Going Barbless vs Gambling...is it the same thing?

[Bamboozle]

Baron wrote:
I’ve been trying to switch over to barbless hooks but I don’t yet have pliers or hemostats heaven enough to do an accurate and thorough job of crimping the Barb. One thing I do have is Jewelers diamond files And have been filing the barbs off when I install a new hook into the vice. I’ve wondered if this will cause corrosion once the hooks are wetted, used and put away.

Not any more than sharpening a hook would.

In regards to pliers, if you can find a small "electronic" sized pair of long nose pliers, say a 3" long that you like and the jaws aren't smooth, just file them smooth. I've done it more than a few times when I wanted smooth jaws, but the pliers I preferred didn't have them.

Also, take a look at the "beading" pliers they sell in craft stores.

 

[Baron]

I have a pair of nice electrical pliers that would be perfect. They're rigghhht hhhhhere.......no they're rigghhhttt herrrrrre, oops now where are they?

 

[wbranch]

I like fishing with barbed flies. Especially when I am drifting with a friend and he starts to cast to my rising trout. I then "accidentally" make a sloppy back cast and hook him in the ear, or nose, I laugh a lot and he gets the message not to cast to my fish.

Seriously though I rarely use barbless hooks except when fishing big streamers with big and nasty barbs. I always pinch them down very flat before I tie a fly. Modern chemically sharpened hooks have micro barbs and come out of a fish's mouth easily if you grasp the hook at the bend of the hook with a pair of forceps. If I ruin a fly I have others and I don't injure the trout.

If an aggressive trout inhales a fly deep into it's mouth it often bleeds whether you are barbed or barbless. If you want to go barbless then by all means you should embrace it. I personally, although I have no data to support it, don't believe you will catch more, or less, with barbless versus barbed.

I was curious enough to do some research and found this interesting article;

https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Commission/2019/September/Item.10b-Barbed_versus_Barbless_Hooks.pdf

Here is the synopsis of the above study;

The overall results include the combined total mortality from barbed and barbless hooks in all of the studies shown in Figure 1. These mortality values average 2.5% for barbed hooks and 2.6% for barbless hooks. These values are not significantly different (P= 0.424). Mortality for both barbed and barbless hooks on artificial flies and lures are generally very low. The results of all studies thus far indicate that there is no benefit to using barbed or barbless hooks.

 

[wbranch]

Prospector wrote;

I also never fight fish off the reel so that’s a little added attention to keep a tight line.

You never fight fish off the reel? How do you control large trout that run the fly line out in a few seconds and then go deep into the backing? Stripping fish in is a good way to get tangles and lose control of a fish. When I happen to be fishing stocked trout waters and the fish are 12" or less I sometimes don't play them off the reel because they barely have the power to run any line.

 

[tomgamber]

I don't often fight fish on the reel either. Unless a fish puts me on my reel, I usually just strip it in. I have seen more newbies get their line tangled trying to reel up slack than get slack tangled. Fly line is hard to tangle. I might put the fish on the reel if I'm on the bank and would like to get the line away from rocks or vegetation. Most of the time if I get a larger fish, or any fish for that matter, its upstream and the line floats down behind me. I'll play the line until he takes enough that I'm on the reel now anyway. I used a click/pawl reel for a very long time. I got used to controlling drag with the finger I'm using to hold the line to the handle. I can also get the rod up higher with one hand than I can with both hands on the rod and reel if I need to. I know guys that reel everything in on the reel and do it very well. But that's what most of the time I do not.

I'll add that WBranch probably catches a lot more bigger fish than I do. ;-)

 

[falcon]

I fight almost all fish off the reel as its good practice when you catch large wild fish as on the Upper Delaware. Good disk drag reels land fish faster which is a good thing especially for the fish.

 

[allthingsfishing]

I fish barbless, and will never blame losing a fish because the hook wasn't barbed. Human error leads to more lost fish than a barbless hook.

 

[tomgamber]

...Good disk drag reels land fish faster...

That's an opinion. You're entitled to it.

 

[Lou]

Just an addition to my previous post. I bought a tool at Harbor Freight for about $8.00 that is a Rotary Tool Kit. I use the small file that is triangular and just touch the barb enough to eliminate. I hook on to a piece of scrap material to see if it catches. If it doesn't catch you know you got it. I've been able to convert the bulk of my previously tied flies to barbless. I was concerned that it might weaken the point but I've had no issues. Lou

 

[tomgamber]

I flatten the barb in the vice before tying. Although that tool sounds kinda handy for such things. Dremel-like i assume?

 

[dwa111]

I've made the switch to barbless over the past few months and have not notice a difference in landing fish except perhaps in the beginning when I was still trying to bully the fish to the net. I've definitely improved my fish landing skills with the switch. Plus I am very clumsy and would have hooks getting caught everywhere. It's nice not to have that problem.

 

[Baron]

Plus I am very clumsy and would have hooks getting caught everywhere. It's nice not to have that problem.

That is a bigger part of it for me as well.