When I'm not in a tournament, I push down the barbs on all my hooks...especially on soft plastics and jigs.

* You may lose a few fish...so what.  It rarely happens.  Hook penetration depth increases without the barb.

* You will do FAR less damage to the fish.

* Getting the fish back into the water is so much easier.

* You will be SO glad when you hook yourself and don't need to go to the emergency room.

 

It takes a few seconds to squeeze down that barb with a pliers.

I go barbless ice fishing because a lot of the time the fish swallow it which makes for a much cleaner release and less time in the cold air. 

 

Open water though, I'm sticking with barbs sorry. Jigs and soft plastics honestly I'd probably be fine with but treble baits and swimbaits I know I'd lose more fish. 

Barbless? 

 

Is that even considered real fishing?

37 minutes ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

Barbless? 

 

Is that even considered real fishing?

For precious trout. I’m typically fishing for keeps (food)

I feel all tournament entries should go barbless. They should be the leaders for fish welfare/management. 

 

 

Been doing it for years on for all my soft plastic fishing. Never tried doing it on jigs and don't think I'd want to on my treble hooks. Better for the fish and helped once when I had a 4/O in my leg.

37 minutes ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

Barbless? 

 

Is that even considered real fishing?

 

Other way around -- increasing the difficulty level makes it more real.?

 

The original purpose of barbs was not to hold fish anyway, but to keep live bait from squirming away.

My opinion?

 

Why not just go whole-hog and go hookless.

 

I fish for food for my freezer...yes, even bass. Anything that might help me to achieve that is a good thing. So the barbs on my hooks will remain 'intact'.

1 hour ago, Bartableman7 said:

When I'm not in a tournament, I push down the barbs on all my hooks...especially on soft plastics and jigs.

* You may lose a few fish...so what.  It rarely happens.  Hook penetration depth increases without the barb.

* You will do FAR less damage to the fish.

* Getting the fish back into the water is so much easier.

* You will be SO glad when you hook yourself and don't need to go to the emergency room.

 

It takes a few seconds to squeeze down that barb with a pliers.

Contradicting statements bullet 1 vs bullet 2, the hook point does the organ damage not the hook barb.

Hook barbs prevent easy removal of the hook from flesh, human or fish. Barbless hooks are mandatory in some remote fragile fisheries to reduce handling of fine scaled fish like trout.

It's a choice for the C & R anglers.

Tom

I appreciate your concern for the well being of the fish we pursue, really do but de-barbing all my inventory?

Bass a pretty resilient I've found. 

2 hours ago, Bartableman7 said:

When I'm not in a tournament, I push down the barbs on all my hooks...especially on soft plastics and jigs.

* You may lose a few fish...so what.  It rarely happens.  Hook penetration depth increases without the barb.

* You will do FAR less damage to the fish.

* Getting the fish back into the water is so much easier.

* You will be SO glad when you hook yourself and don't need to go to the emergency room.

 

It takes a few seconds to squeeze down that barb with a pliers.

Mmmmmmmm nope. No one is going to do this 

Nah, I'm OK with barbs....

 

Fun fact though, originally the center hook on the Megabass Vision 110's was intentionally made barbless - The reasoning (supposedly) was that it allowed the bait rotate a bit more in the fish's mouth, hoping to snag the side of the fish's mouth/head with the front or rear trebles for a better hold...2 or 3 trebles hooked in the fish instead of just 1 or 2. Some of the JDM ones still have it this way - I have a couple, see below.  These are the only barbless hooks in my inventory.

There is no way I am buying replacement hooks for my baits and then smashing down the barbs.

What is this wicked sorcery ? 

A-Jay 

The last time I hooked myself, I didn't need a trip to the emergency room.  The bass are fine with barbs and so am I.  Sorry, buddy, I will continue to go barbed.

1 hour ago, Hower08 said:

Mmmmmmmm nope. No one is going to do this 

I’ve been using barbless hooks on my soft plastic jerkbaits for years. When a fish gets gut hooked, the hook pops right out. Barbless hooks are the law on the lakes I used to fish in Manitoba. I have no problem with them. Unlike a lot of anglers, It doesn’t bother me if a fish gets off. I’m not fishing for food, to compete, to get a photo or to get a personal best. I’m going to release the fish no matter what. If he gets off before I haul him over the side, that’s fine.

17 minutes ago, Scott F said:

I’ve been using barbless hooks on my soft plastic jerkbaits for years. When a fish gets gut hooked, the hook pops right out. Barbless hooks are the law on the lakes I used to fish in Manitoba. I have no problem with them. Unlike a lot of anglers, It doesn’t bother me if a fish gets off. I’m not fishing for food, to compete, to get a photo or to get a personal best. I’m going to release the fish no matter what. If he gets off before I haul him over the side, that’s fine.

We do fish for alot of our food. But I also fish for sport more than food. That being said if it was the law I would abide by it. But with it not being the law where I fish I will continue to give myself every advantage possible. 

I like fishing with Barbs and also Annette to scoop the fish... 

5 minutes ago, FryDog62 said:

I like fishing with Barbs and also Annette to scoop the fish... 

(Twaps Mr. Fry upside the head for the reely bad puns)

I enjoy throwing some of the Rebel brand lures with light spinning tackle. Some of their lures are barbless and others have about enough barb for me to call them barbless anyway. My results when using them were a lot of lost fish. If I can't lip and get some fish stank on my hands I'll have to change my name so give me some big barbage!

So it's okay to use barbed hooks when you're doing it for money? Did you ask the fish if they're cool with that convenient loophole?

 

Seems like it should be the other way around really... 

 

Do pro baseball players use aluminum bats?

Do pro golfers get mulligans and little carts to drive around in?

 

You ditch the barbs.

 

I have to use them at one of my favorite local spots, caught my PB barbless. And I don't bother re-rigging if I have a barbless still tied at another fishery. I think about using barbless cranks sometimes, but not top of the list. Mainly for my own fingers though, not the fish. And not because I was told to by someone who only kinda practices what they preach.

I fish barbless on a lot of treble hooked baits, especially when I have my boys in the boat. Saved the day last year. Lake was playing with his bait (SK 1.0), before we launched like I told him not to. He hooked the crank back on the rod and tried to set it down but the hook stuck to him when he dropped the rod. The screams were pretty immediate, but I'd smashed the barbs down on the little #8 Owner ST36s not 10 minutes prior just in case something like that happened. Hook slid right back out, dug the first aid kit out of the truck and doctored him up and we had a little learning moment talk afterwards. He caught several fish on the same crankbait and never lost one he hooked. I don't lose many I hook on barbless trebles. Single hooks I leave them on because they tend to create a much larger hole.

 

Just like @Bluebasser86 I go barbless on treble hook all for safety of myself not so much for bass. For soft plastic, I used to crush the barb down when I fish with Fluke, the reason I gutted hook a couple of bass. Nowadays I don’t worry too much, and I don’t gutted hook fish that often anyway. I can live with loosing 1-2 bass a year, and my wife seems to enjoy the bass.

I stay barbed on my single hooks but smash down my trebles. I've found that the shape of KVD Triple Grips hold real well and they're sticky sharp.

I always go barbless on jerkbaits and most other trebles because half the time I'm catching more pike than bass especially this time of year and nothing worse than trying to get barbed trebles outta the back of a pike's mouth when they lock their jaws up, flop all over your boat and get slime/blood everywhere.