Barb'ed or Less?

[Hookup]

Well, who fishes with barb-less hooks, and who keeps the barbs?

I personally keep the barbs for now, till I get more experience with the whole system.. I do envision going barb-less next year on most of my flies, simply to increase the difficulty of landing fish. Not sure if I'll stick to that plan come next year, but with 8 months to go, it's a plan for now.

So what about you folks? Barbed? Barb-less?

I didn't do a Poll because likely some will have "i use barb-less in the following situations" which was really the point of the post, not stats.

[Salar]

I fish all of my flies barbless since I release all of my fish. For me it's not a numbers game so if a few fish get off because of no-barb then that's fine with me. I think going barbless makes a person a better fly fisherman since you have to play the fish smartly and always keep tension on the fly.

Baitless and barbless.

Salar.

[Fishboy]

I've been fishing barbless for the better part of 20 years. Salar is right on the money, in my opinion, about it challenging you to become a better angler. In addition, there is less damage to the fish's mouth and the hook can be removed relatively easily allowing for a quicker release.

Oh yeah, when you hook yourself (and we all do at some point) it's easier to get the hook out of your own flesh.

[Todd B.]

100% barbless. Big deal if you lose a few. Long Distance Releases are the easiest!

[Salar]

Here's an interesting article on fishing barbless flies:

http://www.highcountryflies.com/turck/f ... rbless.htm

[JeanDorais]

All my hooks are rendered barb-less before I start tying on. I only catch and release, so it's important to me to be able to release the fish quickly. And as others have pointed out, long-distance releases are the easiest!!

Jean

[uberfish]

I go barbless for ease of release, often just bring the fish in, give it some slack and off it goes, don't even have to lay a finger on it. I've lost fish off barbed and barbless and don't think being barbless affects my catch rate (or it is less of a factor than other things, like casting out to where the fish are, good drift, etc). I pinch the barb with my tying vise and haven't had hook breaking issues. It would be great if hooks were produced barbless (but not if that increased cost of course).

[Todd B.]

uberfish,

What would you expect. They have to charge more for using less metal.

[Salar]

It would be great if hooks were produced barbless (but not if that increased cost of course).

You can buy barbless hooks but they're typically more expensive and harder to find.