and see our rod licence guide.

Unattended rod: leaving a rod in the water unattended or without enough control is illegal. With several rods, the outermost butts must be no more than 3 metres apart.

Term	What the rule says
Keepnet	No knotted or metallic mesh, holes smaller than 25mm, more than 2 metres long, supporting rings less than 40cm apart and more than 120cm in circumference
Keepsack	Soft, dark, non-abrasive, water-permeable fabric, holding no more than one fish at a time
Landing net	Mesh must not be knotted or metallic

Source: GOV.UK tackle rules.

Read the rules board and local byelaws at every new venue, as they can be stricter than national rules.

Rod, Reel and Line Terms: Test Curve, Breaking Strain and More

The rod label reads “12ft, 1.75lb TC, through action”, and it may as well be another language. These terms decode it.

Baitrunner or free-spool reel: a reel with a second, light drag so a fish can take line without pulling the rod in.

Braid: line woven from fine fibres. Almost no stretch, and thin for its strength.

Breaking strain: the load, in lb, a line is rated to break at, so a “6lb mono” should part at around 6lb of steady pull.

Clutch: the adjustable drag that lets a fish take line before the line breaks. US anglers call it the drag.

Fixed-spool reel: the standard UK reel. The spool stays still while the bail arm winds line on.

Fluorocarbon: a dense line that sinks and is hard to see underwater. Often used for hooklengths.

Line diameter: line thickness in millimetres, such as 0.12mm.

Mainline: the line on your reel.

Monofilament (mono): single-strand nylon line. Cheap, forgiving and stretchy.

Pole: a long rod with no reel, built from sections added to reach the swim. Common in match fishing.

Rod action: how a rod bends and recovers. A tip-action rod bends mostly at the top, a progressive rod bends further down as load increases, and a through-action rod curves along most of its length.

Rod rings (guides): the rings along the blank that the line runs through.

Spod and marker rods: heavy carp rods for casting bait rockets and finding depth and features.

Test curve: the weight, in lb, needed to pull the rod tip to 90 degrees from the butt, quoted on carp and specimen rods.

Whip: a short pole with the line fixed straight to the tip, for small fish close in.

For example, 3 to 4lb mainline on a light float rod suits roach; a 2.75 to 3lb test curve carp rod suits a gravel pit. See how each fishing technique uses this tackle.

Quick comparison: mono stretches and forgives mistakes, braid has no stretch and shows bites instantly, and fluorocarbon sinks and is the hardest of the three for fish to see.

Terminal Tackle, Rig and Knot Terms Explained

There are hundreds of named rigs, yet almost all are built from the same few parts: hook, hooklength, weight or float, swivel, stop and a knot or two.

Bait stop: a small peg that holds bait on a hair.

Blood knot and half blood knot: the blood knot joins two lines; the half blood (or improved clinch) ties line to a hook eye or swivel. See the blood knot.

Bolt rig: a fixed heavy lead, so a fish pricks itself on the hook and bolts, setting it.

Feeder: a container that puts feed next to your hookbait. Cage and open-end feeders hold it inside; method feeders have it moulded round the outside.

Float: a buoyant bite indicator that suspends your bait. Never a “bobber” in the UK.

Hair rig: bait mounted on a short line off the hook, leaving the point free. See the hair rig.

Helicopter rig: the hooklength spins round the line above the lead, resisting tangles at range.

Hook size: the higher the number, the smaller the hook. A size 18 suits maggots for roach; a size 6 suits boilies.

Hooklength: a short piece of lighter or different line between mainline and hook. If it breaks, you lose only the hook.

Ledger (legering): a weight holds bait on the bottom with no float, and bites show on the rod tip.

Lead: the UK word for a weight. The legal limits are in the rules section above.

Palomar knot: a strong, easy knot, good with braid. See the palomar knot.

Running ledger: the weight slides freely, so a fish feels little resistance.

Split shot and shotting pattern: small weights pinched on the line to cock a float. The pattern is how you space them.

Swivel and snap link: a swivel stops line twist; a snap link allows quick feeder or lead changes.

Waggler and stick float: the two main float types. A waggler is attached by the bottom end only, mainly for stillwaters; a stick float is fixed top and bottom, for running water.

I use a feeder for bream on Windermere, and it rarely needs more than a simple running rig. Starting out, learn one knot (a palomar or a half blood) and one rig (a waggler or a running ledger) before anything else. Our knots and rigs guides have step-by-step diagrams.

Bait and Feeding Terms: Groundbait, Boilies, Pinging and Casters

Two terms, hookbait and loose feed, sit behind most of the difference between a good session and a blank. One goes on the hook; the other draws fish in.

Boilie: a round paste bait boiled to give it a hard skin. Mainly for carp.

Bread punch and flake: punch cuts neat discs of bread; flake is a torn pinch folded round the hook.

Caster: the chrysalis stage of a maggot. Match anglers call casters “the shell”.

Deadbait: a dead fish used for pike and other predators. The fish-as-bait rule is in the rules section above.

Groundbait: crumb-based feed mixed with water and squeezed into balls.

Hempseed: cooked hemp, a classic roach and barbel feed. Slang: “the seed”.

Hookbait: whatever is on your hook.

Loose feed: free offerings thrown or catapulted into the swim.

Maggot, pinkie and squatt: the standard maggot is the biggest, pinkies are smaller and squatts smaller again. See maggots and casters.

Particles: seeds, pulses and sweetcorn used as feed or hookbait. See particle baits.

Pellets: compressed fishmeal or similar. Feed pellets break down in water; soft hookers are made to go on the hook.

Pinging: catapulting small amounts of pellets at regular intervals, often to fish feeding up in the water. Common on commercial match waters.

PVA bag and mesh: water-soluble bags and tubes that hold free bait next to the hook.

Spod and spodding: a rocket-shaped carrier cast on a spod rod to put bulk feed out at range.

Worm: lobworms are big and natural; dendrobaenas are smaller, tougher and sold in tubs.

The basic feeding principle is little and often: a small amount of feed at regular intervals keeps fish competing. Bulk baiting suits big shoals and carp waters.

Best for: maggots, for a mixed bag on a new venue. Skip boilies unless you are targeting carp.

Bites, Playing and Landing: From Strike to Release

The float dips, you strike, and nothing is there. Knowing the type of bite tells you when to hit it.

Bite alarm: an electronic indicator that bleeps when line moves.

Bite indicator, bobbin or hanger: a weight clipped on the line between reel and first ring that rises or drops on a take.

Catch and release: returning fish alive. Much of UK coarse fishing works this way.

Disgorger: a thin tool for removing a hook a fish has taken deep.

Drop-back: a bite where the line falls slack, usually because a fish has moved towards you with the bait. Wind down and strike.

Landing net: the net you draw a fish into at the bank. The legal mesh rule is in the rules section above.

Lift bite: the float rises and lies flat as a fish lifts the bait and the bottom shot off the bottom. Strike as it rises.

Playing a fish: tiring a fish with steady rod and clutch pressure until it can be netted.

Quiver tip: a sensitive rod tip that shows bites when ledger and feeder fishing.

Strike: a quick lift of the rod to set the hook.

Unhooking mat: a padded mat that protects a fish while you unhook it on the bank.

Fish care is simple: wet your hands, unhook on a mat and return the fish quickly. Many fisheries require mats and minimum net sizes, so check the fishery rules.

Carry a disgorger and a landing net on every session, even if you only expect small fish.

Predator and Lure Fishing Terms: Drop-Shot, Deadbaiting and Trolling

Why does a pike angler always carry a wire trace and long-nosed pliers when a perch angler may not? Pike teeth cut through nylon, and pliers reach a hook without putting your fingers near them.

Crankbait or plug: a hard lure, often with a diving lip, that wobbles as you wind.

Deadbaiting: fishing a dead fish for pike, either static on the bottom or wobbled back. The fish-as-bait rule is in the rules section above.

Drop-shot: a rig with the weight at the bottom and the hook above it, holding a small lure off the bottom. Ideal for perch.

Jighead: a hook with a weighted head, used to fish soft lures.

Lure: any artificial bait.

Predator fishing: fishing mainly for pike, perch and zander.

Soft lure or shad: a rubber lure, often fish-shaped with a paddle tail.

Spinner and spoon: a spinner has a rotating blade; a spoon is a curved metal lure that wobbles.

Stripey: UK slang for perch.

Trolling: towing lures or baits behind a moving boat. Venue and boat rules apply, so check them first.

Unhooking tools: forceps and long-nosed pliers, essential for pike.

Wire trace: a bite-proof leader between line and hook or lure.

On Windermere I troll along the drop-offs for pike, and I’ve found a slow drop-shot works for perch around structure in winter. If you plan to fish there, check the lake’s current boat and trolling rules with the relevant authority. More detail is in our pike fishing guide and our drop-shot fishing guide.

Anywhere pike live, use a wire trace with every lure and deadbait.

Fly Fishing and Game Terms: Tippet, Nymph, Spey Casting and Ghillie

Match three numbers, the rod, reel and line weight, and most of the confusion in a fly tackle shop disappears.

Backing: line wound onto the reel under the fly line, filling the spool and giving reserve if a big fish runs.

Beat: a stretch of river let for fishing.

Double haul: pulling line with your free hand on both the back cast and the forward cast to build line speed and distance.

Dry fly: a fly that floats on the surface, imitating an adult insect resting there.

Fly line weight (AFTMA rating): a number given to fly lines, based on the weight of the first 30 feet of line, and matched to the rod. The scale is not linear, so a 6-weight is not twice a 3-weight.

Ghillie: a fishing guide, especially in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Leader: a tapered length of line between the fly line and the fly.

Nymph: the underwater stage of an aquatic insect, and the fly that imitates it.

Spey casting: a casting style named after the River Spey in Scotland, where it developed. It needs little room behind you.

Strike indicator: a floating marker on the leader that shows takes when nymph fishing, often just called an “indicator”.

Tippet: the finest end section of the leader. The fly is tied to it.

Wet fly: a fly fished below the surface. On many waters, nymphs have taken over much of its role.

Salmon and sea trout seasons and rules differ by river and by nation, so check the river’s byelaws and the relevant authority before you fish. See fly fishing for beginners for a first setup.

Quick comparison: a dry fly fishes the surface and works best when you can see fish rising. A nymph fishes below it and often catches when nothing shows at all.

Sea Fishing Terms: Rotten Bottom, Pulley Rig and Flapper

Why would a sea angler deliberately tie a weak link into a rig? Over rocks and weed, losing just the lead beats losing the lead, the rig and the fish.

Bait clip (clipped down): holds snoods tight to the rig for a longer cast, releasing on impact.

Beachcaster: a long, powerful shore casting rod.

Flapper rig: hooks on short snoods off the rig body, for more than one fish at a time. See the flapper rig.

Grip or breakaway lead: a lead with wires that grip the seabed in tide.

Multiplier reel: a revolving-spool reel used for casting and boat work.

Pulley rig: lifts the lead out of snags when a fish is hooked. See the pulley rig.

Rotten bottom: a weak link to the lead that breaks in a snag, saving rig and fish.

Shock leader: a length of heavier line ahead of the mainline that takes the force of a hard cast. A safety essential with heavy leads.

Slack water: the quiet period at the turn of the tide.

Snood: a short line carrying a hook off the rig body.

Uptide and downtide: boat fishing styles. Uptide casts away from the boat into the tide; downtide lets the rig run down with it.

Minimum sizes and rules for keeping sea fish vary by area and authority, so check locally before taking any home. Sea fishing for beginners covers a first trip.

Best for: a pulley rig over rough ground. Skip it on clean sand, where a simple flapper is easier.

UK Fishing Slang and US Terms Translated

Much of the fishing advice online is American, and you will not find a “sinker” or a “bobber” under that name in a UK tackle shop. Here is the fishing slang UK anglers use, then the US words translated.

UK slang:

Blades: tiny roach.
Noddy: a careless or inexperienced angler. Everyone has been one, usually while untangling a waggler from a tree.
Pub chuck: a casual, inaccurate cast just to get the bait in the water.
Skimbob: a young bream that has not yet turned bronze.
Slab: a big bream, roughly 4lb (about 1.8kg) or more.
Snig: an eel, mainly in the Midlands.
Snotty: a common bream, after its slime.
Wasp: a small perch, after its stripes. Stripey is in the predator section above.

Pinging, the seed and the shell are in the bait section above.

US terms and their UK equivalents:

US term	UK term	Note
Bobber	Float	Wagglers and stick floats are both floats
Slip bobber	Sliding float	For fishing deeper than the rod length
Sinker	Weight or lead	Watch the UK lead limits
Drag	Clutch	Same job on the reel
Leader (coarse fishing)	Hooklength	In fly and sea fishing, “leader” is used in the UK too
Skunked	Blanked	Caught nothing
Tackle box	Tackle box or seat box	UK match anglers sit on a seat box

If a guide says sinker and bobber, check its rules and seasons apply in the UK before you follow it. Our complete beginner’s guide to fishing is UK-first.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a peg and a swim?

A peg is the numbered fishing position on the bank. The swim is the area of water you fish from it. On a match you draw a peg, then fish your swim. The basic fishing words section of this glossary covers both.

What does close season mean in fishing?

In England, close season means no fishing for coarse fish or eels on rivers, streams and drains from 15 March to 15 June. Canals and most stillwaters are open all year, but check byelaws and fishery rules. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. Our fishing seasons guide has the detail.

Do you need a licence to fish in the UK?

In England (except the River Tweed) and Wales, you need a rod licence to fish for freshwater fish from age 13. Under 13s need none, and 13 to 16 year olds get a free junior licence. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different arrangements, so check the relevant authority. Our rod licence guide explains more.

What is a hooklength in fishing?

A hooklength is a short piece of lighter or different line between your mainline and the hook. It is less visible to fish, and if it breaks you lose only the hook. Our knots and rigs guides show how to tie one.