A fishermen’s vocabulary is a little different than that of the average person. For those not so deeply into fishing as to understand what the difference is between a spook and a coffee grinder, this week we’ll have a little fun with fishing terms, and I’m sure I don’t even know what some guys are talking about sometimes.
A spook is a topwater lure made by the Heddon company. It’s been around forever and still catches fish, especially big bass. A coffee grinder is what ex-users of the old Mitchell reels call them. The old French-made Mitchells were tough as nails and had serious gears. When you cranked them, you could feel the gears meshing, reminding some of the old coffee grinders.
In baseball, a good hitter is often called a good stick. In fishing, a good fisherman is also called a good stick.
A big bass is a chunk, chunker, toad, bubba, good one, or my favorite Bob term: gorilla.
A guy that lives by the blade throws spinnerbaits all the time. A guy that fishes tubes all the time is a tube dragger.
If you are “frogging”, you could be doing several things, but in fishing, you are throwing any one of the multitude of artificial frogs on the market. A “frog bite” doesn’t mean you got bit by a frog, it means that bass are hitting frogs.
If “they” are catching them on rubber, it doesn’t mean they are cutting their tires apart for bait. It mean the fish are liking soft plastic baits like curl tail twisters and bell tailed minnows.
If you fish perfect, it means you landed every fish that bit. It’s not easy to fish perfect. And who is “they” anyway? They are catching them down by the bridge. They say the walleyes are biting only at night. They say they are catching them on worms. “They” have mystified me since I was a kid. If I ever find out who “they” are, I’ll let you know. I’m pretty sure they are full of malarkey sometimes, whatever that is.
For some simple terms, if you have a boat, it is generally either a jet or a prop. No, it doesn’t actually have a jet engine. It has a water pump (instead of a propeller) that shoots water out through a hole. A prop boat has a propeller.
As far as boats go, you may be riding in a tin boat or a glass boat. A tin boat is made of aluminum. A glass boat is made of high impact Corning hand blown glass. Just kidding. A glass boat is made of fiberglass. A fast glass boat is a rocket sled.
I haven’t even scratched the surface of the multitude of strange things that anglers say, but at least if you hear someone say that they were catching them on spooks even though there was a frog bite on, you’ll know what they’re talking about. Then get their names and maybe we’ll finally find out who “they” are.
n Ken Maurer, Herndon, is a licensed fishing guide and a regular contributor to the outdoors page. Email comments to kenrose@tds.net.
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Ken Maurer's Outdoors column: Fishing 'phonics'
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