R

Radio-telemetry
Automatic measurement and transmission of data from remote sources via radio to a receiving station for recording and analysis.

Ramus
A branch; a projecting part.

Rate Of Exploitation
The fraction, by number, of the fish in a population at a given time, which is caught and killed by man during the year immediately following . The term may also be applied to separate parts of the stock distinguished by size, sex, etc. Also called; *fishing coefficient .

Rate Of Removal
An inexactly-defined term that can mean either rate of exploitation or rate of fishing--depending on the context .

Rate Of Utilization
Similar to rate of exploitation, except that only the fish landed are considered. The distinction between catch and landings is important when considerable quantities of fish are discarded at sea.

Ray
One of the supports of a fin.

Rear
To feed and grow in a natural or artificial environment.

Rearing
Refers to the amount of time that juvenile fish spend feeding in nursery areas of rivers, lakes, streams and estuaries before migration.

Recruitment
The amount of fish added to the exploitable stock each year due to growth and/or migration into the fishing area. For example, the number of fish that grow to become vulnerable to the fishing gear in one year would be the recruitment to the fishable population that year. This term is also used in referring to the number of fish from a year class reaching a certain age. For example, all fish reaching their second year would be age 2 recruits. Recruitment Curve, Reproduction Curve; A graph of the progeny of a spawning at the time they reach a specified age (for example, the age at which half of the brood has become vulnerable to fishing), plotted against the abundance of the stock that produced them.

Recruitment overfishing
The rate of fishing above which the recruitment to the exploitable stock becomes significantly reduced. This is characterized by a greatly reduced spawning stock, a decreasing proportion of older fish in the catch, and generally very low recruitment year after year.

Recruits
The total numbers of fish of a specific stock available at a particular stage of their life history.

Redd
A nest of fish eggs covered with gravel.

Redworm
Small (2.5-5cm/1-2in) red worm found in compost and manure heaps. Redworms are a good bait for many fish, especially bream and perch, and are easy to breed in a wormery.

Reel fittings
Sliding plastic, carbon or metal sleeves attached to the handle of a rod to secure the reel in place. Some rods have fixed screw-fittings.

Relative Abundance
An estimate of actual or absolute abundance; usually stated as some kind of index; for example, as bottom trawl survey stratified mean catch per tow.

Reproduce
To produce offspring.

Resident species
Species of fish which spend their entire lives in freshwater.

Retrieve
The various ways of working a cast lure back to the angler

Rhythm method
A summer method of fishing for dace in mid-water with a waggler and maggots by spraying the surface with maggots and striking repeatedly each cast until a fish is hooked.

Rig
Fishing equipment; most often refers to an outfitted boat or specially prepared terminal tackle

Rig foam
Buoyant foam rubber, which you can use to make pop-up boilies and pop-up deadbaits.

Rig rest
A wide, multi-notched device for neatly keeping spare, ready-rigged top sections of pole clear of the water or of bankside vegetation. It screws into a bank stick.

Rig spool
A large plastic drum around which you can wind and store spare carp or pike leger rigs.

Rig tubing
Lengths of plastic tubing used mainly by carp anglers to create tangle-free leger rigs.

Rig wallet
A large plastic wallet with envelopes in which you can store ready-made pike or carp rigs.

River classifications
According to the geological aging process, rivers or sections of rivers are classified as young, middle aged, or mature; young rivers are usually at headwaters and low in fertility; middle-aged sections are further downstream and more fertile; mature sections have deeper, slower-moving waters with high fertility and lower oxygen levels

Rivulet
A small stream or brook.

Roach
A silvery, bottom-feeding shoal fish, widespread in all types of water and growing to 1.8kg (4lb) or more, although a 0.9kg (2lb) roach is the fish of a lifetime.

Rod bag
A nylon or cloth bag for storing a rod, usually with a separate compartment for each section of rod.

Rod holdall
A large, waterproof nylon tube with carrying straps, for transporting your rods, poles, bank sticks and umbrella.

Rod holder
A device attached to the decking of a boat in which you place your rod; useful when trolling large baits

Rod licence
By law, all coarse anglers must carry a temporary or annual rod licence purchased from a Post Office.

Rod pod
A stable, rigid metal frame, with attachments for buzzer bars, for supporting one or more rods when legering. Rod pods are mainly used when fishing for big carp. They are very useful on hard banks.

Rod rest
A plastic device that screws into a bankstick, used to support a rod clear of the ground and water. Various kinds are available to support both the butt and top of a rod.

Rod taper
The taper of a rod determines the way in which it bends. Fast-taper rods have a tip action, slow-taper rods a through-action. Some rods have compound tapers, which share some of the attributes of both types.

Rod tubes
Rigid plastic tubes, usually with caps, for safe storage of rods inside a rod holdall.

Roe
The eggs of fishes.

Roll cast
One of the basic fly casting methods whereby the line is rolled directly off the water

Rolling leger
Fishing running water with a leger rig that rolls and bounces along the bottom with the current.

Rotten bottom
A length of weak line connecting a leger weight or swimfeeder to the main line, used in snaggy swims so that you lose only the weight or swimfeeder and not the fish should the weight become snagged during the fight. It also ensures that a fish cannot become tethered to a snag should the line break over the rig.

Rough Fish
Those species of fish considered to be of either poor fighting quality when taken on tackle or of poor eating quality, such as carp, gar, suckers, etc. Most species in this group are more tolerant of widely fluctuating environmental conditions than Game Fish.

Run (of fish)
A group of fish of the same species that migrate together up a stream to spawn, usually associated with the seasons, e.g., fall, spring, summer, and winter runs. Members of a run interbreed, and may be genetically distinguishable from other individuals of the same species.

Round-bend hook
Hooks with round bends have a wider gape than hooks with crystal bends and are therefore better for large baits such as bread, worms, luncheon meat and sweetcorn.

Round-bodied pole float
A pole float with a spherical or bulbous oval balsa body allows the bait to be inched through the swim in running water without the float riding out of the water.

Roving
Travelling light and moving from swim to swim, fishing each one for only a short period of time.

Rubber lure
A lure made from soft rubber shaped to imitate a small fish, and fitted with trebles to catch mainly pike and perch.

Rudd
A silvery-gold, surface-feeding shoal fish found mainly in still waters. Frequently confused with roach, with which it often hybridizes, rudd grow to a similar size.

Ruffe
A small (5-12.5cm/2-5in), bottom-feeding shoal fish, found mostly in rivers and canals, and mainly of interest to match anglers.

Rugby-ball bodied pole float
A pole float with a rugby-ball shaped body is a good all-round pattern, being suitable for still and slow waters, and for fishing on the drop or on the bottom.

Run
A term used when a fish, usually a pike or carp, picks up your bait and swims off with it.

Run clip
Mainly used when legering for big fish, a run clip is a plastic clip that traps the line against the rod just above the reel, but releases the line when you get a run.

Running leger
A leger rig in which the weight runs freely on the line to minimize resistance to a biting fish.