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Worstcaster

The price of barbless hooks

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Does it seem strange to anyone else that barbless hooks cost a dollar more than the same size hook with a barb? You would think this would hurt the sales. I just use a pair of pliers and same the dollar.

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They cost more because they had to re-tool everything to do a hook without a barb. Not that that makes it right, but thats the reason. Yupp, just remove the barb yourself and save the $1 :)

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Good Day,

 

Oh won't this topic ever go away! :D

 

Like steeldrifter said, there is a mater of re-tooling the manufacturing "line". However, if memory serves from a visit a few years ago, the barb is one of the last things formed on a machined hook...

 

Whats funny, or maybe not, is that most of the barbless hooks I have bought over the years were usually in the clearance area at a store or show. The shop keeper bought them thinking it would be a good thing, but the customers didn't buy them... and that is a classic basic concept of economics. You can't sell what not enough people are willing to buy.

 

Steelie

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Playing the devil's advocate here :devil:. Just remember that when you use a pliers to de-barb a hook there's a very good chance you have changed the tempering of the hook. Speaking from experience... I would have rather spent the extra dollar and landed that beauty of a brown trout that straightened out the hook I was using. :help:

 

 

Mike

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Good Day,

 

Maddog, I hear you. I don't know how many times I have gone to de-barb and ... SNAP... the whole point is gone! It has become almost too much of a hastle to either de-barb or find barbless hooks. Few shops around here even carry them at all... even on line there are few who carry them it seems. I don't think this is going to change for some time to come.

 

CJ

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Me I just leave the dang thing on???

 

Oh and I can not pass this up........ He said tool!!!

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Remember though, there's a right way and a wrong way to de-barb a hook and alot of people don't know that and ethier break the whole point off or fracture the hook and don't know it till it's too late.

 

The proper way to de-barb a hook and not have to worry about damaging it is to use your hemos in-line (parallel) with the shank of the hook. When de-barbed in this manner the barb will simply lay down flat and smooth with zero percent chance of fracturing or damaging the hook in any way. The wrong way (and the one most people do) is to come in from the side at a 90 degree angle to the shank and crimp it down. Done this way you actually snap the barb off and run a much greater risk of fracturing, damaging, or even breaking the whole point of the hook off.

 

Do them inline with the shank and you wont have any problems with hook damage ;)

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I've never tryied crimping the hook parallel to the shank. Usually I was going at a 90 degree angle and snapping the point off just like you said. Thanks!

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Good Day,

 

I am really to the point where I am with Day5. I just leave them on. I know that may offend a few out there. But until they are stocked, I am not fiddling anymore. I still have a few dry fly hooks left that I tie on... but that is that.

 

CJ

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I buy barbed hooks because they are cheaper and easier to find, though like others I don't think they should be. I recently got a tip that was one of those "D'uh!!" moments...I should have thought of this one on my own a LONG time ago...debarb all of the hooks in the box before you start to tie. That way you won't be wasting a fly if you break the point off AFTER you tied the fly. It also helps to avoid problems on those special reg waters, just in case you accidently forgot to debarb before letting the fly hit the water. It's that one time OOPS when the CO magicly appears from behind the bushes.

 

I leave the barbs on if I'm tying them for someone else unless they ask me to debarb them.

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FWIW, I am convinced after years of experimentation that: A. It really is easier to set the hook and one really can hook more fish with the barbs flattened. B. I am also convinced (but with much less comparative analysis) that the little bump of the flattened barb helps land a few that a hook that was made completely barbless would have lost. -So I happily endure the hassle of crimping down barbs.

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Steeldrifter:

The proper way to de-barb a hook and not have to worry about damaging it is to use your hemos in-line (parallel) with the shank of the hook. When de-barbed in this manner the barb will simply lay down flat and smooth with zero percent chance of fracturing or damaging the hook in any way. The wrong way (and the one most people do) is to come in from the side at a 90 degree angle to the shank and crimp it down. Done this way you actually snap the barb off and run a much greater risk of fracturing, damaging, or even breaking the whole point of the hook off.

 

Do them inline with the shank and you wont have any problems with hook damage

 

I have debarbed many thousands of hooks of all brands over the last 20 years and NEVER broken a point. I use electrical pliers with smooth jaws, carry them in a nylon pouch on my vest or chest pack for quick access. The debarbed hook penetrates easier on hook set and very few lost fish compared to old time barbed hooks.

 

Regards,

FK

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Just giving the Proper way to do it FK. There was just an article in a magazine about this within the last year and their advice was the same I gave. I'm glad you have not had problems with breaking the tip doing it at an angle, but the proper way to do it for best success is the method I described.

 

 

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I buy & use Mustad, EagleClaw, and Cabela's hooks for flytying. I read the internet or watch TV while I mash down the barbs at a 90% angle with a pair of mini-needlenose pliers. In the last 20+ years of doing this I've lost one or two hooks per 100ct. box or less to hook breakage, if that many. I put the hook barb in the grooves cut across the points of the pliers and am carefull to get none of the hook curve in the pliers. Oh, BTW, I only tie down to a #14 hook. I hate to dissagree with SD but in this case there is more than one right way, at least for hooks #14 and larger.. Ralph

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