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Barbed vs barbless


phil dalts

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Hi,recently went fishing,another angler had a carp,got it in and realised the bar less hook had come out re caught under fish by gill plate,tore a huge hole(don't think will survive). My point is- if he was using barbed this might not have happened, I use barbed and NEVER have problems. We examined fishes mouth and you could see puncture mark in lip

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I would be more interested to work out how the hook came out and then re-hooked the fish.

It can happen very easily, although it usually doesn't cause damage as severe as this. If a hook pulls with a fish facing any direction other than straight at the rod, the hook has a chance of hooking another part of the fish.Ā 

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Unless rules dictate otherwise, I always use a barbed hook. Barbless hooks can move during the fight creating larger holes in a fishes mouth, where as a barbed hook will lock in place and won't slip. The only danger a barbed hook poses to excess mouth damage is when they are being used by anglers that don't know how to remove them.Ā 

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It can happen very easily, although it usually doesn't cause damage as severe as this. If a hook pulls with a fish facing any direction other than straight at the rod, the hook has a chance of hooking another part of the fish.Ā 

Ā 

Unless rules dictate otherwise, I always use a barbed hook. Barbless hooks can move during the fight creating larger holes in a fishes mouth, where as a barbed hook will lock in place and won't slip. The only danger a barbed hook poses to excess mouth damage is when they are being used by anglers that don't know how to remove them.Ā 

Ā 

I cant see how a barb of any size can stop a hook twisting in a soft medium such as flesh, surely a barb only restricts a hooks movement in one direction?

Ā 

Barbed or barbless, it sounds as if the fish had either been lightly hooked, or played too hard, or played with an unforgiving setup.

Ā 

Or lets face it, sheer bad luck.

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I really don't know where I stand on this, until I started on this forum I always thought barbless was the best option, but there are quite a few statements like this about the hook coming out and back in, which does worry me, as it makes sense this can happen. My worry with barbless is the difficulty a fish would have loosing the rig if the line snaps.

Ā 

What is the correct way to take out a barbed hook?

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Nice one Newmarket, thanks, not sure how I mixed that one! That is how I'd do it I think, definitely wouldn't be twisting the hook about inside the wound. Just thought I'd ask as I've seen it mentioned a few times and thought there might be something i was missing.

Ā 

If I'd a choice, I'd go micro barb...

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I really don't know where I stand on this, until I started on this forum I always thought barbless was the best option, but there are quite a few statements like this about the hook coming out and back in, which does worry me, as it makes sense this can happen. My worry with barbless is the difficulty a fish would have loosing the rig if the line snaps.

Ā 

What is the correct way to take out a barbed hook?

It's worth noting that what happened to this fish can just as easily happen with a barbed hook. A couple of times before I have had hook pulls and the hook has caught hold in the carp's pectoral. It's a part of fishing that is out of our control, it is a rare occurrence but something that is always possible.Ā 

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If I'd a choice, I'd go micro barb...

Ā 

all of my hooks are Microbarb (well all the ones i use anyhoo).

just take a pair of pliers along and if you need to just crush the barb.

if you do it right, just grab the barb by the very end and you can form a hump on the hook. while this is no longer a barb i think it still offers some resistance to slippage of the hook.

that is MY take on it anyway :wink:

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I'm still in the barbless do less damage camp.

Every fishery I have ever visited, even the ones where the owners have an interest in the fish (and the breeding of them) rather than the monetary gain, all recommend barbless hooks.

Surely they can't all be wrong?????

Edited by smufter
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Feel free to switch opinions, or change according to venue, weather or time of day, as (at least in the 10 years I've been here) we fight out barbed v barbless about every 6 months. [emoji2] I sometimes fish in Manitoba or British Columbia where barbless is law so I carefully comply, and will use either when in my home province depending on situation. I believe mouth damage is often caused by anglers' poor technique and will occur with barbed hooks as well as barbless based on what I've seen. Once in a blue moon you just hook a berzerker fish and there's going to be no way to keep even pressure on while they jerk around.

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  • 2 weeks later...

All last year on mid Kent, mainly fishing one lake, never noticed any mouth damage, rules are barbed only. This year been fishing thorney weir and noticing quite a bit of mouth damage including one proper "parrot". It's not conclusive, but I'm starting to think barbed are better for the fish. One big pro for barbless is the improved chance of getting rid of a rig in the case of getting snapped off.

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