Barb vs. No Barb

[Buzzy]

Tying with the regal has made it easier to get the barb pinched before tying. I've had good luck with the barbless jig hooks such as the fulling mills. I got so many with barbs though, sometimes on days I try a lot I got a bad habit of forgetting, or not getting a good pinch on the barb. Some of the micro barbs I just seem to miss I think, until the first tiny fish doesn't come off.

I chipped one of the jaws on my Regal debarbing a Gamakatsu T10 salmon/steelhead hook. I probably had the hook in crooked......

 

[Shad]

With very few exceptions, I pinch my barbs while I tie. Fish sometimes throw barbed hooks, too, and the fact it's so much easier to remove barbless hooks from both fish and anglers makes it a no brainer for me. It's when I buy flies that I sometimes forget. The ordeal of trying to remove a small, barbed nymph from a hooked fish (or worse, a fishing buddy) is a solid reminder.

In the conservation age, anything we can do to limit harm is a good idea. Pinch your barbs, wet your hands before handling fish, don't let fish flop around on the bank if you can avoid it... all small things we can do that could add up to a big difference.

 

[DarrellP]

Barbless or pinched down. I use pinched down for the floating fly for "hopper dropper" and they stay on. Most of my fishing is catch and release.

 

[Tom Butler]

I chipped one of the jaws on my Regal debarbing a Gamakatsu T10 salmon/steelhead hook. I probably had the hook in crooked......

Thx. I've done up to 6 so far. Maybe some small pliers to be safe if I tie larger.

Pinch your barbs, wet your hands before handling fish, don't let fish flop around on the bank if you can avoid itall small things we can do that could add up to a big difference.

I'm sure of it. I've been behind a few non-fly fishers on my waters and come across a dead fish now and again. The lakes take it the worst. With some care I know I can catch and release the same fish about once a month for the season.

We're probably all the choir but a worthwhile thread none the less.

 

[PhilR]

I've got a physics professor that's a pretty smart dude, I'm gunna ask him what he thinks! Not as definitive as a research project but I do have some trust in this dudes opinion.

I wish University's gave a shit about fishing, if they did we could get a real high tech study going to solve these important fishing mysteries. Could even study whether it's more effective to fish a bead fly or a plastic bead. The most important mystery of all

Having studied both physics and health services research, you want to talk to a biostatistician instead. You’ll want a blinded study design so the anglers don’t know what they’re using, and a hierarchical model that accounts for both the difference between barbs and between anglers.

Your average physicist will care more about the mechanics of why there’s a difference. Your biostatistician wants to reduce bias in estimates of the difference.

Or just pinch them because extracting a barbed fly is worse than losing a few fish. An economist might help develop a model accounting for differing values in that trade off.

 

[_WW_]

I've got a physics professor that's a pretty smart dude, I'm gunna ask him what he thinks! Not as definitive as a research project but I do have some trust in this dudes opinion.

I wish University's gave a shit about fishing, if they did we could get a real high tech study going to solve these important fishing mysteries. Could even study whether it's more effective to fish a bead fly or a plastic bead. The most important mystery of all

You know...I think I'd rather have the mysteries.

 

[N. Metz]

Having studied both physics and health services research, you want to talk to a biostatistician instead. You’ll want a blinded study design so the anglers don’t know what they’re using, and a hierarchical model that accounts for both the difference between barbs and between anglers.

Your average physicist will care more about the mechanics of why there’s a difference. Your biostatistician wants to reduce bias in estimates of the difference.

Or just pinch them because extracting a barbed fly is worse than losing a few fish. An economist might help develop a model accounting for differing values in that trade off.

A biostatistician would be great if I was designing a study but for the differences in hookups, keeping fish on, etc, I'll take a physicist.

I'm surprised by how many people prefer barbless

 

[PhilR]

A biostatistician would be great if I was designing a study but for the differences in hookups, keeping fish on, etc, I'll take a physicist.

I'm surprised by how many people prefer barbless

We’ll start by assuming the fish is spherical….

Joking aside, I’d be interested in what you learn.

 

[DoesItFloat]

First thing I do when tying a fly is pinch the barb in my vise. Had one barbed hook in my shoulder early on, and that was it for me. Back in '94, my buddy took a barbed treble hook to the wrist. That ended our offshore day real quick.

 

[Jacob Watrous]

In a world where no regulations on barbs were imposed (hypothetical world) would you fish barbed or barbless hooks? What goes into your thinking?

If I can fish with a barb, I like to fish with one. I feel a little better knowing my fly is barbed when I hook a large fish (particularly fish that are notorious for getting off, Salmonids). I do believe it affords me a little more wiggle room during the fight.

Nick

Sink a 1/0 barbed hook deep into the meat of your thumb one time and you might change your tune—I know I did. This is also to say nothing of the wound size it made just going in.

Having fished almost exclusively barbless for 30+ years, I’m not convinced barbless has cost me any fish, and there are times when I believe they have penetrated better into tough mouths/jaws than a barbed hook might have--but it's hard to prove.

 

[Dr. Magill]

I think barbs are popular with some, maybe most, flats fishermen
Bone fish in particular
I believe I read that on this forum

 

[N. Metz]

I think barbs are popular with some, maybe most, flats fishermen
Bone fish in particular
I believe I read that on this forum

I haven't done a lot of fishing for bones but when I have, I'm almost positive I was using barbed flies.

 

[Northern]

A couple years ago I was asked to help some fish bios sample trout on a closed stream via fly fishing (I guess because they wanted to minimize impact, tho we ended up electroshocking after all.) Anyway, since they wanted them harvested, they asked me to use barbed hooks. Took me quite a while going thru my boxes to find a half dozen unpinched ones!

 

[onefish]

One of the BC lakes I fish alot is notorious for jumpers. I use micro barbs on my chironomids and my landing % is generally higher than the guys I fish with who fish barbless all the time. Many fish are one jump wonders on barbless hooks.

 

[Rob Allen]

Barbless is easier to remove from your person.

Here on Pueblo Reservoir in the fall the walleye come up shallow at night and you can catch them pretty consistently on jerkbaits. The best one is the rattling rogue. This awesome bait is 7 inches long and has 3 treble hooks. Well last year I got one in my thumb. While it was still attached to a 16 inch walleye. My pliers were in my hip pack which was turned around on my back.

The trick is to get it out while your still in shock... took me about 5 minutes to get the walleye off the hooks and another 5 to get the hook our of my thumb. Not fun... but I kept fishing...

 

[Dr. Magill]

Here on Pueblo Reservoir in the fall the walleye come up shallow at night and you can catch them pretty consistently on jerkbaits. The best one is the rattling rogue. This awesome bait is 7 inches long and has 3 treble hooks. Well last year I got one in my thumb. While it was still attached to a 16 inch walleye. My pliers were in my hip pack which was turned around on my back.

The trick is to get it out while your still in shock... took me about 5 minutes to get the walleye off the hooks and another 5 to get the hook our of my thumb. Not fun... but I kept fishing...

 

[N. Metz]

I hooked myself in the hand when I was 5ish but never since then. As far as pain goes, a finger is probably the most painful place I can think of.

 

[Matt B]

I hooked myself in the hand when I was 5ish but never since then. As far as pain goes, a finger is probably the most painful place I can think of.

There are other places if you think harder.
Lip. Maybe others.

 

[N. Metz]

There are other places if you think harder.
Lip. Maybe others.

Lip is true. Dick would be very painful but how the f#$% could someone hook themselves in the dick?

 

[Jacob Watrous]

Lip is true. Dick would be very painful but how the f#$% could someone hook themselves in the dick?

Hasn’t happened to me yet, but teach a 3yo to cast a fly and you’ll learn all sorts of places you can get hooked. Onetime I was standing on his non-rod side, and he hooked me in the elbow with a roll cast.