Barbless hooks for Heritage Angling waters

[Taylor B. Hess 0]

I have been longing to fish some Heritage Fly Fishing waters for a while now in my area. The Falling Springs, Yellow Breeches, and Letrot, and Big Spring Creeks all have the Heritage regulations under certain sections, and that is where most of the wild fish, and most impressive fishing, yet challenging situations are. The regulations state catch and release, and barbless hooks only. I was just curious as to how the best way to get rid of barbs on small dry fly and small-medium nymph hooks. Would it be best to file on the smaller hooks, or use barb crushers?

 

Any help would be much obliged.

 

[Mr. Vegas 0]

Just crush them! Be sure not to put so much pressure or twist your wrist or you could damage or break off the point

[utyer 0]

I have always used smooth jawed pliers to crush my barbs. Lately, I have been purchasing barbless hooks (TMC has quite a few styles.) When you crush the barbs you may break a few hooks, so its a good idea to do this before you start tying.

 

One of the places that I have had to fish barbless, was monitored by the fish and game. They would ask to see your fly, and then would stick the hook into their sweater. If the hook snagged on the way back out, they often wrote up a ticket.

 

Its also a good idea to keep all your barbless patterns in seperate boxes. That way, you won't inadvertantly swap to a fly with a barb while changing flies.

[Taylor B. Hess 0]

alright, thanks for the tips. Will filing do the job though?

[utyer 0]

I'm sure it would work, but it will take longer, and there is still some risk of damage to the hook.

[Taylor B. Hess 0]

okay, thanks a lot. I appreciate all the help!

[flyderaght 0]

I have always crushed the barbs with small pliers-never damaged a hook. coming from british columbia where you pretty much have to use barbless/ do it when tying the fly before putting in the vice. I have done as small 16 with no problem.

marc

[JSzymczyk 0]

One of the places that I have had to fish barbless, was monitored by the fish and game. They would ask to see your fly, and then would stick the hook into their sweater. If the hook snagged on the way back out, they often wrote up a ticket.

 

I have heard this rumor many times. Unless there was some written description of "Barbless" I would ask the G&F guy to stick it in his thumb or his lip and see if it snags, otherwise, I'll see him in court. There are only a few states which define barbless in their regulations- one, Arkansas if I remember correctly, spells out the fabric test. They don't define WHAT kind of fabric though, or exactly how it is supposed to be proved. Pennsylvania from what I can find doesn't define barbless. There is no mention of it in the 2011 regulations summary. I'm interested too, because I live here, about 15 minutes from Allenberry. The term is not defined in the Pa regs, so completely mashing down the barbs with pliers should reasonably be good to go. I do it to everything anyways, so I'm not worried.

[JSzymczyk 0]

http://www.fishandboat.com/images/exec/min.../min03march.pdf

The 67th Meeting of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission was held on Wednesday,

March 16, 2005, at the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission headquarters, Harrisburg, PA

17110.

The public session for review of this agenda began at or about 8:10 a.m.

As part of the simplification process within the special regulations programs, staff suggest

eliminating the barbless hook requirements, establishing uniform 24 hours of legal angling,

and eliminating restrictions on wading. Given problems in “pinching” barbs on tiny flies,

difficulty in determining whether or not “pinched” barbs are legal or not, lack of substantial

scientific literature supporting barbless hooks as a means to reduce mortality of released fish,

and limited availability of manufactured barbless hooks, staff recommend discontinuing the

barbless hook requirement.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.fishandboat.com/pafish/trout/tr...lan/history.pdf

Beginning with the 2006 season, the Delayed Harvest Fly-Fishing Only and Heritage Trout Angling programs were combined to form the new Catch-and-Release Fly-Fishing Only program. Under these regulations angling is permitted on a year-round basis, no trout may be harvested at any time, and gear is restricted to the use of artificial flies and streamers.

 

that's the best I could find. The "Heritage Trout" waters don't even formally exist anymore.

[utyer 0]

The only time that happened to me, was in Idaho, not PA. A long time ago, in the early 1980s.