This is a growing list of terms that relate to salmon and steelhead fishing. If you came here looking for a definition of a word and didn't find it, please send us an email and we will try to give you an explanation.

• Adipose fin – a fin just in front of the tail on top of the fish. This is the fin that is usually clipped to denote a hatchery bred fish
• Alevin a freshly hatched salmon or trout.
• Anadromous - Refers to fish that are born in fresh water rivers, travel to the ocean to grow, and return to the fresh water rivers to spawn. Steelhead and salmon are anadromous fish.
• Back bouncing - a system of boat control involving moving a boat slowly in reverse while using lure or bait presentations.
• Backlash a tangle of line on a reel caused by the spool's rotating faster than the line is being rewound. Also called "overrun" or "bird's nest."
• Bankie - Someone who fishes from shore or someone who cant afford a boat
• Birds nest: A backlash. A line tangle that occurs in your reel.
• Black ice - dangerous road condition where a thin film of ice forms on the road and is not visible.
• Blow Down - a place where a tree has been blown into the water by natural means or cut to fall into the water creating a fish habitat.
• Blown out – Usually refers to a river condition where heavy rains have recently fallen and the water levels are very high and the water clarity is very bad, ie muddy.
• Bobber – a strike indicator – not to be confused with a float
• Bonk - To kill a fish.
• Boondogging - Drifting your bait at the side of the boat at or about the same speed as the current so one cast runs the entire length of the run.
• Boot - Usually a fish that is just about to spawn or has already spawned and is nearing its death
• Brat - hatchery raised steelhead
• Buck - Male fish
• Caudal Fin - the fish's tail fin
• Chinook - A king salmon
• Chromer - A bright, fresh fish
• CNR – Catch and release
• Coho - A silver salmon
• Corkie – a round float
• Cracker – An inexperienced fisherman who makes a lot of mistakes while fishing. Sometimes called a dude or doughball
• Dink - undersized, non-keeper, short fish. Also a type of float
• Downer - A steelhead that has spawned and is returning "down-river" to the ocean. Also called a snake or a kelt.
• Drift fishing - The most traditional form of fishing technique for salomon & Steelhead. See discussion here
• Egg loop - a special knot used to attach your leader to your hook and specifically designed to hold your baits, ie roe, shrimp, etc. Instructions are here.
• Emerald green – Usually refers to water color that is ideal for steelhead fishing.
• Fin clip – Usually referring to the adipose fin that is removed to identify a hatchery bred fish
• Fingerling - a young fish that measures just a few inches long (the next stage after Fry).
• First Water - When you are the first one to fish a section of a river for that day.
• Float – Used with your terminal tackle, it helps keep your bait off the bottom of the river. See Sponge Float
• Float Fishing - A technique that uses a float/bobber indicator. See detail explanation here
• Flossing - Using really long leaders to float thru stacked up fish, trying to snag the fish on the outside of the jaw. Also see snagger
• Frog water - very slow moving water sometimes a back eddy
• Fry - a newly-hatched fish. See also alevin and fingerling.
• Foul hooked - A fish that is not caught in the mouth. It must be released quickly.
• Half pounder – an immature steelhead irrespective of the weight. Usually any fish less than 3-5 pounds.
• Hardware – Usually refers to plugs, spinners, and spoons
• Hawg or Hog - A really big fish. Note "big" depends completely on your own definition
• Hen - Female fish
• Hog line- Boats lined up side by side across a river in a line
• Honey hole: a secret spot that almost always holds fish
• Jack – An immature fish
• Kelt - A steelhead that has spawned as is traveling back to the ocean. Also see "Downer" above. Please give these fish special treatment and release them all so they may return to spawn again.
• Krill - tiny, shrimp crustaceans, of the family Euphausiidae, that are an essential part of the salmon and steelhead food chain.
• Kype - The hook-like growth at the end of the jaw of male salmon during spawning.
• Level wind - Refers to a type of casting reel with a device that moves back and forth across the spool to distribute the line evenly during the rewind.
• Long distance release, (LDR) – you had a fish on but lost it before getting it to the boat or shore
• Low holed - When someone steps in front of you as you move down a drift, or sets up his boat in front of you or your boat.
• Mooching - a saltwater fishing technique used primarily for salmon in which your boat and bait is allowed to drift carried by the tidal flow.
• Nate or native -Wild steelhead and salmon, not hatchery bred
• Nice Day on the River - You got skunked- see below
• Oh-dark-thirty - Really early in the morning. The time most fishermen wake up for a day of fishing -- just about anytime after 2AM
• Parr - a young salmon or trout up to the age of two years, identifiable by dark bars on the fish's sides (called "parr marks"). See also fry, alevin, fingerling
• Pectoral Fin - the fin located just behind a fish's head.
• PFD - a "personal flotation device," or life jacket.
• Plunking - A method of still fishing for salmon and steelhead useful when rivers a running very high or close to being blown out. See a further explantion here.
• Pocket Water - a relatively calm area of water, often behind a large rock in a stream or river, where fish are likely to hold.
• Pool - A deep and slow moving section of the river. Usually 10-30 feet deep and more. See discussion on Reading Holding Water here.
• PNW – Pacific Northwest
• Redd - Spawning grounds for salmon and steeelhead. The place on the river where they lay their eggs.
• Riffle - That section of a river where the water is breaking over rocks and other obstructions in the water. Usually 2-10 feet deep with fast moving water and a rippled surface. See discussion here.
• Rip-Rap - Ususally refers to loose rock, stacked on a bank by mother nature or man that transitions into the water to help prevent erosion.
• Roe – eggs from salmon or steelhead used for bait. See discussion here.
• Root wad - A washed-out stump/tree with its root system intact, normally laying in a stream or river and sometimes creating a dangerous obstruction for boaters.
• Seam - The boundary or transition point between two currents moving at different speeds.
• Side Drifting
• Shaker – An immature fish, usually illegal to keep due to size. Yes, you have to release it.
• Skunked - Not catching any fish on a given day
• Sled -
• Slinky- Parachute cord filled with buckshot, used for weight. See explanation of use here.
• Slot Limit - A law that puts both a minimum and a maximum size on a fish that can be kept.
• Snagger-Someone who Illegally takes fish by hooking them not in the mouth. See flossing
• Snake - A steelhead that has spawned and is returing back to the ocean. Also called a downer or kelt.
• Spank 'N Um - A term used when you have a particularly successful fishing day. You catch large and many fish and generally have a good time.
• Spawn Sac - A bait made by placing eggs or sponge in a small mesh cloth. This helps keep your eggs together longer and is less disturbed when there are small fish/smolts trying to steal your bait. Click here for the Fish Sponge version of the Spawn Sac.
• Squirrel Fishing - Casting (and losing) your terminal tackle into trees at the river's edge
• Tailwater - Usually refers to the area immediately downstream from a dam.
• Tailout - That section of the river where it is rising up from a pool and ends just before the next riffle or rapids. The water is usually moving at moderate speed and can be smooth or rippled on the surface. Prime holding water for steelhead. See discussion on Reading Holding Water here.
• Tyee - Chinook over 30 pounds
• URB – See Up River Bright
• Up river bright – Usually a fish that has just come in from the ocean and is chrome bright. A chromer.
• Wind Knot - an unwanted overhand knot formed in your leader by the wind's looping the line during a cast.
• Zipperlip -A secret fishing location.