[James Laraway]

So, although it is many years since I took a trout of any size ( as I dont like eating them) I have always stuck to barbed hooks.

If I'm on a stocked fishery doing C&R I crush the barbs (as per the rules)  but if I'm on a wild fishery I don't crush the barbs.

More and more hooks are now sold with a barbless option.

So I was just wondering how many of the forum members fish barbless when after wild trout ?

[Terry Coging]

Aways barbless or debarbed for all trout and coarse fish. Nothing noble in it - just easier to de hook.

[Duncan Inglis]

Barbless or debarred 

[Dave Robb]

Preferably already barbless when buying flies / hooks for tying but at the very least debarbed.

The way I see it, if I have to pull that bit harder and rip some flesh to get the hook out of the fishes mouth because it has a barb, one of these days I will have to pull a bit harder and rip my own skin when a fly hits me.

Sod that.  Its just better all round with no barb.

[Will Shaw]

All either barbless or crushed barbs.

[Mike Barrio]

All barbless is my preference, but I have also crushed the barbs on any that I've received  from friends

Mainly due to my experience at the fishery over the years, and the all too frequent customer visits to the hut for help.

[Robert MacDonald-Lewis]

I also fish with either barbless or de-barded hooks.

[James Laraway]

Hi Mike,

By help do you mean people hooking themselves or having issues unhooking ?

regards
James

All barbless is my preference, but I have also crushed the barbs on any that I've received  from friends

Mainly due to my experience at the fishery over the years, and the all too frequent customer visits to the hut for help.

[Mike Barrio]

Hi James

Hooking themselves or their boat partners.

Even flies with crushed barbs can be difficult to remove.

I saw a lot of nasty ones and many were better dealt with in A&E.

I changed the fishery rules to barbless flies only in the end 

Cheers
Mike

[Matt Hart]

I completely understand the various points above for debarbing or going barbless...personally I have a selection of equal parts in my fly box and tend not to really think about it....but...

The thing that does annoy me though, is when you get someone up on their moral high horse telling you that they do it "because they care about the fish" - and anyone that fishes barbed hooks obviously doesnt care...I cant help but think well, if you really cared that much about the fish, barbed or barbless you're still stabbing them in the mouth, and dangling them on the end of a line, effectively hauling them to their death as far as they're concerned....so if you really cared about the fish you wouldn't hunt them at all.  Regardless of whether it's just for sport/C&R or for your dinner, you're still inflicting the same experience on the fish with the tiny difference of maybe having a bit more difficulty removing the hook. It doesn't happy too often, but I've came across a few anglers with that mindset, and I just cant get my head around it 

[Mike Barrio]

I'm not sure why you're voicing your annoyance here Matt, nobody has suggested or implied anything of the sort in this topic.
The forum members are always pretty good at respecting each others views in my experience 

[James Laraway]

This forum is an exception though Mike...a good one it has to be said 

I'm not sure why you're voicing your annoyance here Matt, nobody has suggested or implied anything of the sort in this topic.
The forum members are always pretty good at respecting each others views in my experience 

[Kav Ring]

I'm barbless all the way or crushed at a push. also try to unhook in the water (both trout and course) unless i'm taking one for the pot. Generally find hook comes free in the net, although I've 'recovered' a few of other peoples barbed flies in fish I've caught!!

[Eddie Sinclair]

This is an interesting debate. I have quite a number of barbless hooks that I have tied flies on and an equally large number of barbed hooks that I tie flies on, I don’t often fish on stocked fisheries where the crushed barb thing becomes something that I have to consider,almost all of my fishing is on wild fisheries and I select flies from pattern without thinking is it on a barbed hook or not. I fully understand the rationale for barbless and have no issue with the implementation of this but I am currently on day one of a couple of days salmon fishing on the Dee and I don’t really see the same considerations given to salmon flies as I have for trout.

Thoughts ??

[Graham Nicol]

I much prefer to tie all my flies with barbs and crush them. The reason is that with rainbows and sea trout when they jump I seem to lose most of them with barbless whereas that tiny crimp left when crushing barbs seems to hold on to the fish.

[Matt Hart]

I'm not sure why you're voicing your annoyance here Matt, nobody has suggested or implied anything of the sort in this topic.
The forum members are always pretty good at respecting each others views in my experience 

Oh no I'm not directing my annoyance at anyone on here...I'm just saying that it's one of the things that I've came across previously when discussing this topic elsewhere. Some anglers do have very strong opinions on it and I was even told that I was "wrong" once for even having barbed flies in my box  .

[Rob Brownfield]

I don’t really see the same considerations given to salmon flies as I have for trout.

Indeed. I wont name names as its their business (as in they make money from fishing) but I saw a catch report of several nice salmon caught in very very low water conditions. It was a remarkable achievement.

There was a photo of the fly, a size 16 barbed silver treble with a few whisps of hair tied to it.

The report said that the lucky angler had already lost two identical flies to lost salmon before his last "lucky fly" did the business.

My concern is that a salmons jaws are like crocodiles, they are capable of crushing, but they have little available muscle to open the mouth. If those lost fish had the treble stitching their mouths together with 2 or more points, those fish are probably now dead. They "may" have been able to crush down on the treble and bend it enough to dislodge it, but I doubt that would be possible if hooked near the front of the mouth.

I see a combination of barbs and three points, especially on a fine tippet for summer conditions, a big no-no.

[Steven Kidd]

Hello,

For me, I generally fish flies with barbs, never had an issue removing them neatly without causing any more damage than a barbless hook, very rarely are my fish hooked past the barb .

I must be honest, I don't really think about it, I do have some great barbless hooks as well of the grab gape style, and they work just as well at hooking fish.

Now given barbless hooks are likely to penetrate deeper, is that a factor if we are debating fish care?

Just being honest

Steven

[Fridus Verwater]

Always barbless!

[Rob Brownfield]

Barbless or crushed barb for me (if a certain hook is not available in barbless).

I am at a time in my life where if a fish gets off, so what?  I don't bother with weighing, I don't bother with measuring, and I mostly don't bother with photos.

I measure fish  in the following way...Affa bonnie, offfft and niiiiice. That is all I need from my fishing now