THE
LAST CAST
bass fishing
according to
darold gleason
SAY WHAT?
GLEASONISMS
OCEAN PONY: A giant bass.
A donkey, pig or toad.
In Gleason’s words: “Down here in Toledo
Bend country where I’m from, you’re talking
a 7-plus-pounder, and usually we don’t
break it out unless it’s a 9- or 10-pounder.
Depending on where you’re fishing at, let’s
say, for instance, I’m at Dardanelle later this
year, and I catch a 6-pounder, I’m going to
call it an ocean pony.”
A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE TACKLE
WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT ROOKIE’S
COLORFUL ON-THE-WATER LINGO
By Justin Onslow
D
arold Gleason (noun): A differ-
ent cat. A guy you can’t help
but root for. A friend you just
haven’t met yet.
Gleason is a Tackle Warehouse Pro
Circuit rookie with a personality bigger
than his home body of water. He’s a
guide on Toledo Bend, a former teacher,
a husband and a joker. A few minutes
talking with Gleason – or just watching
him on FLW Live – and you’ll notice a
guy who just has fun catching fish.
“I compete better by acting like a
fool and having a good time and not
letting the stresses come to the fore-
front,” he says of his devil-may-care
personality on the water. “It helps me
concentrate.”
The fun Gleason has always had on
the water has produced some colorful
vernacular that has seeped into his
everyday fishing terminology. If you
watched him on FLW Live at Sam
Rayburn, you were probably exposed
to some terms you’ve never heard
before – because they’re unique to
Gleason’s own bass fishing dictionary.
MINI OCEAN PONY: An ocean
pony-in-training.
In Gleason’s words: “Down here, that’s a
4- or 5-pounder. It’s a good one.”
PICKLES: Run-of-the-mill,
cookie-cutter small keepers.
In Gleason’s words: “A bunch of 15-inch
fish. I call them pickles because they’re
about the size of a dill pickle.”
OONICORN: Alternately, unicorn.
A special fish.
In Gleason’s words: “A unicorn is kind of
like a last Hail Mary great big fish. That one
special fish that comes at a time that you
don’t expect it. My niece says ‘oonicorns’
instead of ‘unicorns.’ That’s something I’ve
called my wife through the years. I call her a
unicorn, because there’s no other like her.”
REEF DONKEY: A specific type of
ocean pony.
In Gleason’s words: “One of my buddies
started calling them that when you catch a
big one offshore.”
DREAM CRUSHER: Another specific
type of ocean pony, but in a sad way.
“PUT THE BUNNY IN THE BOX!”
When Gleason is amped after an important catch, it’s common to hear him shout the above expression
with gusto. At first glance, it’s an odd expression with very little context, but it makes a whole lot more sense
when you understand its inception.
“I’m a Con Air fan. That’s exactly where it came from. It’s one of my favorite old movies,” Gleason says. “My
father-in-law has a camp house on Toledo Bend. That was kind of where the guys would all hang out for the
weekend. We usually didn’t have great choices for what we watched on TV. One of those Friday nights, old
classic Con Air comes on, and it was just born.
“The next day when I was fishing a tournament doing good, I couldn’t even tell you who was fishing with
me that day, I just know that we caught a good one, and I turned and looked at him and said, ‘Put the bunny
in the box,’ and it just stuck. It was horrible how Nicolas Cage’s accent was in that movie, and so that, for an
old Southern redneck, just stuck.”
Gleason is smart enough to know how to capitalize on a good opportunity, too. He’s selling “#oceanpony”
and “Put the bunny in the box” T-shirts on his website, gleasonfishingcourses.com.
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In Gleason’s words: “The big one that got
away, or the big one you’re looking at on a
bed that won’t play.”
DOUBLE-SPLASH RIG: A Carolina rig.
FIVE-SPLASH RIG: An umbrella rig.
SNUGGLE STRUGGLE: A grind.
In Gleason’s words: “That comes from
watching MMA with buddies: when those
guys just kind of grapple and roll around
for the whole fight and it looks like a snug-
gle struggle. That’s what we call it when
the fishing’s a grind.”
FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | APRIL-MAY 2020