Question/issue for you guys...

I took the day off on Friday to do some fishing, and was lucky enough to hook a bright winter-run on a jig. When I got the fish in close, I noticed that its adipose fin was intact: an early native! I went to remove the jig from its mouth -- replete with a barbed hook -- and noticed that the fish's mouth was bleeding slightly where the hook was embedded (lower jaw). I got out my pliers and worked the hook out, keeping the fish in the water the entire time, but it took some doing working the barb out. Once the hook was removed, I steadied the fish in the current and he slapped his tail powerfully and disappeared in a flash. I'm hopeful that the bleeding subsided soon thereafter (?) and the fish has continued on his journey.

But it really got me to thinking: if I'm committed to doing everything in my power to help wild fish -- while still being a fisherman -- shouldn't I be using barbless hooks 100% of the time, even in mid-December when most of the fish in the river are hatchery brats? What do you guys think?

I'm not too sure barbed or barbless has that great an impact on the fish, although going barbless certainly doesn't hurt.

I seem to recall in my studies that using bait and the type of hook used (single or trebble) is more of a concern then the barb.

Also, how one plays, lands, handles, and releases the fish plays a very important role in determining if the fish survives or not.

Worse Case Scenario: You hook a large nate on a bait diver. The fish swallowed your barbless hooks while chomping on the biat. After a 35 minute fight (hey, it's a 20+ lb. nate and you were using 10lb line), the fish is netted and brought in to the boat. After a 5 minute struggle to contain the fish, the hooks are removed from the fishes tongue and throat. After the mandatory Grip 'N Grin (even I am guilty of taking pictures!), the fish is tailed back in to the water. But, since you're in a boat and the current is too fast, you can't hold on to the fish and it slips away to the depths of the river.

Yeah, you used barbless hooks, but that fish is all but dead.

Parker

Good of you to be thinking that way. If you didn't hook its tongue, gills or eye, your fish should be fine. But it's time to be doing all we can to be on the safe side.
Personally I get more satisfaction from landing a fish on a barbless hook (more of a challenge). Even if I hook and fight one for a bit, then lose it, I consider that a good day.
I think that's the appeal in fly fishing for steelhead, too -- the satisfaction level is multiplied greatly, considering how difficult it is.
There's also the argument that barbless hooks penetrate better on the bite.

The one thing a barbless hook will do, is give you better (deeper )penetration on the hook set. If you keep the line tight, there won't be a huge difference in landing ratio. The way I look at it is that you may bury the hook a little deeper on the ones you would have not gotten with the barb. (Just an opinion)

The biggest bonus of going barbless, (a fact) is that if you whack a hook deep in your finger or other body part, you walk away with nothing more than a minor puncture wound. Sure beats the trip to the doc for a deep one. When I used to take clients out for redfish in Louisiana, I fished barbless exclusively. Too many hooks flying otherwise. I can remember at least 3 occasions that it kept us from cutting a trip short, after someone doinked someone with a hook. Something to think about when you are in the middle of no where on a fishing trip. Nuff said

Good points above, however:

Did anyone else wonder if deeper penetration of a larger sized single barbless hook may cause more problems than its barb would have?

I've never seen studies about that, but I know that if you're pulling plugs in March with a 1/0 siwash, you're looking at about 3/4" of hard steel going into the fish. If it's in the jaw, or corner, probably no big deal.

What if it's in the roof of the mouth? The eye? The tongue?

Just some food for thought.

Fish on...

Todd.

barbless is the way to go, if you break a fish off the barbless hook falls out easier.

I’ve been fishing barbless for years. I noticed that I didn't loose many fish flyfishing and decided to give it a try on Steelhead. Outside of this jinks I am in right now, loosing the first fish of the day, I really haven't noticed a difference.

Last week on the Snoqualmie the river was VERY low. I switched to size 4 barbless for the first time. (Left the leader rolls at home). I was amazed at the penetration. I had to use pliers to remove the hook because I couldn't see the shank!

Just went thur another salmon "barbless, single sishwash hook" season. Can actually say that I saw no difference in the amount of lost fish...did make it a "heck of alot easier" to release any fish if you had too.

If I had my way...100 % of plugs, spinners, flys, jigs, etc. that are sold in this state would be barbless and "No" treble hooks at all allowed to be used. Hate to have to buy a spinner or plug...then turn right around and re-rig it to make it legal..

Manufacturer have the ability to "fine tune", the spinners and plugs before they get to the consumer!!!!

"Worse day sport fishing, still better than the best day working"......

Just so you know, Here in BC the LAW requires a single barbless hook in any stream or river. And rightly so... IMHO, if you need barbs to land a fish, you're not playing it right anyway. The whole idea is to keep your line tight, no? Good points also about unhooking parts of your own anatomy as well.

Just my two cents worth...I think how the fish is handled has a lot more to do with mortality than whether or not there's a barb on the hook. This summer on Anderson bar there were some guys that caught several steelhead, unceremoniously dragged them up on the rocky beach, then proceeded to KICK them back into the friggen' river. We found some of those fish floating belly up later, they all probably died. The guy said they were "only hatchery dinks", and he didn't want to keep such small ones (7-9 pounds). Granted, some fish will die no matter how well you handle them, but I found this pretty disgusting.
Greg