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Posts: 3
Location: Oconomowoc, WI | How do you feel about barbless hooks? I'm not for it but some people are. |
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Posts: 376
Location: Cudahy, Wisconsin | I dont think barbs make a difference. |
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Posts: 199
Location: Anchorage | Definitely a different situation, but after fishing the early and barbless only trout season here in WI for years with no problems, I decided to bend down the barbs on everything but my trolling baits. |
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Posts: 714
Location: Rhinelander, WI | I will probably get flamed for this but what the heck. If pinching the barbs down on my hooks would account for one extra lost fish a year I won’t do it. That one fish could be the fish of a life time. With a good hook cutter, I don’t see barbless hooks saving any fish that would otherwise dye, so I don’t really see the need for it.
Just my opinion, at this time, all things can change with enough information.
Nail A Pig!
Mike
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Posts: 440
| I have been pinching down barbs for about two years now. The benifits showed last year when the dog jumped off the front deck and hooked herself to a Ernie. I just sat her down and pulled it out. Had the barbs been up I would have been headed for the vet and had a nice bill to pay. Which is exactly what happened to the people I was going to help when my dog had her accident. I haven't been hooked myself but I feel a lot more confident reaching in the net knowing I can be unhooked in a matter of seconds on the water. Just read Jack Burns article in Esox Angler, seems they boated an extra fish one day due to the human benifits of pinched barbs. |
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Posts: 199
Location: Anchorage | Mike, why would you think you'd take heat for not using barbless hooks. Most of us who are using barbless hooks are only experimenting with them since there's not much proof one way or another. Besides most people on this board and in the muskie world in general use barbed hooks.
Elwood |
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| I would have lost both hands or had major damage if I was not barbless last fall.
I was barbless for most of last season. Didn't make a bit of difference my numbers were the same.
Dan |
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Posts: 714
Location: Rhinelander, WI | Woody, I put that comment because in this political world we live in I foresee the possibility that barb vs. barbless could be the next contrived battle field. I probably overreacted, but I just got done reading the Esox Angler Editorial the night before.
I am sure there are pluses and minuses to both sides, I just don’t see the need to go barbless right now. Dan’s experience is probably the number one reason it may be a good idea.
Nail A Pig!
Mike
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Posts: 359
Location: In the slop! | MRoberts, I made the switch to barbless in 1998 for my safety. The fact that the fish release so easily is a nice side effect though. Barbless hooks really are a good thing, after a while, you don't miss them at all, in fact barbed hooks seem to be a real pain. One snagged in your clothes, carpet, or whatever if barbless would come right out. |
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Posts: 2
| 3 things will change by going barbless:
1) LANDING
You can't give fish slack line when going barbless, you'll have to fight it like you were meant to...keeping contact with the fish at all times and keeping it's head down when it comes up. To me this increases the "sportiness" of this sport. If you lose a fish going barbless, then maybe you should refine your landing methods. With up to nine hook points on given lures, you've got to be kidding me if you think barbless caused a lost fish.
2) HOOKSET
Because you've narrowed the taper of the hook you will get better and deeper hooksets, especially in tough parts of the mouth.
3) SAFETY
To you: Sliding bigass trebles out of your arm (or your partners) is much less painful than the alternatives posed by barbs.
To your property: As said previously, you'll end up with less gashes in your clothing, boat, and nets, etc.b y having to cut-out the hook
To the fish: Ever break off on a fish and get that heart-sinking feeling of leaving a 9" suick in fish's mouth? You'll be much more at ease if you've de-barbed the lure. And removing the hooks easily from a fish before release....priceless.
I have trout fished barbless for many years, and removed many of these hooks out of my skin and clothing. I have never lost a fish due to barbless, even 20+" trout on raging rivers on size 24 barbless midges and 6x tippet. I now fish barbless no matter what species I'm after. The safety issue is my ultimate reason. That combined with the results of my informal testing makes it a no brainer. I've never lost a muskie or pike on single or treble barbless hooks (nor smallies, wiper, largemouth, walleye, etc).
One story I'd like to share is one from three years ago. Myself and a group of friends spent a week together on a shield lake fly-in hunting muskie. At the beginning of this trip I shared my feelings on barbless and encouraged everyone else to do so. One guy was in-particular antagonistic. On the 4th day his partner hooked a muskie while he was switching baits. His Hawg Wobbler laid on the bench of the small boat. Reaching for the net he kneeeled on the treble and engorged it in his shin. To make matters worse, the other set of trebles hooked into the bench. Determined to help his partner he made a heroic effort to net the fish, all the while burying the hook deeper and deeper into his shin. Afterwards, he cut the hook off and left a short section protruding from the skin. We analyzed it and determined we would only make matters worse by performing amateur surgery to get it out. The hook was straight-in, meaning we could not push it through by curving it back towards the skin. He had to leave the hook in his shin for the rest of the trip and the 14 hour ride home to his doctor, where they were more than pleased we did not try to cut the hook out ourselves. Painful (and dangerous) way to spend a trip.
Did this change his mind? No. He still fishes barbed, convinced that he never wants to lose a muskie (if he ever hooks one)
Protecting yourself, your friends, the fish, and your gear and at the same time improving your hookset ability is enough to convince me and hopefully others that going barbless is about as common-sense as you can get.
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Posts: 26
Location: Chanhassen, MN | I've only tried barbless on a couple of lures, and will propably bend down a few more. I sure gets a little harry when you probe yourself. Thank God for a good cutter.
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| I started fishing 100% barbed last year. I determined that losing a fishing was worth saving other fish and it was better to "check my ego at the door".
Why Barbless...
1. As mentioned before, its safer for everyone in the boat. If you have never been hooked before then its a matter of time!
2. After catching smaller fish with big Muskie lures it just does them NO GOOD when there are barbs. We have caught hundreds of Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, and pike and these barbs can just rip them up no matter how careful you are.
3. Releasing a muskie is much easier and the damage to his mouth is much less when you pinch the barbs down. I am not talking about just the hook removal part (since many of us cut hooks), but when the fish gets hooked and you fight the fish there is much less damage when you get him in the net because there is no HUGE barb to rip on his mouth/eyes/gills, etc. |
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| please dont make fun of me, but by going "barbless" are you buying hooks without barbs and replacing your old hooks? or, do you use a file to file off the barbs off existing hooks? or do you use pliers to just bend down the barbs so they are even or smooth with the rest of the hook?
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Posts: 440
| I have been using channel lock pliars and just smashing the barbs down tight. |
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| I just use my needle nose plaiers and pinch them down. Simple to do. |
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