fish story

a fish story

A big lie. The phrase alludes to the tendency of fishermen to exaggerate the size of the fish they've caught or lost out on. I'm sure Grandpa is just telling you a fish story—there's no way all of that's true!
See also: fish, story
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

fish story

 and fish tale
Fig. a great big lie. (Like a fisherman who exaggerates the size of the fish that got away.) That's just a fish story. Don't try to fool me. He's a master at the fish tale. Maybe he should be a politician.
See also: fish, story
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

fish story

An improbable, boastful tale, as in He came up with some fish story about his winnings at the track. This expression alludes to the tendency of fishermen to exaggerate the size of their catch. [Early 1800s]
See also: fish, story
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

fish story

and fish tale
n. a great big lie. (Like the fisherman who exaggerates the size of the fish that got away.) All we got was a fish story about his luck with the girls. What a liar! He’s a master at the fish tale. Maybe he should be a politician.
See also: fish, story
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

fish story, a

A tall tale. This term alludes to the tendency of sports fishermen (and women) to exaggerate the size of their catch, and originated in America in the early nineteenth century. It may have been invented by the journalist who described an event he termed “a fish story,” the appearance of shoals of whitefish in such large numbers that they choked a channel and prevented a steamboat from passing (St. Louis Enquirer, Dec. 8, 1819).
See also: fish
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • a fish story
  • a fish tale
  • be pushing up (the) daisies
  • be pushing up daisies
  • be pushing up the daisies
  • answer the bell
  • be straining at the leash
  • Abraham
  • Abraham's bosom
  • be as safe as houses
References in periodicals archive
Among the wineries he's worked with are Saintsbury and Emilio's Terrace, and the restaurants include Fish Story. For now, he's focusing on the West Coast due to logistics issues like returning the kegs, but he's looking into a recyclable (not reusable) keg for the eastern markets.
Rolling out the kegs: restaurants increasingly tap advantages while working out bugs
Positing a secret history created by an elaborate, accidental network of geeks, losers, bad musicians, and fanboys working independently across three decades, Fish Story proclaims that there's no way to tell which one of us will save the world, because all of us will.
From Nuclear Nightmare to Networked Nirvana: Futuristic Utopianism in Japanese SF Films of the 2000s: a critic and fan of Asian film, Grady Hendrix founded and codirects the New York Asian Film Festival in this piece, he shines light on a movie category familiar to most only through the Godzilla movies
Speaking about the beach, I have a great "fish story"!
"Fuggedaboudit"
In Striper Wars: An American Fish Story (Island Press, $26.95), Russell goes back to 1964, and little-noticed plans to build a Hudson River hydroelectric plant, which just coincidentally, would have decimated a huge striped bass hatchery.
Saving stripers
Another artist who has consistently worked against this lack of representation is Allan Sekula; see, among other projects, his Fish Story (1990-94).
Vision quest: the cinema of Harun Farocki
-- Costco's famous fish story is not about one that got away.
Salmon tells the Costco story
I think the fish story is so important I use it in my classroom every year.
Helping our students believe in themselves
FISH STORY While some scientists focus on water conditions after dam removals, others look to the fish in the river.
Tales of the undammed: removing barriers doesn't automatically restore river health
The other domestic nominees were Henry's World: Darwin for a Day (AAC Kids/Loonland U.K.) and Ludovic: Visiting Grandparents (NFB) in the Animated Programs category; The Circus is in Town: 50 Years of Hockey Night in Canada (CBC), The Hockey Nomad (Mercury Films/House of Fire Productions in association with CBC) and Nos Amours: The Saga of the Montreal Expos (Adobe Productions) in the Sports category; Claude Futra: An Unfinished Story (Production Docu 2 /Fox-Fire Films/NFB) in Arts Documentaries; Not a Fish Story (Avalanche films/Indio Pictures) in Short Drama; and 100 Days in the Fungle (Imagination Films and Television Production/Sextant Entertainment in association with CTV) in the made-for-television movies category.
Banff Television Festival (6/8-13/03)
You can educate them by telling the whole fish story in weekly advertisements.
Would you buy a flounder fillet from this man?: By thinking more like car salesmen and asking shoppers questions, seafood staff can sell more product. (Supermarket Fresh Food Business)
The unit contains seven lessons (using seven poems): (1) "Fish Story"; (2) "A House of Readers"; (3) "Skydivers"; (4) "Winter Days"; (5) "The Brier Breathing"; (6) "The Brier Losing Touch with His Traditions"; and (7) "The Trade." Lessons in the unit contain a procedure for the teacher to follow and extension activities.
Teaching Selected Poems from Jim Wayne Miller's "The Brier Poems."
"Another Fish Story" by Joan Bond (October 1998) received an honourable mention in Poetry for its "imaginative retelling of the Jonah story, carefully crafted in earthy, specific images."
(Presbyterian) Record receives four CCP awards
By the time the Latin poet Hyginus was documenting sky lore in the second century A.D., he had to include a fish story for Pisces.
Starry fish in the firmament
There are narratives that are extended jokes, a story about being in love with a dog named Beatrice, numbered narratives, a fiction modeled after a card game, et fiction based on a recipe, epistolary fiction, a fiction based on permutations of a philosophical statement, short brittle pieces that seem to be extensions of Lish's novels, terse little short shorts (such as the very fine "Konkluding Labor of Herkules"), a fish story, and a story in a subway, just to name a few.
Self-Imitation of Myself
(16) A Wild Fish Story: They Shoulda Missed the Boat; Status Report on the 1995 Outmigration of Idaho's Wild Salmon, in Idaho Rivers United at i, ii (1995) [hereinafter A Wild Fish Story].
1995 river operations under the Endangered Species Act: continuing the salmon slaughter