Fishing Terms Glossary and Definitions
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B

• Backlash - A tangle of line caused by spool overrun on a baitcasting reel. Also referred to as Professional Overrun or Spaghette.
• Backwater - Shallow area off a river.
• Bag Limit - Restriction in the number of fish that an angler may retain, generally on a per trip or daily basis.
• Bail - Metal, semi-circular arm on an open-face spinning reel that engages the line after a cast.
• Baitcasting - Fishing with a revolving-spool reel and baitcasting rod; reel mounted on topside of rod.
• Baitfish - Small fish often eaten by predators.
• Bar - Long ridge in a body of water.
• Basic Needs - Refers to the three survival requirements of fish: reproduction, security, and food.
• Bay - Major indentation in the shoreline of a lake or reservoir.
• Benthic - Occurring at or near the bottom of a body of water.
• Biology - The study of living things.
• Biomass - The aggregate amount of living matter or a specific species within a specific habitat. The total number of a specific species in a specific habitat.
• Black Bass - Term used to describe several types of bass; the most common being smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass.
• Blank - The main component of a finished fishing rod, minus the guides and handle.
• Blue Bird Skies - A term used to describe bright, sunny, blue sky conditions that often makes fishing tougher.
• Brackish - Water of intermediate salinity between seawater and freshwater.
• Break - Distinct variation in otherwise constant stretches of cover, structure, or bottom type.
• Breakline - A line of abrupt change in depth, bottom type, or water clarity in the feature of otherwise uniform structure.
• Brushline - The inside or the outside edge of a stretch of brush.
• Bucketmouth - Largemouth Bass - A black bass, body green-shaded with a broad, continuous dark stripe along each side, belly white to yellowish, dorsal fin almost completely separated between spiny and soft portion and lower jaw extends past the gold-colored eye. Also called bigmouth bass, green trout, green bass.
• Bullet Sinker - A cone shaped piece of lead, zinc or steel of varying weights that slides up and down the line.
• Buzzbait - An artificial lure with propeller-style blades that stirs up the water surface upon retrieve; a type of topwater lure.
• Buzzing - Retrieving spinnerbaits or buzzbaits along the surface so they splash water.