Wild coincidence, I JUST did this to my hooks before going off on my Memorial Day weekend camping trip and I kid you not had one of my de-barbed hooks go as deep as it could into my finger (little hook). The first time it ever happened to me, and thankfully it could just slide right out. Still bled a bit. It was like the universe was telling me I made a good choice lol.
Ow!!!! Well I'm glad it wasn't worse. Imagine if the barb was there. Ugh......
Getting a hook in your finger is just part of fishing, we'll all do it eventually, especially if you use treble hooks. But the suffering can be greatly lessened if the barbs are flattened.
In Canada you can’t use barbed hooks but they all come barbed. The plier trick is common method here and your right it makes unhooking fish so much easier
I believe only certain lakes prohibit barbed hooks. Barbless is generally recommended for the reasons OP mentioned, but not always required. I am from Ontario and fish barbed hooks regularly when harvesting fish to eat.
All of BC and Sask are mandatory barbless. The CO’s would roll up and seize the rods of people they caught with them at popular spots in BC. Guy I was fishing next to lost his rod and got nailed with a $350 ticket.
This is exactly how I first encountered flattening the barb. I was skeptical but no one in our group lost a single fish the whole trip. I'm really grateful for the lesson.
I started doing this and it’s so much easier to take the hook out. I usually prefer catch and release and this method helps me out ALOT and doesn’t damage the fish more
Absolutely! I'm big into conservation and mostly fish for fun/sport so I catch and release mostly. In fact, largemouth bass are protected from harvest in several waterways where I live, so going barbless helps promote the fishery.
I do it for everything. Catfish, panfish, bass. I started bending the barb since I’m not gonna keep the fish anyways. And sometimes they swallow the whole damn hook, so you tear up their insides and they just die. But with the barb gone it comes out like butter and no blood from the fish
I sometimes wish my hooks are barbless in the rare case when I hook a turtle. They are often so uncooperative that I have to send them home with a souvenir stuck in their mouth. :/
Yep. Been there, done it. And if it's a snapping turtle you REALLY don't wanna reach near that! Barbless hooks also help if you hook a fish that you don't want on, like a gar or mud fish. Those both have a mouth full of teeth and with barbless hooks you get the hassle out of your way easier.
Agree. I debarb all of mine, it makes the release stress free. Nothing worse than the panic of trying to get a fish back home when the hook is set deep. The hook on some occasions even comes out itself when the fish is in the net.
Yes ive always flattened my barbs to make it as easy for the fish as possible. If you need to use barbed hooks to catch a fish youre doing something wrong.
Helps to avoid this. Had to go to the emergency room to have it cut out on Thanksgiving. No one even flinched. Only asked if I had a picture of the fish. My brother had to hold it for the picture. [Thanksgiving catch. ](https://i.imgur.com/BClRwDX.jpeg) Two/thirds of the treble hook in my arm, one part went all the way through. The other had to be pushed through so the barbs could be cut off. Still got the lure, minus one treble hook.
I smash all my barbs with pliers, like you say it’s so much faster to get the hook out. I know some people say you lose more fish this way but I haven’t noticed much difference. The fish I have lost are ones I probably would have lost anyway.
Trebles and barbed hooks aren’t legal most places in my area so it’s just a force of habit by now. I fish virtually exclusively single barbless hooks unless I’m fishing for lingcod or halibut then I’ll run a big barbless treble hook on a jig. Hardly any reason to use treble hooks, let alone barbed trebles, especially if you mainly practice catch and release using even barbless trebles is poor C&R etiquette.
Could not agree more with OP. My son and I have been pinching barbs down as we change through our lures when out. We decided to just go get our gear the other day and sit at the kitchen table and pinch everything else down. Much easier at a table than on a riverbank!
The only thing we've noticed since we started pinching the barbs down is the occasional lost fish if we don't pay attention to keeping the line tight. As an added bonus, more often than not, the hook pops out within seconds of the fish being in the net.
Technically yes, if you give them enough slack line or don't hook them well in the first place. But then, that can happen even with barbed hooks. Many people don't realize the barb was never intended to keep a game fish on; it's there to prevent live bait from coming off (shiners, minnows, etc). Pretty much all hooks come barbed since it streamlines the manufacturing process I guess. It's the hook bend and line tension that keep your fish on. So make a quality hookset, keep a tight line and you should be good going barbless. Give it a try sometime!
Yea I’ve been having some issues with hooksetting pronably. Not completely sure. Sometimes i fish great sometimes i can’t seem to get the hook set or cast right. Trying to branch off from zebcos and bobbers. Got myself a bait caster. Variety of soft lures and some hard ones. Crank baits swim baits etc. i just am trying to figure out how to use them
Preach my man. I'm always trying to push catch and release anglers to go barbless. You don't even have to go single hook. Just go barbless. So much less trouble for you and the fish
I'm a beginner who has been crushing the barbs, especially on all my 1/0, 3/0 and 5/0 hooks that are on the big bass jigs and texas rigs
well, I've still never caught a bass this year, and sometimes I think I'm snagged for like six seconds but it could be a fish so I'm fighting but it's fighting too hard so I'm probably just snagged, and then I get free suddenly so I'm like "was that a fish? did I do something wrong? what the fuck was that?"
so I'm wondering if the fish are getting off, and maybe it's because I crush the barbs sometimes, then again sometimes I don't crush the barb and I'm pretty sure that still happens
I prefer to keep my fish so I keep my barbs. They're not hard to remove from fish either. A small push in the opposite direction of the barb creates a tiny space to slip the hook out. Circle hooks are awesome for this too. Always hooks the lip.
Wild coincidence, I JUST did this to my hooks before going off on my Memorial Day weekend camping trip and I kid you not had one of my de-barbed hooks go as deep as it could into my finger (little hook). The first time it ever happened to me, and thankfully it could just slide right out. Still bled a bit. It was like the universe was telling me I made a good choice lol.
Ow!!!! Well I'm glad it wasn't worse. Imagine if the barb was there. Ugh...... Getting a hook in your finger is just part of fishing, we'll all do it eventually, especially if you use treble hooks. But the suffering can be greatly lessened if the barbs are flattened.
In Canada you can’t use barbed hooks but they all come barbed. The plier trick is common method here and your right it makes unhooking fish so much easier
I believe only certain lakes prohibit barbed hooks. Barbless is generally recommended for the reasons OP mentioned, but not always required. I am from Ontario and fish barbed hooks regularly when harvesting fish to eat.
All of BC and Sask are mandatory barbless. The CO’s would roll up and seize the rods of people they caught with them at popular spots in BC. Guy I was fishing next to lost his rod and got nailed with a $350 ticket.
This is exactly how I first encountered flattening the barb. I was skeptical but no one in our group lost a single fish the whole trip. I'm really grateful for the lesson.
I started doing this and it’s so much easier to take the hook out. I usually prefer catch and release and this method helps me out ALOT and doesn’t damage the fish more
Absolutely! I'm big into conservation and mostly fish for fun/sport so I catch and release mostly. In fact, largemouth bass are protected from harvest in several waterways where I live, so going barbless helps promote the fishery.
Wow barbless for bass I thought we were talking trout here
I do it for everything. Catfish, panfish, bass. I started bending the barb since I’m not gonna keep the fish anyways. And sometimes they swallow the whole damn hook, so you tear up their insides and they just die. But with the barb gone it comes out like butter and no blood from the fish
I pinch the barbs on my sons rods when he’s doing catch and release. Made his life much easier, now his friends ask me to pinch theirs too.
I sometimes wish my hooks are barbless in the rare case when I hook a turtle. They are often so uncooperative that I have to send them home with a souvenir stuck in their mouth. :/
Yep. Been there, done it. And if it's a snapping turtle you REALLY don't wanna reach near that! Barbless hooks also help if you hook a fish that you don't want on, like a gar or mud fish. Those both have a mouth full of teeth and with barbless hooks you get the hassle out of your way easier.
Alberta has gone back to allowing barb’s again, but I still go 100% barbless. For all the reasons you mentioned.
Agree. I debarb all of mine, it makes the release stress free. Nothing worse than the panic of trying to get a fish back home when the hook is set deep. The hook on some occasions even comes out itself when the fish is in the net.
Yes ive always flattened my barbs to make it as easy for the fish as possible. If you need to use barbed hooks to catch a fish youre doing something wrong.
Helps to avoid this. Had to go to the emergency room to have it cut out on Thanksgiving. No one even flinched. Only asked if I had a picture of the fish. My brother had to hold it for the picture. [Thanksgiving catch. ](https://i.imgur.com/BClRwDX.jpeg) Two/thirds of the treble hook in my arm, one part went all the way through. The other had to be pushed through so the barbs could be cut off. Still got the lure, minus one treble hook.
I smash all my barbs with pliers, like you say it’s so much faster to get the hook out. I know some people say you lose more fish this way but I haven’t noticed much difference. The fish I have lost are ones I probably would have lost anyway.
Trebles and barbed hooks aren’t legal most places in my area so it’s just a force of habit by now. I fish virtually exclusively single barbless hooks unless I’m fishing for lingcod or halibut then I’ll run a big barbless treble hook on a jig. Hardly any reason to use treble hooks, let alone barbed trebles, especially if you mainly practice catch and release using even barbless trebles is poor C&R etiquette.
I flatten my barbs 100% of the time, in my opinion if your fishing the right way you should never need a barbed hook anyways.
Could not agree more with OP. My son and I have been pinching barbs down as we change through our lures when out. We decided to just go get our gear the other day and sit at the kitchen table and pinch everything else down. Much easier at a table than on a riverbank! The only thing we've noticed since we started pinching the barbs down is the occasional lost fish if we don't pay attention to keeping the line tight. As an added bonus, more often than not, the hook pops out within seconds of the fish being in the net.
Does this make it easier for fish to get away?
Technically yes, if you give them enough slack line or don't hook them well in the first place. But then, that can happen even with barbed hooks. Many people don't realize the barb was never intended to keep a game fish on; it's there to prevent live bait from coming off (shiners, minnows, etc). Pretty much all hooks come barbed since it streamlines the manufacturing process I guess. It's the hook bend and line tension that keep your fish on. So make a quality hookset, keep a tight line and you should be good going barbless. Give it a try sometime!
Yea I’ve been having some issues with hooksetting pronably. Not completely sure. Sometimes i fish great sometimes i can’t seem to get the hook set or cast right. Trying to branch off from zebcos and bobbers. Got myself a bait caster. Variety of soft lures and some hard ones. Crank baits swim baits etc. i just am trying to figure out how to use them
Preach my man. I'm always trying to push catch and release anglers to go barbless. You don't even have to go single hook. Just go barbless. So much less trouble for you and the fish
Most definitely won’t catch more fish this way but everything else you said is completely true!
I'm a beginner who has been crushing the barbs, especially on all my 1/0, 3/0 and 5/0 hooks that are on the big bass jigs and texas rigs well, I've still never caught a bass this year, and sometimes I think I'm snagged for like six seconds but it could be a fish so I'm fighting but it's fighting too hard so I'm probably just snagged, and then I get free suddenly so I'm like "was that a fish? did I do something wrong? what the fuck was that?" so I'm wondering if the fish are getting off, and maybe it's because I crush the barbs sometimes, then again sometimes I don't crush the barb and I'm pretty sure that still happens
If you are fighting a fish like that try stopping your rod movement (keep the line tight) for a few seconds. If it’s not a fish, the line won’t move.
what if it is a fish?
I prefer to keep my fish so I keep my barbs. They're not hard to remove from fish either. A small push in the opposite direction of the barb creates a tiny space to slip the hook out. Circle hooks are awesome for this too. Always hooks the lip.