Barbless?

[quivira kid]

Do any of you guys mash the barbs down on jigs?
Reason I ask is that on my flies I use specifically for trout and bluegills, I've gotten into the habit of making my them barbless for ease of removal more than anything. Gills have such small mouths, trying to wrestle a fly out of their mouth is typically hard enough. With barbless stuff, they slide right out and I can either get them back in the water or in the basket faster and get back to fishing.

So far, my jigs have stayed barbed. For all-around fishing for crappie and bass, those barbs help a lot more than they hurt. BUT, does anyone go barbless on their jigs?

It's probably ridiculous to even think about it, but it never hurts to throw out ideas and get some feedback! I've asked plenty of pretty dumb questions before, and it'll happen again...

Zac

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

I do when I'm trout fishing because they go back and I don't care if they get off. All my other jigs the barb is up and ready.

 

[Jig Man]

No such thing as a dumb question... Unless your dumb like me!!! Anyway, all my stuff has barbs. I'm not blessed to have a place to trout fish and I keep most stuff thats legal. I do carry hemostats to help with removal, but nothing wrong with going barb-less. Seems like there are some places that require hooks with no barbs, but none near me. Anyway thats more than I've said in awhile...

 

[SaltyBuckster]

I'm sticking to barbs,lol.Bad enough when you can't catch a fish.Then to lose a gigantic one at the boat because I did'nt want a barb on my line,Ha.

 

[hhawkins]

When I'm trout fishing for fun, I use barbless it saves the fish, but when I'm fishing for anything else, it is barbed hooks....don't want that big one to get away.

 

[jjsjigs]

110% barbless on everything I fish with. I find no diff in my hook up/landing rate.

 

[Pup]

The big plus, to me, is that a barbless hook is easier to remove from my body parts.

 

[deathb4disco]

I do it quite a bit. I've got a Lefty Kreh DVD where he advocates going barbless. To prove barbless hooks hold, he hooks a bass, lays his rod down for about a minute, and then picks the rod up and lands the still-hooked bass.

 

[StumpHunter]

I have never used barbless but I am going to try some flies next time I'm trout fishing.

 

[smallmouth]

As you may surmise from my "handle" I love to fish for smallmouth. Almost all my hooks are debarbed even the trebles on my crankbaits. (That takes awhile!) A couple of weeks ago I was fishing my favourite smallmouth river and thought I had hooked into the smallmouth of a life time. It turned out to be a 14 pound musky, the first one I've ever caught. I was certainly thankful that the hook was not barbed for "Mr. Nasty Jaws"! I had put away the flyrod as the wind was so strong it was blowing me back upriver against the current. This fish had at least 3 hook points in him from the Storm HotnTot I caught him on. Between hooks in the fish and hooks caught in the net "barbless" allowed me to land and release the fish without incident.

I will concede, however, that I lose a lot of quality smallmouth on the leap with my barbless approach. Last week I lost an absolutel brute of a smallmouth. I took the fish deep and it stayed there bulldogging with my rod bent to the water for close to 10 minutes. When I finally worked him to the surface he/she was easily one of the best I've hooked into. I was just getting ready to lip the fish when a guy in a motorboat roared by me about 30 metres away. Just as the wake crashed over the sides of my Tarpon the fish finally jumped and threw the hook. Thanks to the drainage from my scuppers this wasn't the disaster that it could have been. Man was I "ticked"! Here's a pic of the musky. Sure would have liked a picture of that smallie.

God Bless,
Don