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Posts: 1134
Location: Minnesota. | A bit new to the forum so apologies if this has already been hashed to death.
I come from a fly fishing background but have fished muskies with typical tackle before I ever began flyfishing.
I debarb all my fly hooks, from trout to panfish to bass, pike and muskies. I've come to do the same with trebles (only trebles) on muskie gear.
Is this any kind of accepted amongst muskie anglers? Of the guys I've seen at Lk. Vermilion over the past 20 yrs only a few have done this.
I've not experienced a loss of fish (pike, muskies) as a result ... well, not any more than usual.
It's those da_n hooks that bother me - for myself - as well as having to wrestle them out of a jawbone. Barbless is so simple!
Just curious. I've just bought a lot of new and expensive baits (garage/house fire....nevermind!) and here I sit with the pliers, wondering...
Thanks.
Jeremy. |
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Posts: 210
| Jeremy - I used to be barbless. Fish unhook easy. So did I, twice! Nowadays I have barbs, longer tools and good hook cutters. Still manage to lose a few each year. I think over all, there is little difference in loss rate barbs vs barbless. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | I am all barbless. I just can't see the need for them, to be honest. I'm sure I'll eventually lose fish because of it, but as I fish alone a lot, it seems like a small trade-off in that sense. It's MUCH faster to unhook a fish when there are no barbs. If the fish engulfs the lure, it can take a long time to cut the hooks. Been there, done that...got the video. I once caught a 48-49" foul-hooked fish with one barbless hook into it's shoulder, and we landed it. Granted the water temps were around 40 so it wasn't like a Summer bite--but the fish still fought quite a bit.
To each their own I suppose, but I prefer barbless.
TB
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | No...Don't see any advantages to going barbless. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Here are some references for people to review. While these aren't musky-specific necessarily, the same concepts apply to all species for the most part--especially when the fish get larger, and harder to handle during the release.
http://www.asf.ca/docs/pages/Barbless-review.pdf
http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/65/6/899.full
http://www3.carleton.ca/fecpl/pdfs/Bartholomew%20Review.pdf
The last thing I'll say is that, the last I read, British Columbia and Manitoba both require barbless hooks be used for all catch & release fishing. I am not sure if that has changed or not, but I don't believe it has.
I would encourage folks to simply through read some of the references and formulate their own opinion.
TB
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Posts: 245
| I fish 90% barbless, when live baiting we europeans use smaller (but 4x strong) hooks so i use barbs when live baiting (also i mostly fish through the ice and the hook can get stuck in the ice just before landing and the barbs make it a bit more safe).
On spinnerbaits i also keep the barbs since i lost a lot of fish when i debarbed my spinnerbaits.
On jerkbaits, tailbaits, topwater, crankbaits and rubber i fish barbless and i barely every loose a fish. |
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Posts: 100
| Interesting read on the articles, although I just perused them. There are definitely some contradictory findings from the research, especially in terms of size of hooks.
As far as going barbless, I think it is a personal choice. I can see how if a Musky is foul hooked, going barbless would make the release much easier. Otherwise I do not see a huge advantage. I do my fishing from a boat with a partner and with proper release tools. Most of the time we try to water release a fish, or land it in a cradle. I do not use a net very often unless the fish is very large, or very agitated.
I think the major issue with mortality (besides the length of the fight) is the amount of time that the fish spends out of the water. Using a cradle decreases this time. I also find that cutting hooks, as has been stated numerous times, is something that must be done, but done quickly. Using barbless hooks in my mind would decrease the amount of hooks that you would have to cut, but not release time, provided you have a good set of hook cutters and don't spend time debating whether you should cut the hooks.
I use barbed hooks. I always have, unless regulations specifically require hooks to be barbless. |
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Posts: 1360
Location: Lake "y" cause lake"x" got over fished | For you barb less guys? I use barbed hooks but have been thinking about changing a few of my hooks (not all) to barb less. Do you think it would work just as well if I bent the barbs closer to the hook itself? Or would that not matter so much? My fear would be of losing fish... I know some of you guys said you have no issues losing fish... I guess it is just fear of the unknown I suppose... |
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Posts: 1134
Location: Minnesota. | Thanks to all who replied. It's been helpful.
I maybe should have included in the orig. post that by "barbless" I did mean to take a pliers and crunch down that barb as opposed to buying actual barbless hooks.
On some brands of hooks they mush down, others they tend to snap off. Either way for my likes I think it makes the release easier as you don't have to wrestle the hook out of the mouth etc. And I'm also concerned about my carcass since I like to fish alone a good bit of the time.
And FatSki, nope I don't find it's made me lose more fish. This is with every species.
Thanks to all who replied. It's appreciated.
Have a great and SAFE season out there boys...
Jeremy.
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| I use barbs on most baits.
The hook that has seemed to kill or cause the most damage is usually the middle and sometimes the rear hook on bigger crank baits when a smaller ski hits them. The barb gets stuck on the outside of the fish around the Gill plate and can get buried into the flesh. Sometimes I pinch those barbs down for that reason.
Other than that I have pliers, jaw spreaders, and multiple hook cutters scattered onboard the boat at all times. Hooks are cheap. Cut them often. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | I think the main emphasis on using a barbless hook, is simply to decrease the time spent releasing the fish. If a person is very skilled at handling a big fish and cutting hooks with the fish still in the water, then by all means...use what you are comfortable with. If it's legal to use barbed hooks where you fish, then it's absolutely your right to do so. Period.
After fishing alone many times on Green Bay, however, I have come to the conclusion that barbless works best for me. It's absolutely the quickest way that I've personally found to release the fish. We've had numerous discussions here with the DNR and many concerned anglers, in terms of what we can do to reduce morbidity and mortality for the muskies in this fishery. One of the things I would like to do here is design a research project, get some volunteers of varying skill levels and have them compare the time it takes them to release fish using both barbed and barbless hooks. I would also like to keep track of lost vs caught fish, as my experience as an angler and in talking to several other anglers (who use barbless hooks), is that there aren't many fish lost due to barbless hooks.
Hmm, this is giving me an idea...
TB |
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Posts: 245
| The main reason i fish barbless is because when i get small 1-4lb pike they are often hooked through a gill raker and there is just not enough room to fit a Knipex Bolt cutter in there to cut the hook, so i just grab the hook with my pliers and turn it while the fish is still in the water. When i get the chance im buying a small Knipex cutter (i only use hooks up to 4/0 often so i don't need a super heavy cutter). |
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