honey hole

[George Thompson]

This is in DARE, with a single secondhand quotation.  Not in OED.

In an article on fly-fishing from the NYTimes, September 16, 2010, section b, p 22, col. 5, about a fishing technique used in Japan.

"Some say it is a modern version of old-fashioned cane pole fishing in which the angler uses a long bamboo rod to plop worms into a honey hole."

The meaning can be guessed at from the context, but I was surprised that a word that's so uncommon would be used in the Times without definition.  I suppose that it's not uncommon among James Cord's buddies, but that's what copy-editors are for.

I don't ordinarily read the fishing news in the Times.  Maybe "honey hole" appears in the Times a couple of times a month?  Still. . . .

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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