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| hello
for now i have 0 failure after 10 fish on the dawg.and to be honest i think 2 was already saved,just because the barbs was pinched down.
for now if i keep tension on them i cant find a way to lose them |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Barbless is the only way to go. I've been fishing barbless flies for better than 10 years and haven't lost a fish I can attribute to debarbing.
As for stories, I caught a 44 just last week that apparently sideswiped the bait, and had the bait outside her mouth, but the front hook buried to the split ring in her mouth. She had one point in the roof of her mouth, and one in her jaw, so it locked her jaw shut and I couldn't get it out. So I cut the split ring, and was able to reach in the back of her gills with my fingertips and pull the hook out backwards through her gills plate. She had both points to the bend, so with barbs it would have involved pliers, and a mess. Barbless hooks, I think saved her life because I was able to get her back in the water in a couple of minutes with no blood.
Skinny, but made fishing in crappy weather worth it. |
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Posts: 292
Location: SW MI | I've only caught one fish since grinding off my barbs and there was no problem. Fish made it to the net and the hooks were out in no time. The effort also paid off the other day when I snagged a bouy line trolling and was able to get my lure back without any work because the barbs were gone. IMO if you keep good tension on, the fish shouldn't get off. |
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Posts: 8781
| Been on the fence about going barbless for quite some time... More and more I think there's a time and a place for it. Night fishing for example. Maybe its because baits are moving slower, or maybe they feed differently when they can't see what they are eating, but fish just seem to completely inhale baits at night. Now its dark, you're farting around with a headlamp or cats eyes or whatever and you've got all three trebles buried in the fishes mouth. I hate to have a specific set of lures for night fishing, but that's one time when I think barbless hooks are needed.
Certain lures I wouldn't bother with -- single hook spinnerbaits for example, reef hawgs, lures where they can do that "death roll" and twist the hooks free anyway... But more and more I think losing a fish here and there might just be worth the ease of being able to unhook them, get them back in the wayter, and get back to fishing. Might also help the ones where you have one hook through the top lip and one through the bottom jaw, basically pinning their mouth shut.
I'll cut hooks in that situation like anyone else, but hooks aren't exactly cheap, and carrying every size hook, short shank, wide gap, etc? Gets to be a drag. |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Barbs are a false sense of security. Most people aren't aware that barbs were originally put on hooks to hold bait on....not the fish. I've not fished a barbed hook in years and have plenty of fish in the boat to show for it. Fly, deep saltwater, muskies, trout, even an octopus. (Yeah, really, an octopus.) |
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Posts: 8781
| esoxfly - 10/17/2009 1:42 PM
Barbs are a false sense of security. Most people aren't aware that barbs were originally put on hooks to hold bait on....not the fish. I've not fished a barbed hook in years and have plenty of fish in the boat to show for it. Fly, deep saltwater, muskies, trout, even an octopus. (Yeah, really, an octopus.)
Must have been using those Octopus hooks, eh? 
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | LOL! Nah, just a tandem Mustad 34007. Danged octopus will grab onto anything and make a mess of your terminal tackle. |
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | ever since i began muskie fishing i have been using barbless hooks. It really helps the get fish unhooked easily and ensure a safe release. I also want the lures to be barbless in case some how a hook finds its way into my flesh. i figure it will be much less of a problem and hopefully will come out easy. i have seen and witnessed first hand, trips ruined because of getting hooks bad by a treble. |
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Posts: 305
| have yet to go totally barbless w/ muskies, but probably should...on our pike trips with high catch rates we rarely lose fish up to high 20 lb mark. one thing that makes me hesitant is muskies jump more than pike. a buddy had a huge LOTW musky throw his big toph2o on a jump. so on big heavy lures that might allow leverage with head shakes i might keep em barbed. |
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