T
TAC
Total allowable catch is the total regulated catch from a stock in a given time period, usually a year.
Tail
The length of line, including the hooklength, between the hook and a leger or paternoster.
Tailing
A method of landing a fish by grasping it near the tail
Taper
An area that slopes gradually and evenly towards deeper water
Tapered line
Main or lead line that decreases in diameter towards both ends (double taper) or towards one end (weight forward and shooting heads)
Tares
A large seed bait commonly used on the hook in conjunction with loosefed hempseed for roach.
Target board
A circular or square plastic plate screwed into a bank stick and positioned behind a rod-top bite indicator such as a quivertip, to make it easier to spot bites when legering and to shield the bite indicator from the wind.
Teardrop pole float
See 'Body-down pole float'.
Temperature preference
The specific temperatures at which a given species functions most efficiently
Tench
An olive-green, powerful bottom-feeding fish found mainly in still waters, tench grow to 4.5kg (10lb) or more, although a 2.3kg (5lb) fish is a specimen.
Terminal mouth
Said of the location of the mouth when it opens at the end of the head, as in trout.
Terminal tackle
The equipment at the end of the fishing line, including hooks, lures, weights, and leaders
Territory
The area that an animal defends, usually during breeding season, against intruders of its own species.
Test curve
The amount of pull, in kilograms or pounds and ounces, you have to exert on a rod to bend the tip until it is at right angles to the butt.
Texposed
A Texas rigged plastic bait that has the point of the hook going through the plastic, thus esposing the point of the hook. This is a good rig to use in relatively brush or weed free water conditions
The Method
A method developed for catching small carp with a rig comprising a short hooklength attached to a frame swimfeeder by a short length of powerful pole elastic. The hookbait is often buried in a ball of groundbait moulded around the feeder.
Thermal stratification
The process whereby a lake divides into layers of water with different temperature ranges
Thermocline
A horizontal band of temperature change in a stratified body of water between the epilimnion and hypolimnion
Thoracic pelvics
Said of the pelvic fins when attached immediately below the pectorals and connected internally with the pectoral girdle.
Through-action rod
A rod that bends progressively through its length from the tip to the handle.
Throwing stick
A stick with a scoop at one end, for one-handed loosefeeding. Large versions are good for flicking out baits such as boilies, smaller ones for baits such as maggots. Very large versions are also available for feeding balls of groundbait.
Tip-action rod
A rod that bends only through the tip and middle sections.
Tippet
The fine end of a leader where a fly is tied; it is classified by size
Tip-up
A type of line-holding device used in ice fishing that indicates a strike
Top-water lure
Lures that float and are designed to be retrieved on the surface
Top and bottom float
Any float, but usually a stick, balsa or Avon, attached to the line with float rubbers at the top and bottom.
Topper
See 'Crowquill Avon'.
Touch legering
Feeling for bites on the line above the reel with your fingertips while legering.
Trace
A hooklength which may be made of wire, braided nylon or monofilament nylon.
Transition area
The place where one structure or water type ends and another begins; e.g., rock bottom turning into gravel
Treble hook
Three hooks with their shanks welded together and connected to the line or a wire trace by a single eye. Trebles are mainly used when fishing with deadbaits, livebaits or artificial lures for pike and zander.
Treble-hook guard
A moulded plastic device that clips on to treble hooks to guard their points when not in use.
Trigger
The sight, sound, smell, taste, texture, or vibration of a lure which entices a fish to strike
Trolling
A method of angling whereby lures or baits are presented by a moving boat.
Trotting
Fishing a bait below a float, especially a top-and-bottom float, by letting it run down a river with the current.
Trout pellets
Soaked to soften them, trout pellets can be a good bait for many fish, but especially carp and tench. They can be used as floaters, loosefed, ground up and added to groundbait, or made into a paste.
Truncate caudal
Said of the margin of the caudal fin when it is squared off as in some catfish.
Trunk myomeres of lampreys
The number of body segments between the last gill opening and the cloacal slit.
Tucked half blood knot
A blood knot with the tag end tucked back through the final loop so that it points back up the line. It may be less prone to slipping than a standard half blood knot.
Tule
Fall chinook stock native to the Columbia River tributaries.
Tungsten putty
A dense, mouldable substance mainly used by carp anglers on hooklengths to anchor critically balanced baits and floaters in the right position.
Turbidity
Suspended particles in water
Turmeric
A yellow powdered spice used by many river match anglers to degrease, colour and flavour large maggots.
Turnover period
A brief period when lakes or reservoirs are in the process of mixing water layers of different temperatures
Twitcher
A barely detectable bite given by large carp when they pick up the bait but do not move off with it.
Twitcher wheel
A wheel that you can fit into some electronic bite alarms that increases the sensitivity of the alarm to twitcher bites.
Twitching
Inducing a fish to bite by twitching the bait with a slight turn of the reel handle or a small movement of the rod tip.
Two-storey fish community
The relationship between species in a body of water where the warmer-water species inhabit the upper layer and the cooler-water species inhabit the deeper, colder portion
Type N coho
A coho stock that rears in ocean waters off the mouth of the Columbia River and northward to the northern Washington coast.
Type S coho
A coho stock that rears in ocean waters off the mouth of the Columbia River and southerly to northern California.
