Field notes

A glossary of the river

Fly fishing has gathered four centuries of private vocabulary. Here are 52 of its words in plain English, for when an essay or a tackle-shop conversation leaves you a step behind.

A

Adipose fin: The small, fleshy, rayless fin on the back between the dorsal fin and the tail. Trout, grayling and salmon all have one; it is the quick way to tell the family from coarse fish.

B

Backing: Thin braided line wound onto the reel beneath the fly line. It fills the spool so the line comes off in larger coils, and is there in reserve if a fish runs further than the fly line is long.
Barbless: A hook made without a barb, or with the barb pressed flat with forceps. It holds on a tight line, comes out with a twist, and does far less damage to the fish and to you.
Bead head: A nymph with a drilled metal bead behind the eye. Brass sinks a fly; tungsten, nearly twice as dense, sinks it fast. Diameters run from about 2.0 mm to 4.0 mm.
Bloa: A North Country word for the bluish, slate-grey colour of a cold sky, used in fly names such as the Waterhen Bloa for the dun hackle that gives the fly its shade.
Butt: The thick end of a leader, attached to the fly line. A stiff butt of about two-thirds the diameter of the line tip carries the energy of the cast into the leader.

C

Caddis: Insects of the order Trichoptera, called sedges in Britain. Adults have tent-shaped hairy wings; the larvae, many of which build cases, live on the riverbed.
Catch and release: Returning a fish alive to the water. Done properly, with a short fight, wet hands and little or no time in the air, it gives the fish a very good chance. See the fish care guide.
CDC: Cul de canard: the small downy feathers from around a duck’s preen gland. Their structure traps air, so they float without floatant and move with the slightest current.
Chalk stream: A river fed by springs rising from chalk. The water is clear, alkaline and steady in flow and temperature, which grows thick weed and enormous numbers of insects.

D

Dead drift: A fly travelling at exactly the speed of the water around it, as a natural insect would, with no pull from the line. The basis of most dry fly and nymph fishing.
Drag: Any movement of the fly that the current alone would not cause, produced by the line or leader pulling on it. Often too slight for the angler to see and quite plain to the fish.
Dropper: A second or third fly tied to a short side-length of tippet above the point fly. Not allowed on every water; check the rules first.
Dubbing: Fur or fine synthetic fibre twisted onto the tying thread and wound to form a fly’s body. Used sparingly: the thread should look merely dirty before it is wound.
Dun: The first winged stage of an upwinged fly, freshly hatched, with dull opaque wings. It rides the surface while its wings dry and is the stage most dry flies copy. Scientifically, the subimago.

E

Emerger: An insect in the act of hatching, caught between nymph or pupa and adult in the surface film, and any fly tied to imitate that helpless moment.

F

False cast: A cast made back and forth in the air without letting the line land, to dry a fly, change direction or lengthen line. Every one risks showing the line to the fish, so use few.
Floatant: A paste, gel or powder that keeps a dry fly on the surface. Paste and gel go on a dry fly before fishing; powder revives a soaked one. Never put paste on CDC.
Freestone river: A river fed mainly by rain and run-off over a stony bed. It rises and colours after rain, runs low in drought, and its temperature follows the weather.

G

Glide: A stretch of smooth, even-paced water of moderate depth, usually below a run. Rises show clearly there, and so does every mistake.

H

Hackle: A feather wound round the hook so its fibres stand out. Stiff cock hackle holds a dry fly up on the surface; soft hen or game-bird hackle suggests legs and moves in the current.
Hatch: The emergence of a number of aquatic insects of one kind at about the same time. “Matching the hatch” means choosing a fly of the same size, outline and shade.

I

Induced take: Frank Sawyer’s method of lifting the rod as a sunk nymph nears a fish, so that the fly rises through the water like a natural swimming up to hatch.

L

Leader: The tapered length of nylon or fluorocarbon between fly line and fly, typically 2.3 to 3.6 m (7½ to 12 ft). It turns the fly over and separates it from the thick, visible line.
Lie: A place where a fish holds station. A feeding lie has food passing close; a resting or sheltering lie has slack water and cover.

M

Mend: Lifting and re-laying part of the line upstream or downstream after the cast has landed, to delay drag or to slow a swinging fly.

N

Nymph: The underwater, immature stage of mayflies and stoneflies, and loosely any sunk fly that imitates an aquatic insect or shrimp.

P

Palmered: Describes a hackle wound in open turns along the length of a fly’s body rather than as a collar at the head, as on the Elk Hair Caddis or Woolly Bugger.
Parachute: A dry fly whose hackle is wound horizontally round an upright post, so the body sits low in the surface film and the fly lands the right way up.
Pocket water: Fast, broken water studded with rocks, each with a small patch of slack behind and in front of it. Every pocket can hold a fish, and each wants only a cast or two.
Point fly: The fly at the very end of the leader. In a team of flies it is usually the heaviest.
Presentation: Everything about how the fly arrives and behaves: where it lands, how gently, and whether it drifts naturally. Usually more important than the pattern.

R

Redd: The nest a trout, grayling or salmon digs in clean gravel to spawn. It shows as a pale, freshly swept patch with a mound below it. Never wade on or just below one.
Riffle: A shallow, fast, broken stretch running over stones. It is the river’s larder, where most insects live, and its lungs, where the water takes in oxygen.
Rise: The disturbance a fish makes when it takes something at or near the surface. The shape of the rise form is a strong clue to what is being eaten.
Run: The deeper, steadier water below a riffle, where the current gathers into a main tongue. Often the most reliable holding water on the river.

S

Seam: The visible line where fast and slow currents meet. Fish hold on the slow side and feed from the fast side.
Sedge: The British name for a caddis fly.
Sighter: A short length of brightly coloured nylon built into a nymphing leader. The angler watches it, not the fly, for the hesitation that means a take.
Spate river: A rain-fed river that rises quickly after rain and falls back within hours or days. It fishes best as the water drops and clears.
Spent: Describes a spinner lying dead or dying on the water with wings flat and outstretched, and a fly tied to copy it.
Spider: A sparse soft-hackled wet fly in the North Country tradition: a slim silk body and one or two turns of a game-bird hackle. Nothing to do with spiders.
Spinner: The final, mature stage of an upwinged fly, with glassy clear wings and long tails. It mates, lays eggs and dies on the water. Scientifically, the imago.
Strike: Tightening the line to set the hook. On a river it is a smooth lift of the rod rather than a jerk; with a dry fly, wait until the fish has turned down.

T

Tailout: The smooth, shallowing lip at the downstream end of a pool, just before the water breaks into the next riffle.
Terrestrial: A land insect that ends up on the water by accident: ants, beetles, hawthorn flies, grasshoppers, crane flies.
Tippet: The final, finest section of the leader, to which the fly is tied. Sized by the X scale: subtract the X number from 11 to get the diameter in thousandths of an inch, so 5X is 0.006 in, about 0.15 mm.

U

Upwinged fly: A mayfly in the broad sense: any member of the order Ephemeroptera, which hold their wings upright over the back like the sails of a boat.

W

Wading staff: A stout stick or folding pole used as a third leg in strong or coloured water. Plant it upstream of you and move one foot at a time.
Whip finish: The knot that completes a fly: several turns of thread laid over its own end and pulled tight, so the head cannot unravel.
Window: The circle of surface directly above a fish through which it sees the world above the water. Outside it, the underside of the surface is a mirror.
Wing case: The dark pad on the back of a nymph’s thorax that holds the developing wings, and the strip of material tied over the thorax of an artificial to suggest it.