Posts: 28
Location: Pacific Northwest | I've been pinching and/or filing barbs on pike and musky baits for a few years, but have never gone "flat", zero barb. On baits with treble hooks, I started off pinching one, then went to two.
I just started fishing from a kayak (don't own a powered boat) and that presents some serious challenges. Back in mid-May, on my first trip to a trophy fishery for tiger musky, I had a scary boat-side ordeal with a decent low 40s fish. It hit an 8 inch glide bait with sticky-sharp 3x strong VMC trebles. None of the barbs had been pinched or filed down. The front treble was in the mouth, near the tip of the upper jaw. The rear treble was outside the mouth, hooked in the thick muscle at the throat-latch. Once I had her boat-side, I had to use the stiffness of the rod to keep her from potentially landing on an arm, leg, hand, or-----IN MY LAP! She settled down long enough for me to pop the hooks free. When I got home that evening, I started mashing and filing barbs on more baits, usually leaving a small "bump". On a few baits, I've left a slightly larger "bump" on one of the 3 prongs. Just over a week ago, I fished another lake for the first time and caught a nice mid-40s tiger on a different 8" glide bait. This one comes with 3 sets of trebles, so I'd removed the middle treble (thank God!) and had pinched / filed the remaining barbs as previously described. This time I was able to hold her by the throat-latch and get her unbuttoned more quickly. HOWEVER, on my first attempt she jumped and one prong from the rear treble punched through the port-side adjustment strap for my seat. Waaaay to close. As luck would have it, the prong that caught the strap had the slightly larger "bump". I had to mash it flatter just to back the hook out of the strap.
Change is afoot. I'm not ready to go completely "flat" barbless, but I'm reducing all barbs to a small "bump". A good fish handling glove is in order, too. Ultimately, I have to develop a system for transporting a large landing net. |
