Named after a beehive for its honey, honey hole (or honeyhole) is slang for a location that yields a valued commodity or resource. Though one may hear the word honey hole and think that it relates to an actual hole in some foreign location, more often than not there is no hole involved at all. A local landmark or road near a honey hole may have "Honey Hole" in its nameSee Nescopeck State Park in Pennsylvania, USA and Todmorden Unitarian Church in West Yorkshire, England or as a nickname for a muddy spot.John Eric Bruce Gover, Allen Mawer, Frank Merry Stenton, Survey of English Place-Names: The Place-Names of Nottinghamshire, Volume 17, English Place-Name Society, Cambridge University Press, 1940, p.299 (retrieved 29 August 2010 from Google Books)
Uses
Fishing In fishing, a honey hole could be a particular spot in a body of water (or used as a general term for the entire body of water)Is the legislature for sale?, Texas Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 2, Feb 1991, p.121 (retrieved 29 August 2010 from Google Books) where conditions are ideal for catching fish.Bignami, Louis V., Complete Anglers Library: Stories Behind Record Fish, North American Fishing Club, 1991, p.140 (retrieved 29 August 2010 from Google Books) Such a spot could be the leading edge of a hump, a depression, or a bend in the channel.Summerlin, Vernon, Two Dozen Fishin' Holes: A Guide to Middle Tennessee, Rutledge Hill Press, 1992, p.135, (retrieved 29 August 2010 from Google Books)
Hunting In deer hunting, a honey hole is a place where the buck will be safe from the hunter and where the hunter rarely thinks of looking for a buck;Phillips, John E., Science of Deer Hunting, Larsen's Outdoor Publishing, 1992, p.20, (retrieved 29 August 2010 from Google Books) such a place could be an "acorn tree surrounded by a briar thicket or a tree on the edge of a patch of cane near a river or creek bank".Phillips, p.95
Popular culture American Pickers, a documentary reality television series where the stars often refer to some "picks" as honey holes because of the amount of amazing objects they contain.Picker Lingo, video on history.com (retrieved 29 August 2010)
References