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Posts: 127
Location: SUN PRAIRIE WI | I have seen this mentioned A little bit on here but I am trying to decide do I want to debarb or not I fish by myself alot and it sure be nice to unhook the fish easier but I dont want to make it easier for the fish to unhook himself.I know some of you have debarbed so has it made any difference in the amount of fish you lose. |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | I've always fished barbed until I started fishing conventional gear. I first debarbed all of my big conventional treble hooks, but I was still having to cut hooks and getting them buried every which way and making a mess. I started allowing some barbed hooks into my bait box and the results were largely the same, both for hook up percentage and releaseability so I just got lazy and stopped debarbing.
And in that same breath, I've pretty much stopped casting conventional gear and am back to 100% fly, and I debarb my fly hooks for whatever reason. I think it's because a fly hook isn't as robust as a 3551 and I can't herk on it with a dehooker. I like to be able to remove fly hooks by hand hand and not have to do surgery. |
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Posts: 299
| Not. I don't get out muskie fishing enough to take those risks. It's hard enough keeping them pinned with barbs. |
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Location: Eau Claire,WI | I fish by myself too. If you take your time and leave the fish in the net it isn't a big deal.Have your release tools handy,net extended and untangled. Be smart about what you are doing and you should be fine... |
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Location: Hayward WI | I've fished at a private lake where barbless is required. I have lost fish that I'm sure is due to barbless, but on that lake I don't care. Would I choose to go barbless on a. "trophy" lake no. If you do, be prepared to loose a fish or 2, try to limit slack line and lost fish should be lower.
Edited by erico 2/28/2013 7:05 PM
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Posts: 3156
| It depends on how precious Fish pictures are to you,,,Id just has soon every muskie I hook throw the hooks at the side of the boat after I get a good fight out of them Id has soon not mess with unhooking them,,better hook penetration but I think you will also loose a few more especially with heavy solid chunky lures like vipers,hughes rivers,jerkos,etc where when they get shaking their head the weight of a small chunky lure will be easy to shake loose on a jump |
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| I pinch the barbs when they are really biting good to where they are engulfing the lure. It makes the unhooking process much easier and allows for better releases. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | I debarb most of the baits I use exclusively for night fishing. All it takes is 1 time getting stuck to a fish for you to start taking some precautions. |
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Posts: 440
| I figure pinching barbs down has saved me somewhere between$400-$500. One time it was hooks in a dog on a Sunday and another time was me on a Saturday. Vet bill on a Sunday would probably have been more than mine....funny world we live in. |
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | I think one should de-barb hooks especially if one has a tendency to sit on your lures. I hate it when I have to go to the emergency room to get a hook removed. That is when one really needs clean underwear.  |
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Posts: 619
| I like to De barb... makes things much easier when u start having badly hooked fish.. would rather lose a fish than kill a fish if i had a choice |
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Posts: 153
| I have been barbless for about 10 years and really feel it doesn't hurt my success rate. I did have one day this past fall where I did return to the barbed hooks. I lost several large fish trolling. Who knows as to why I lost these ones, but it made me wonder. I didn't end up catching any others, but oh well. A good friend said I lost those ones due to no barbs.
One comment: About 8 years ago while trolling with Jack Burns I got handcuffed to a 52 incher (we were 32 miles from his dock). Each hand had the front hooks of a 10" Jake imbedded with the rear in the fish (fish was in the net at boatside). Not fun. Jack got the fish off and we extracted the hooks from my hands. If I wasn't barbless I was going to the Baudette Hospital. 10 minutes later I caught a 53 in the same spot.
Dan |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | NO, Keep what the Manufacture has made. Fish are stupid and don't feel pain.... If you hook yourself use your pocket knife to unhook yourself........How did you manage to Hook yourself anyway ??? Sheeeesh....
Edited by Top H2O 3/1/2013 10:12 PM
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Posts: 2373
Location: Chisholm, MN | I'm surprised at how many do go barbless. You won't find me out there without barbs. |
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Posts: 91
Location: Central Wisconsin | Unless you have to go barbless by law I don't see why you would. Unless you're bucher or mesikomer and fishing Canada for 3 weeks at a time most guys would prefer not to lose the fish they do hook up with because of no barbs. If you get hooked some how that's a risk worth taking(being smart and taking your time should prevent most chances of that). If your worried about hurting the fish as stated before on here don't fish for them get a pontoon and leave more for me haha. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | If you handle enough fish you WILL get stuck at some point (pardon the pun). Jerome, using a pocket knife to get it out is fine (I've got a great story about that), but if you're by yourself it's gonna be pretty tough, especially doing it in a way that doesn't inflict more damage then you did with the initial hook wound.
I've found that my hook-up % is a little better without the barbs as well. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI |
How ? The fish thrashed while I was unhooking it.
Unhook with a pocket knife ? Yeah, right... Thank heavens for knipex.
Top H2O - 3/1/2013 10:11 PM
NO, Keep what the Manufacture has made. Fish are stupid and don't feel pain.... If you hook yourself use your pocket knife to unhook yourself........How did you manage to Hook yourself anyway ??? Sheeeesh....
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| I have pinched barbs down for about the last 15 years and have not noticed any difference in fish caught/lost, just makes it much easier once they are in the net and I fish alone quite a bit. BR |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Dfkill,
I've used a really sharp pocket knife to open up the skin and get the barb out while fishing alone a few yrs. back.
Of course you use hook cutters to cut the hook. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI |
Fair enough, but at the time I wasn't thinking about using my knife to perform minor surgery to get the eagle claw 774 out of my hand !
Top H2O - 3/2/2013 10:47 AM
Dfkill,
I've used a really sharp pocket knife to open up the skin and get the barb out while fishing alone a few yrs. back. |
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Posts: 568
Location: Lake St Clair | Im way too much of a baby to open my skin with a knife.
I now bend most of my barbs in because of this.
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c125/mastical/628972EA-019B-41F9-...
Edited by mastical 3/2/2013 11:08 AM
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Posts: 70
| i live on the water in ont, i get to fish whenevr i want. that said i fish barbless, have been for 8+ yrs for walleye and muskie. whenever i lose a fish my barbed peers tell me it's because i'm barbless,but whenever they lose a fish it was fouled hook. i'm repeatedly told that barbless people lose fish due to the lack of barbs but we never foul hook the fish. and barbed people lose fish due the foul hook syndrym.
also i have been hooked with 7/0 hooks with the fish still attached ( i do not like to net fish if posible) it was a quick release for me and the fish.
since i have gone barbless my stats indicate NO INCREASE IN LOST FISH , but no decrease either. even tho i'm barbless i still have to cut hooks, appox 5 times last yr alone. any one will lose a fish if you have slack line,
i don't preach barbless at muskies canada meetings but i have converted a few when we fish together and they see the results ( landed fish)
please note
i do not file my barbs , i only pinch them off making me not a true barbless fisherman
i'm happy to see a few people are barbless and would like to know if their lost ratio increased or decreased. great topic |
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Posts: 70
| another thing , there is not a person i know or don't know who will be able to grab a knife or pliers or whatever to remove a hook out of a personal body part with an angry 45+ inch fish still attached, if it happen once, it's once too many.
i know a few will comment to be more carefull but fish don't speak english, they just get angryer .
been there done that |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Barbless here as well. I personally see nothing good about barbs, especially where BIG fish and rough water is involved. Try unhooking a 52-55" fish in 2-3' waves, when all hooks have barbs. It ain't easy, and it's hard on the fish.
I've long said that there needs to be a study looking at handling time comparisons and visible injury to the fish, with barbed vs barbless hooks. I even volunteered to spearhead something like that here in Green Bay a few years back, but there really wasn't much interest at all--not from anglers, and not from the biologists. Apparently it's not an issue that people really want to find out more about, but ironically it is the one thing (besides incessant post-catch photography) that has the greatest potential for reducing angling-induced morbidity and mortality.
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Posts: 153
| I have been barbless for about 10 years and really feel it doesn't hurt my success rate. I did have one day this past fall where I did return to the barbed hooks. I lost several large fish trolling. Who knows as to why I lost these ones, but it made me wonder. I didn't end up catching any others, but oh well. A good friend said I lost those ones due to no barbs.
One comment: About 8 years ago while trolling with Jack Burns I got handcuffed to a 52 incher (we were 32 miles from his dock). Each hand had the front hooks of a 10" Jake imbedded with the rear in the fish (fish was in the net at boatside). Not fun. Jack got the fish off and we extracted the hooks from my hands. If I wasn't barbless I was going to the Baudette Hospital. 10 minutes later I caught a 53 in the same spot.
How I got hooked? I had my pliers in my right hand and went to move the net with my left hand to get a better angle at the rear hook. Fish thrashed and the front hook went in my left hand, middle hook in my right with the rear attached to the fish. It was a mess and I was probably attached to the fish for somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 to 15 seconds. Removing the hooks from my hands wasn't a big deal, although we both got a little squemish. I used to have a photo of my hands, but cant find it. I know that Jack had one.
Dan
Edited by Dan Klis 3/2/2013 2:14 PM
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Posts: 463
Location: Sw Pennsylvania | I've personally had a heavy 4/0 hook thru my thumb from end to the other. I got nabbed 6 years ago by an unsuspecting looking 32" pike. I was hooked to the fish for about 10 seconds before it came off. I still wouldn't debard a hook on any musky lure. It made me wiser and showed me a great use for a boga to unhook the fish while in the water and your hands and arms never get close to the hooks or fishs mouth. Personal opinion.
Edited by allegheny river kid 3/2/2013 7:37 PM
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Posts: 20
Location: Bowling Green, Kentucky | I will never unhook or pick up another muskie without gloves. That being said, I am too afraid to go barbless. |
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Posts: 182
| De-barb every fly I have in my fly box. Easy to release fish. I don't think we have lost many if any to de-barbing the hook. If the wind catches a 12" fly with a 8/0 and throws it off course and into me, it isn't as tough to release me. |
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Posts: 8824
| I haven't done it yet. But I figure I'd rather lose a few fish to barbless hooks than lose a whole day fishing because I had to sit in the hospital waiting for some doctor to cut a hook out of my hand. |
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Posts: 619
| I have had alot of fish have the back hook locked up in their gills.. much easier to get out and better chance of the fish surviving w/o barbs. With cowbells i like to either have the back hook barbless or if i keep the barbs just have 2 prongs of the treble - cut one prong off .. that will also help if the fish is hooked bad. |
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