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day5

barbless or not

barbless or not  

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I m wondering why do some pinch barbs?? It seems to me to be more popular with the trout guys that the bass guys. I do not do it for steelhead or bass. I will do it for panfish only because when the bite is hot I like to just flip them off the hook and cast. I guess I can see if you have a bigger hook sz10+ that the barb can be harmful on small fish but if you are using a size 24 how big can the barb be????

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I usually pinch the barbs. First, some of our special regulations trout streams in CT require it. Second, when I make an incredibly dumb mistake and stick myself with a fly it hurts a lot less to pull it out when it is barbless :help:

All the best,

Hot Tuna

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I do not go barbless unless the regs require it of me. I do not think that if you properly remove a hook that it causes any more damage either way.

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I always use barbless, most of the fisheries/rivers i fish have rules abot barbed hooks anyway but even if you could use barbed i would still use barbless because it is alot easier to get out of things e.g

 

- my thumd, hand, arm or any other body part

- trees bushes etc

- fish

 

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I usually go barbless because the hookset is easier and better. Plus it forces you to fight the fish better, keeping more pressure on it. This in turn tends to get fish to hand sooner, and released fish have a better chance for survival.

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I voted for barbless, because its easier to take a barbless hook out of myself, if the situation arises.

 

smaller hooks I do not bother, but any streamer size hook, I do. those barbs are big!

 

also, I C&R all the time, so I feel it is much easier on the fish.

 

Joe

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Barbless, Its great for long line releases.

 

Kidding aside, my province in Canada is all barbless as a rule.

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I pinch my barbs for ALL fishing (except the catch and keep trout farm where you aren't allowed) I don't usually do it until I am going to use that specific fly, so there are alot in my fly boxes that are still barbed and haven't been used.

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I take the barbs off of all of my flies. I feel you harm the fish less because there is less metal going in and out of the fishes mouth, plus local trout regs. I do for bass because some of the patterns that I use, the fish take them deeply and I worry about injuring a fish (I killed one trying to get the fly out, so I started pinching them then). I do for steelhead becuase the possibility of fouling the fish. Above all, I have also buried flies into my hand and had to do the mono loop trick to get them out. I find it easier to just take them all off!

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I usually go barbless because the hookset is easier and better. Plus it forces you to fight the fish better, keeping more pressure on it. This in turn tends to get fish to hand sooner, and released fish have a better chance for survival.

 

 

Yeah, what he said. I am definitely interested in doing less damage to the fish and as you said Day5, I can release 'gills (and other fish) much more quickly, but I have to be honest and say that my biggest initial motivation was that the hooksets are much easier.

 

I can't speak to a size 24 though. I've never used anything smaller than a 20. If I were to make an educated guess I'd think that since using such a small fly requires a small tippet, a hookset that requires less force could be a very good thing!

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I completely agree with blue gills and double haul, i have found the hook goes in much easier on the hookset with barbless. When i used barbed i lost a lot of fish right on the hookset because of lack of penatration. I also thing it does less damage to the fish, you have to pull harder to remove a size 4 salmon hook with a barb and it takes longer.

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I usually go barbless because the hookset is easier and better. Plus it forces you to fight the fish better, keeping more pressure on it. This in turn tends to get fish to hand sooner, and released fish have a better chance for survival.

 

 

Yeah, what he said. I am definitely interested in doing less damage to the fish and as you said Day5, I can release 'gills (and other fish) much more quickly, but I have to be honest and say that my biggest initial motivation was that the hooksets are much easier.

 

I can't speak to a size 24 though. I've never used anything smaller than a 20. If I were to make an educated guess I'd think that since using such a small fly requires a small tippet, a hookset that requires less force could be a very good thing!

 

Same here, or at least that's why I used to fish barbless exclusively, including for bass. Most of the time now I don't because I'm lazy, the hooks I've been using lately have barbs that don't have much of a barb, and the hooks are very sharp so penetration hasn't really been a problem.

 

I don't know about small hooks; I don't generally use smaller than a #12.

 

 

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I'm a strictly barbless user, no matter what size hook I have, and have been a barbless user for more than 20 years.

All hooks have their barbs removed, or pinched back flush, and are sharpened before they come close to my fly boxes or tackle box. It's a little extra effort but well worth it.

I have to agree with the previous posts about the reasons to go barbless. For me, it's the only way.

 

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