Outdoors Articles Library

Some folks learn to fish by reading magazines, watching videos or actually going fishing. Other folks take fancy exotic fishing vacations, hire a guide with a thick fluent accent, sip wine and dine on extravagant pasta.  They learn the fishing lingo, one mouthful at a time, so to speak.
 
I need to go over some very common fishing terms. The first, is the word bite. Like “hey you got a bite”. The word (bite) means, to grip with teeth. This is the part in fishing where your enthusiasm can sink its teeth into something. Hopefully, a fish into your bait, for a bite. Bite has been around as long as, linguini. Bite, by the way, is an old world fishing term.
 
The next term is nibble. Like “Charlie you got a bite yet”? “No, but I have had a couple nibbles”. Most people old or new, import or export; never say they have not had any bites. It just makes for poor fishing so we politely respond with nibbles.
 
 I should point out, that this is an all too common response. Now nibble, is defined as several small quick bites. The word Nibble is a newer more recent angling term, and has only been around since the invention of boxed macaroni and cheese that coincides incidentally with the soft bait fishing era.
 
In fishing vocabulary if someone asks, “Did you get a bite”, and you haven’t had lots of bites you don’t say, “No, I got no bite”. You answer “no, no bites yet”, “but I have had a couple nibbles”, this is a positive affirmation that while you have not had a bite, or you’ve been bitten, your anticipating a nibble.  Any fisherman worth there weight in live bait knows this as a gospel truth in fishing. Defining truth, and fishing in the same paragraph is bad fishing karma, so I’m gonna stick to bite and nibbles.
 
The final fishing term with respect to nibbles or bites comes from eating, biting, nibbling and so on, ect, ect.   Now we know the Italians love there noodles. What we did not know until recently was that these great noodle cooking aficionados also understood perfect fishing terms like, “al dente”.  The term comes from the Italians and means "to the tooth" or "to the bite", “Still offering resistance to the bite”.  in this new global fishing economy, it’s nice to have the latest verbal technology when fishing.
 
Okay, from this day forward when your fishing, we could hear, “hey, Charlie you had any bites”?  Charlie, don’t have to say “naw, just some nibbles”, and sorta stretch the truth if he really was not getting any bites. Now if you’re not getting any bites, or nibbles, you can just say “Fred pass me another “al dente” crawler,”. Ergo, Fred knows you are trying to get bites or nibbles but its now the fishes fault for “still offering resistance to the bite” or as we now know, “al dente”.
 
“Fred you had a bite yet”. Charlie you had any nibbles yet? You guys think it’s all that “al dente”? Hey, lets go to my house, for some reason, I’m feeling like Spaghetti for dinner.

The Trout Whisperer

Inside the Mind of a Guide

Living the Dream in God's Country - Superior National Forest

Join author, professional guide, and master storyteller, Karl "Trout Whisperer" Seckinger, as he takes you on a 20 year, mystical journey into the Superior National Forest.

On this CD, Trout Whisperer's unique manner of storytelling, and digital sound effects, will transport you on a journey that will place you in the heart of the 'super natural forest' that is known as the Superior National Forest.

Learn More | Buy Now