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There is only one barbless stream I know of in this area. It is a closely managed stream, C&R only and produces some very nice fish. I am told the DNR officers use a tee shirt to check hooks to qualify them as barbless if they were originally with barbs. What criteria do other areas use.
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You can also check by rubbing mono loop from the point back up to the bend.
Jesse: do you think designating the water catch and release only and barbless has anything to do with the water sustaining good populations of fish?
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In this country carp fishing has become a rabid religion, with huge numbers of people pursuing it with a zeal most churches do not see from their congregation. You would not believe the lengths and costs these people go to. A friend once described them collectively as "stranger than fiction" to me. There is not a carp fishery in the land that will let you fish now if you don't have a special mat on which to place your fish while you unhook it. They even go to the extent of dressing the hook wound in a carp's mouth with antiseptic gel before returning it. At one point in time carp fishing became almost totally barbless.
Then it started to change. It was noticed that the spear on a barbless hook is longer than on a similar barbed hook. Also that the barbless hook is able to move around in the hole more than a barbed one is. The final thing was that barbless hooks often penetrated to a greater depth, even into the bone of the fish's jaw. Now there a growing number of fisheries where barbless hooks are banned, as they are considered to do more harm to the fish.
My point is that there are valid arguments both ways that deserve consideration. If your fishery requires barbless hooks then you should not use barbed ones. The blanket banning of barbed hooks though is not as clear cut a decision as it at first seems.
Personally, if I can get a particular hook in barbless, I will tie on that in preference to de barbing a hook. Hooks have corrosion resistant coatings until you de barb them.
It also appeals to my rather cynical outlook that there is a well known British tackle manufacturer that has a fishery, which they market as a premier C&R fishery. It is very expensive to fish there. The same company also market a range of hooks. Their entire range of hooks is banned from use on their fishery. They have a strict "barbless hooks only" rule. Not de barbed and barbless, barbless only. Yet they do not produce a single barbless hook in their range. I should not go on, I am making a conceited effort not to be cynical.
Cheers,
C.
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I believe the barb has 2 purposes. 1- to keep the worm on and 2- make the hook! Why barbless hooks cost more.
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With the exception of TMC they don't cost more. Last lot I bought cost me about $10/ thousand.
Cheers,
C.
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Alan,
Regarding your story about the tackle company that doesn't market barbless hooks, regardless of that, why do you think their private water is maintained as barbless only?
Don't you think the mouth on a carp, and, therefore, how they take a hook is quite different from a trout's?
PS where is my Small Western Green Drake pattern?
Thanks
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I don't think the wound created by the hook is all that different. I suspect that they just haven't thought it through.
I've given up wondering about that company. They were famous for making bed springs that they sold as fly lines. They had so much memory that when you cast the line retrieved the fly for you.
I'll fire up the camera when I get back from the doctors today. (I fell in just over a week ago and have come down with flu like symptoms. Better get it checked out.)
Cheers,
A.
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Whether you use your vise or pliers, I think the important point is to debarb before you tie the fly. I do occasionally break or otherwise mess up a hook debarbing it, so why risk that after you've invested materials and time tying the fly? Also why spend valuable time on stream, maybe during the last minutes of a hatch, debarbing flies when you could be fishing?
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I agree with you guys but I was mainly directed my suggestion to the Newbies. Flat nose pliers are pretty low on their list of priorities. I suggest the vise process at my sessions just to get the folks started.
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I as a matter of course, I always debarb my hooks when tying. For some strange reason on my last trip, I hooked a 20" brown in the jawbone(?) on a #14 caddis and had a difficult time removing the hook even with forceps. After some concern about over handling the fish, I finally got the hook out and the released brown looked OK afterwards. I need to verify that the barbs are completely down next time when tying. I judge a good hook by noticing if the barbs either just bend or snaps. Snapping barbed hooks tend to have more carbon content but making it more brittle.