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I was absolutely devastated in France a few weeks ago. Got to the Gite, unpacked my gear, and found that the insert had broken out of the bottom eye of one of my rods. I had taken some spare rods with me, and had my two 11' Outkasts in positions 1 & 3 on my pod, with my spare Korum 10 footer in the middle position. It looked awful!! It sat up higher due to the slightly thicker handle, and it was a helluva job setting the bobbins perfectly because the eye spacing of it was totally different. Completely ruined my holiday. Well not quite, but you get what I mean....

I've made the switch too after a number of lost fish due to slipped hooks. I think I used barbless mainly due to fishing a lot of day ticket waters where there's usually a barbless rule. Didn't see the point in having a bag full of barbed hooks that I don't use. Now I use micro barbs in all my fishing and hook pulls have been eliminated. Definitely agree with the forceps. I have a small pair in the pocket of my cradle with my antiseptic, and use them every time. Getting a good grip on the hook, and treating the hook hold after does as well as using barbless I think without the rotating effect which can be more damaging to a fish's mouth than a barb. Having done a fair bit of pike fishing with barbed trebles in my youth, a micro barbed size 6 isn't much of a problem to deal with.

At the Gite we visit in France, there is no hard and fast rule on barbed or barbless hooks. I have always used barbless hooks for my carping, as most fisheries over here insist that you do and I personally felt that they did less harm to the fish. Whilst over there last year I was using barbless and lost a couple of fish. The bailiff, a really nice guy, suggested I used barbed hooks. I didn't have any in my bag but thought I would use them this year for a change. I felt much more confident using them and only lost one fish, a really big one, right old scrapper that slipped the hook on the way to the net. I was gutted, but feel quite sure had I been using a barbless hook, the fight would have been over long before it actually was. I didn't have any forceps with me, but the bailiff lent me a pair, and these made removing the hooks a doddle, so much so that I purchased a pair of my own as soon as I returned. Trying to remove the hook, even a large size 4, with wet hands can be hard work. Forceps make it so much easier. I am definitely in the barbed camp now, just as long as you have the necessary tools to remove them properly. I have read all the arguments regarding barbed and barbless. I'm a firm believer that all of the damage to a fish's mouth is done by the anglers ham fisted attempts to remove the hook, rather than the actual hook hold during the fight

Meh, OK. Answered my own question with a google image search. Sorry.

There's no need to go into so much detail.....