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CCPFH - Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters
This group is a national council organized to address the need for nationally-established programmes and standards for professional fish harvesters.

CCN - Coastal Communities Network
A network of community people concerned with the survival of Nova Scotia's coastal communities. This network is a committee that includes representatives from fishery organizations, churches, municipal leaders, women, educational organizations, economic development agencies, environmental groups and others. It is an open forum where concerned people meet to discuss and plan strategic actions.

Caddis
A diverse family of aquatic insects recognizable by down wings.

Cage swimfeeder
An open-end swimfeeder made from plastic or metal mesh. The mesh allows quicker release of the contents than an ordinary plastic open-end swimfeeder. It also offers less resistance to running water, allowing you to use less weight to hold bottom.

Canal catapult
A small catapult with light elastic and a small pouch, designed for accurate loosefeeding at up to about 15m (50ft). This makes it particularly useful on canals, or anywhere when fishing with a pole.

Canal stand
A small, free-standing metal platform for bait boxes and accessories, used by match anglers on canals and other venues where the bank is flat but too hard to use an ordinary bait box holder on a bank stick.

Cane-stemmed pole float
Pole floats with cane stems are designed for fishing on the drop when short-lining with a long pole, and fishing with a bulk shot and droppers with a whip.

Cane-tipped pole float
Pole floats with cane tips can be shotted so that the settling of the dropper shots register on the tip, making them useful for spotting bites on the drop.

Cane-stemmed stick float
When used with shirt-button shotting, cane-stemmed stick floats cock slowly, showing bites on the drop.

Cannonball
A type of very heavy round weight used in deep-water fishing with downriggers

Carbon-stemmed pole float
Carbon fibre-stemmed pole floats are a compromise between the stability of wire-stemmed floats and the slow-cocking properties of cane-stemmed floats.

Carbon-tipped pole float
Carbon fibre-tipped pole floats are similar to plastic bristle-tipped pole floats in that they offer sensitivity without the ability to register the settling of dropper shots.

Carnivorous
Feeding on animal tissues.

Carolina Rig
A "Carolina rig" consists of an egg shaped sinker (usually one ounce), a swivel, a leader of about 4 feet and a large single hook. The size of the sinker and hook can vary depending on the type of cover and how deep you are fishing. The usual type of bait to fish with is a plastic lizard or large plastic worm. This is an excellent method to fish drop-offs and other deep[ water cover. It also works good in the Spring for shallow water bass

Cartilaginous fishes
A major group of fishes including sharks and rays.

Carp bung
A large pole bung designed to fit the third or fourth section of a pole, for use with heavy carp elastics.

Carp elastic
Heavy pole elastic designed for use with carp poles. In the standard size range, 8, 10 and 12 all count as carp elastics. Elastics heavier than size 12 are coded in different ways by different manufacturers.

Carp pole
An extra-strong long pole, usually with put-in joints, designed for fishing with carp elastics for carp of any size up to about 4.5kg (10lb).

Carp rod
A rod designed for fishing for large carp. Some are designed for long-distance fishing, others for stalking in the margins. A general-purpose carp rod, however, is 3.4-3.7m (11-12ft) long, with a through action, and a test curve of about 0.9kg (2lb).

Carp sack
A dark, soft mesh bag with a drawstring, for temporarily retaining specimen fish in the water's edge.

Carryall
A large, waterproof nylon bag with carrying straps, used mainly by match anglers for transporting bulky items that will not fit inside a seat box, such as keepnets, landing nets, bags of groundbait and boxes of bait.

Casters
The pupae of large maggots, widely used as a bait for most species of fish, often in conjunction with hemp and groundbait. Casters exposed to the air until they become crisp, dark floaters are best for the hook.

Catadromous
Refers to fishes that migrate from fresh water to salt water to spawn or reproduce such as the American eel.

Cat biscuits
A widely used floating bait for carp, cat biscuits can also be crushed and added to groundbait or made into a paste.

Catch Curve
A graph of the logarithm of number of fish taken at successive ages or sizes.

Catch Per Unit Of Effort
The catch of fish, in numbers or in weight, taken by a defined unit of fishing effort. Also called; catch per effort, fishing success, availability.

Catchability
"The fraction of a fish stock which is caught by a defined unit of the fishing effort. When the unit is small enough that it catches only a small part of the stock -- 0.01 or less--it can be used as an instantaneous rate in computing population change. (For fractions taken of various portions of the stock, see ""vulnerability."") Also called; catchability coeificient, *force of fishing mortality"

Catch-and-release
An ethical principle whereby an angler carefully releases a fish

Catfish tube
A long, dark, soft mesh bag with a drawstring, designed for temporarily retaining catfish in the water's edge.

Catfood paste
A hookbait made from tinned catfood, and mainly used for catching tench and carp.

Caudal
The tail area of a fish

Caudal
The tail fin.

Caudal peduncle
The tapering portion of a fish's body between the posterior edge of the anal fin base and the base of the caudal fin.

Centrepin reel
A reel with the line wound directly on to a freely revolving drum rather than a fixed spool. Casting distance is limited with centrepins, but they allow excellent tackle control when trotting. They also allow good control of hard-fighting carp, tench and barbel when fighting close in.

Cheater line
A secondary short line attached to the main line for running a secondary lure

Cheese
A marble-sized lump of cheese is an excellent bait for chub, and the smellier the cheese the better. Danish Blue is particularly highly rated.

Cheesepaste
An outstanding bait for chub, cheesepaste is made by mixing any variety of cheese with anything from ordinary breadcrumbs to crushed hemp. You can also add flavourings and colourings.

Chopped worming
A method developed by match anglers, mainly for catching perch in clear water in winter. It involves feeding lobworms, brandlings or redworms chopped into tiny pieces, then pole-fishing a larger worm hookbait over the top.

Chub
A large-mouthed, hard-fighting, silvery shoal fish found mainly in flowing water. Chub grow to 3.6kg (8lb) or more, but a 2.3kg (5lb) fish is a specimen. They are easily spooked by a clumsy approach, but they feed in all weathers and the careful angler can catch them on most baits and using most tactics.

Chubber
A hollow-plastic version of a balsa float, fished top and bottom with a large bulk shot.

Chugger
A top-water plug that has a cup-shaped mouth

Chum
Bait thrown in the water to attract fish; e.g., cornmeal, fish entrails

Cisco
Any of several whitefishes found primarily in the Great Lakes region.

Clarity
The degree of visibility in a body of water as determined by water color and turbidity; i.e., stained, dirty, muddy

Clip-on swimfeeder weights
Flattened, pronged lead weights of various sizes for adding weight to swimfeeders.

Close season
That time of the year when a water is closed to angling for coarse species. It coincides roughly with the time when most coarse fish spawn. In general, all rivers and drains are closed from March 15 to June 15 inclusive, while most canals and still waters are open all year round.

Closed-face reel
A fixed-spool reel with the spool enclosed by a housing and the bail arm replaced by a small pick-up pin. Originally designed for spinning, they are popular for light float fishing, especially trotting.

Cloudbait
A fine-textured groundbait that can be mixed sloppy or dry to form an enticing cloud in the water, cloudbait is mainly used when float fishing on still or slow waters for small fish up in the water or on the drop.

Clutch
See 'Drag'.

Coaster
A brook trout that spends part of its life at sea or in the Great Lakes

Cocktail bait
A hookbait that combines two or more different baits, but usually only two. Commonly used cocktails are worm and caster, and caster and maggot.

Coded-wire tag (CWT)
A small (0.25mm diameter x 1 mm length) wire etched with a distinctive binary code and implanted in the snout of s salmon or steelhead, which, when retrieved, allows for the identification of the origin of the fish bearing the tag.

Coffin weight
A leger weight shaped like a flattened coffin, with a hole through the middle to thread direct on to the line. Coffin weights are designed for holding bottom when using a running leger in flowing water.

Cold-water period
The stable period of very late fall -winter - early spring

Coloured maggots
Ordinary large white maggots dyed different colours. Bronze, red, pink and yellow, and fluorescent pink, red, yellow and orange (bronze) are the commonest colours. You sometimes find a few blue, brown and green maggots as well in a box of ‘mixed maggots’. Red maggots are particularly sffective for perch, bream, tench and carp. Bronze maggots are the first choice bait of many river anglers for roach, chub, barbel and dace.

Colourings
See 'Bait colourings'.

Comfort zone
A species' ideal water temperature, pH, O2, etc.

Common carp
Fully scaled, extremely hard-fighting fish found mainly in still waters and canals, common carp grow to 22.7kg (50lb) or more, but a 9.1kg (20lb) fish is a specimen. Large carp are the favourite quarry of many specialist anglers.

Competitive species
The relationship between two or more species in a body of water competing for the same food and/or spawning habitat

Cone of vision
The area above, below, in front of, and behind a fish, within which it can see

Conditional Fishing Mortality Rate
The fraction of an initial stock which would be caught during the year (or season) if no other causes of mortality operated. (Also called fishing mortality rate).

Conditional Natural Mortality Rate
The fraction of an initial stock that would die from causes other than fishing during a year (or season), if there were no fishing mortality. Also called; annual natural mortality rate, seasonal natural mortality rate.

Confidence rig
A running paternoster rig that allows a wary fish a little resistance-free line, giving it the confidence to take the bait properly.

Continental groundbaits
Groundbaits originally developed by European match anglers, and containing all manner of ingredients such as pigeon droppings, crushed hemp, ground peanuts, ground maize and crushed biscuits. Increasingly popular in Britain, many commercial makes and mixes are now widely available, offering a variety of textures and flavourings for a variety of uses.

Contour lines
Continuous lines on a map indicating depth used by anglers to identify structure

Controlled drift
A system of boat control in which a motor, oars, paddles, or a push pole are used in addition to wind and current drift

Controller floats
A loaded float designed to fish a floating bait, especially on still waters for surface-feeding rudd or carp. It is used more as a casting aid than a bite indicator.

Countdown method
Counting as a lure sinks to determine the desired depth of retrieve

Cover Any feature in a body of water which provides protection for individual or groups of fish; e.g., weeds, rocks, deep water

CPR
Short for Catch, Photograph, Release.

Crank bait
A plug with a lip that causes it to dive.

Crimp
A metal band squeezed on to a wire trace to secure the wire to the eye of a hook or swivel, in place of a knot.

Crimp pliers
Crimp pliers have specially shaped jaws to secure crimps to wire traces with an even pressure, without weakening the wire.

Critical Size
The average size of the fish in a year-class at the time when the instantaneous rate of natural mortality equals the instantaneous rate of growth in weight for the year-class as a whole. Also called; *optimum size.

Critically balanced bait
A hookbait, usually a boilie, whose buoyancy is such that it perfectly balances the weight of the hook, to minimize resistance to a taking fish.

Crowquill
Crowquills fished top-and-bottom with the fat part uppermost were the forerunners of stick floats. Crowquills fished bottom-end only with the slim tapering end uppermost are still used by many anglers in preference to balsa wagglers.

Crucian carp
A small, bottom-feeding, shy-biting species of carp found mainly in still waters. Crucians grow to 2.7kg (6lb) or more, but a 1.4kg (3lb) fish is a specimen.

Crunching pole
A strong, stiff pole, usually with put-in joints, used by match anglers to take heavy weights of bream and roach, fishing to hand, on prolific waters such as those found in Denmark and Ireland. A heavy rig is used, and is tied direct to a cut back and adapted top section.

Crushed hemp
Hempseed that has been coarsely ground. Crushed hemp has an oily texture and is an excellent groundbait additive, especially for roach, chub, carp and tench.

Crystal-bend hook
A hook whose bend is sharply angled below the point, rather than being rounded. Crystal-bend hooks are mainly designed for wriggly baits such as maggots and worms. The sharp angle in the bend prevents such baits masking the point.

Ctenoid
Having a comb-like margin.

Ctenoid scales
Smooth, flat, round scales that have concentric lines called circuli, found on trout, herring, and other fish.