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Bass Fishing Terms And Slang

Related Links: General Fishing Terms & Slang

Backlash – Occurs when the spool of a baitcaster reel over runs resulting in a birds nest of fishing line around the reel. Typically occurs when casting into the wind or when the brake is set to light.
Baitcaster Reel - Fishing reel with a rotating spool, best for casting accuracy and heavier baits.
Ball Head Jig – Standard round head lead jig.
Bank Runner – A small bass that are easy to catch live along shorelines.
Bed Fishing – Technique of fishing bass that are holding on or near their spawning beds.
Blade Bait – A lure stamped from a piece of aluminum with lead placed towards the lip of the lure. This lure produces a lot of vibration.
Blowdown – A tree along the shoreline that has blown down into the water.
Bluff-Burning — Term used to describe the technique of casting and retrieving a lure a very fast parallel to the shoreline of a bluff.
Breakline – A transition from one type of water to another, or one depth to another, or one water temperature to another that may hold bass.
Bronzeback - Slang for smallmouth bass.
Brown Bass - Slang for smallmouth bass.
Brushpile — Man-made submerged pile of woody cover placed to attract game fish such as bass, crappies, and bluegill.
Bucketmouth - Slang largemouth bass.
Bulging – Term used to describe how a lure such as a spinnerbait retrieved just under the surface produces a bulge of water above it.
Bump The Stump - A fishing technique that means retriving a lure through cover or bumping objects suchs as tree stumps.
Buzzbait – A lure similar to a spinnerbait but a with a modified spinner blade that churns the surface when quickly retrieved, thus producing a buzzing sound.
Buzzing – Act of fishing a buzzbait lure as described above.

Carolina Rig — Method of Texas Rigging a plastic worm on a hook and using a slip sinker held above the hook several feet by a swivel.
Closed Face Reel – These reels are excellent for beginners with the slang term for this fishing reel being a push button reel.
Comeback Lure - A lure selected to throw when bass misses the primary lure being used.
Community Hole – A fishing hole that a lot of fisherman know and fish.
Countdown Lure – A lure that slowly sinks versus floating such as a Rapala countdown minnow.
Cover – Objects or vegetation in the water that provides safety for minnows or a ambush situation for bass.
Crankbait – Lures typically made from plastic or balsa wood that have a plastic lip on the nose of the which makes it dive when retrieved. Some crankbaits such as a Rat-L-Trap are lipless.
Crashing – Technique of casting a bait very hard to penetrate the surface of heavy cover such as grass mats and lilly pads.
Craw Worm – A plastic bait that is half crawfish and half worm.
Creature Bait - A plastic bait that with several appendages, much like a lizard bait.

Deadsticking – A technique in which the angler allows the bait to sit motionless.
Deep-Runner – A crankbait with a large lip or bill that dives very deep, typically more than 9 feet.
Doodling – A Texas rigged worm that has several plastic beeds between the eye of the hook and the sinker. By shaking this bait during the retrieve noise is made.
Drag – A clutch attached to the spool that allows it to slip thus preventing large fish from breaking the fisherman’s line.
Drop Shotting – A three-way rig where the dropper line is weighted with split shot and another line is tied to the three-way that runs back to the bait such as a plastic worm.

Finesse Fishing - A technique that implies a slow presentation and requiring the angler to feel a fish to set the hook. This technique targets bass that have become lethargic from a cold front.
Flat – Used to describe a flat area of the lake with very little change in water depth. Flipping – A term used to describe a casting technique for short distances in which the bait is propelled in a underhand pendulum motion.
Football Jig - A jig shaped like a football that is used when fishing deep-water bass.

Grub – Slang for a soft plastic bait with a curly tail best known as a Mr. Twister tail.

Hard Bait - Any bait or lure that was designed for large fish.
Hawg - Slang for a large bass.
Honey Hole – Slang term used by fisherman for a fishing spot where they always catch fish.
Hook Set – Motion of sweeping your fishing rod to the side or overhead that causes the hook point to penetrate the mouth of a fish.

In-line Spinner – A lure consisting of a single straight piece of wire with a spinner blade above a treble hook that is typically dressed with some type of animal hair. Not as weedless as a safety-pin style spinnerbait.

Jerkbait – A minnow style crankbait that is best fished in sharp jerking motions.
Jig – A single hook with lead poured around the eye of a hook forming a head that is typically dressed with some type of plastic body such as a twister tail.
Jig-And-Frog – Simply a bass style jig dressed up with a plastic or pork-rind frog. Jig-And-Pig – Term used to describe a bass fishing jig with a plastic body or pork rind attached.
Jump Fishing - Technique of jumping from one active school of bass feeding of the surface to another school. Typically done when fishing white bass.

Kentucky Bass – Slang for spotted bass.

Laydown – A tree that has fallen over on the shoreline into a lake or river.
Ledge – A area of a lake or river between to drop-offs.
Levelwind – A mechanism on a baitcaster fishing reel that winds the line across the spool evenly as the line is retrieved.
Line Tie – An eye-let of a lure where the fishing line is tied.
Lipless Cankbait — A crankbait that does not use a lip in the front of the lure to make it wobble and dive. Lipless crankbaits do not float, but sink.
Lipping - Act of landing a bass by holding it’s lower lip with your thumb inserted inside of the basses mouth.
Loop Knot – A not that does not directly cinch up on the eye of a lure or hook. This allows a lure such as a Rapala to wobble more when retrieved.
Lunker - Slang for large bass.

Mat – Term to describe heavy vegetation growing in the water that forms a blanket across the surface of the water.
Match The Hatch – A term that implies to use a type of lure that matches what is currently hatching naturally in a lake or river. Most used by fly fisherman.
Medium Runner – A crankbait that dives 5-9 feet.
Micro Jig – A very small light-weight jig that requires an ultra-light reel to cast it.
Mossback – Slang for a largemouth bass.

Open Face Reel – A spinning reel where the spool is parallel with the fishing rod and not enclosed such as a push-button style fishing reel.

Paddle-Tail - Plastic body that has a large flat tail that wobbles when retrieved.
Pattern – A set of conditions such as weather, wind, water temperature, and water depth when the bass bite the best, or when a given lure, or presentation work the best.
Pattern Fishing – The practice of fishing an identified set of conditions, lure, or technique that works the best under certain conditions.
Pegging – Term that describes using a toothpick to keep a slip sinker on a Texas rigged work from moving up and down the line.
Pitch Skip - A casting technique that by which a lure is pitched and skips underneath a a boat dock or similar cover.
Pitching – A casting technique just like Flipping, but allowing the spool to rotate, thus extending the casting distance.
Plastic Worm – A plastic version of a nightcrawler available in different lengths, shapes, and colors.
Postspawn – A period of time after the spawning period and before the summer period.
Prespawn — Period of time between winter and spring when bass are staging very close to their spawning grounds.

Reaction Baits – Lures that cause bass to strike out of instinct or reflex such as spinnerbaits and crankbaits.
Ripping – Retrieving jerkbaits very quickly.
Riprap – Rocks that are piles along shorelines to prevent soil erosion.

Shad – A baitfish with the most common types being threadfin and gizzard.
Shaking – Technique of fishing a plastic worm in which the bait is not retrieved, but just shaken in order to get a strike.
Shallow Runner – Crankbaits that dive less than 5 feet deep.
Shiner - Subspecies of baitfish that have silver or golden sides and are 2 to 12 inches in length.
Sight Fishing – Technique of only presenting a lure or bait to fish that you can see.
Skipping – A casting technique that involves skipping a lure across the surface of the water in order to get it under a dock or other cover.
Slip Shotting – A variation of split shotting which utilizes a cylindrical weight held in place on the line by a stands of rubber.
Slip Sinker – A lead fishing weight that slides on the line such as bullet or egg sinker.
Slow Rolling - Method of retrieving a spinnerbait in which the speed of the retrieve is just enough to make the spinner blades rotate.
Snap Set – A quick jerking motion used to set the hook versus a longer sweeping motion.
Spawn – A period of time when female bass are laying eggs on spawning beds.
Spincast Reel – A push button style fishing reel.
Spinnerbait – Typical references a clothes-pin or V shaped wire lure that has a spinner blade on one end of the V and a hook on the other end that is dress with a plastic skirt and as a lead head.
Spinning Reel – A fishing reel that hangs from a fishing rod and has a fixed spool that is parralel to the fishing rod and is not enclosed.
Split Shotting – Finesse technique of using light-weight split shot above a plastic bait.
Spoon – A teardrop shaped lure punched from steel that wobbles in the water imitating a minnow such as a DareDevil.
Stickbait – A long slender shaped lure that imitates a minnow or baitfish.
Stickworm – A plastic worm that is designed to sink. Typicaly Texas or wacky rigged and fishing with a jigging motion.
Stinger Hook – Either a single or treble hook that is attached to the main hook of a lure or jig. Used to catch short striking fish.
Stitching – Term used to describe retrieving a lure across the bottom with your fingers versus slowly rotating the fishing reel’s handle.
Strike Zone – A distance surrounding a lure that a bass will strike within. An active bass will have a much larger strike zone than an in-active bass.
Structure – Term used to describe brush piles, fallen trees along a shoreline, points, and ledges of a lake.
Suspended – Occurs when the bass are not relating directly to the bottom but rather several feet of bottom, or even in the middle of the water column.
Swimbait – Typically referred to as larger plastic baits that are put on a jig head.

Tailrace – The immediate area below a dam.
Tailspinner – A lure that has spinner mounted on the tail or end of the lure.
Texas Rig – Method of attaching a plastic worm to a hook that is weedless.
Topwater Lure – Lure that typically floats such as a Heddon Spook and is fished across the surface of the water.
Trailer hook - Either a single or treble hook that is attached to the main hook of a lure or jig. Used to catch short striking fish.
Tube Bait – A variety of plastic body where the jig head is inserted into the bait.
Tuning - Adjusting a lure so that it swims straight when being retrieved.
Twitch Bait - Slang for a jerkbait.

Wacky Rig – Method of rigging a plastic worm through the middle of the bait without any sinker attached to the line.
Walking The Dog – A technique used when retrieving a lure such as the Heddon Spook that causes the lure to be retrieved in a zig-zag pattern.
Weedguard – A mechanical device typically consisting a single piece of spring wire that covers the open gap of a hook to make it weedless.
Wall-Hanger — A large bass that every bass fisherman is looking for to be mounted by a taxidermist and then put on their wall.

Yo-Yoing – A bass fishing retrieval technique much like a jigging retrieve that causes the fishing lure to be fished in an up and down motion.