Do you or don't you debarb your hooks when fishing for large fish ...say trophy trout...salmon...steelhead...saltwater large fish...etc.?
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Do you or don't you debarb your hooks when fishing for large fish ...say trophy trout...salmon...steelhead...saltwater large fish...etc.?
Yep! I fish muskies on the fly Duckster, they're my "trophies" and believe me you don't get "3 a day" so it's important for me to not miss/lose them.
Being barbless hasn't made any difference at all, fishwise!
It's made all the diffrence in the world to me though.
Every now and then I enjoy the company of a friend. He may or may not know to cast well and one of has to buck a breeze, or just not fish a spot. Being in a boat it's inevitable that casting isn't always what you'd prefer.
I've had to remove a (few) 4/0 Daiichi's from my hands over the past 8 years. Even sometimes when a good sized pike will make a surface smash on a fly and miss (often happens) - the reflex hook set is a "bugger!" Ouch!
Oh how I love barbless.
Jeremy.
Barbless all the time. A fish is a fish, reglardless of size or rarity. They all get the same courtesy of a barbless hook.
Barbs make it harder to hook the fish in the first place.
The hooks I use in the salt are not at all sharp out of the box(mustad 3407. As they are, it would take a lot of luck to get one to penetrate a boney fish mouth.
Those big barbs make it even tougher. That amount of steel resists going through bone like tring to put a rope though the eye of a needle
I use a dremel to flatten my barb and sharpen the point to razor sharpness.
I'm not concerned at all about loosing the fish with no barb.
That makes little difference if you don't hook the fish in the first place.
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"too much of anything is bad, but too much whisky is just enough"
Mark Twain
In Arkansas below Bull shoals dam in the trophy trout area you have to use barbless hooks. I debarb all my hooks it is also good for the fish and cause I can catch and release faster.
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Alex
Always, For every reason above!
I always debarb. It is the first tying step. the second is sharpening. I believe that a crushed barb gives you easier penetration and instant hook ups. It is also a much nicer experience if you hook yourself or if some one else hooks you. I had a friend get hooked by his fishing partner w/ 4/0 hook in the cheek, it went right to the bone. I can tell you he was really glad the barb was crushed. Releasing big pike unharmed is difficult enough, with out having to deal with barbs. As for trout, who cares if you land it or not, catch another one.
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Ron M
Like others, I prefer to always debarb my hooks and can say for the most part, still bring in just as many fish as I did before debarbing. Not only do I like to do as little harm the the fish as possible,including myself should I get hooked, I also like not having the hooks hang up in my net.
Bob A
Regs here are barbless, and if you don't, you don't fish with me. Today landed 70% of the fish I hooked, not a barb to be found.
[url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/Dennis212/Trin_122305_13_lc.jpg:e96b6]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/Dennis212/Trin_122305_13_lc.jpg[/url:e96b6]
Dennis
Barbs also illegal here for salmon, don't use barbed hooks for anything.
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LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL