Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

James Laraway

Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« on: 27/07/2021 at 14:37 »
So, although it is many years since I took a trout of any size ( as I dont like eating them) I have always stuck to barbed hooks.

If I'm on a stocked fishery doing C&R I crush the barbs (as per the rules)  but if I'm on a wild fishery I don't crush the barbs.

More and more hooks are now sold with a barbless option.

So I was just wondering how many of the forum members fish barbless when after wild trout ?

Terry Coging

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #1 on: 27/07/2021 at 17:16 »
Aways barbless or debarbed for all trout and coarse fish. Nothing noble in it - just easier to de hook.

Duncan Inglis

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #2 on: 27/07/2021 at 20:39 »
Barbless or debarred 

Dave Robb

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #3 on: 27/07/2021 at 22:18 »
Preferably already barbless when buying flies / hooks for tying but at the very least debarbed.

The way I see it, if I have to pull that bit harder and rip some flesh to get the hook out of the fishes mouth because it has a barb, one of these days I will have to pull a bit harder and rip my own skin when a fly hits me.

Sod that.  Its just better all round with no barb.

Will Shaw

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #4 on: 27/07/2021 at 22:36 »
All either barbless or crushed barbs.

Mike Barrio

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #5 on: 28/07/2021 at 00:22 »
All barbless is my preference, but I have also crushed the barbs on any that I've received  from friends :z16

Mainly due to my experience at the fishery over the years, and the all too frequent customer visits to the hut for help.

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #6 on: 28/07/2021 at 08:52 »
I also fish with either barbless or de-barded hooks.

James Laraway

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #7 on: 28/07/2021 at 09:56 »
Hi Mike,

By help do you mean people hooking themselves or having issues unhooking ?

regards
James

All barbless is my preference, but I have also crushed the barbs on any that I've received  from friends :z16

Mainly due to my experience at the fishery over the years, and the all too frequent customer visits to the hut for help.

Mike Barrio

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #8 on: 28/07/2021 at 11:00 »
Hi James

Hooking themselves or their boat partners.

Even flies with crushed barbs can be difficult to remove.

I saw a lot of nasty ones and many were better dealt with in A&E.

I changed the fishery rules to barbless flies only in the end  *smiley-unhappy*

Cheers
Mike

Matt Hart

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #9 on: 28/07/2021 at 11:08 »
I completely understand the various points above for debarbing or going barbless...personally I have a selection of equal parts in my fly box and tend not to really think about it....but...

The thing that does annoy me though, is when you get someone up on their moral high horse telling you that they do it "because they care about the fish" - and anyone that fishes barbed hooks obviously doesnt care...I cant help but think well, if you really cared that much about the fish, barbed or barbless you're still stabbing them in the mouth, and dangling them on the end of a line, effectively hauling them to their death as far as they're concerned....so if you really cared about the fish you wouldn't hunt them at all.  Regardless of whether it's just for sport/C&R or for your dinner, you're still inflicting the same experience on the fish with the tiny difference of maybe having a bit more difficulty removing the hook. It doesn't happy too often, but I've came across a few anglers with that mindset, and I just cant get my head around it  *smiley-funny*

Mike Barrio

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #10 on: 29/07/2021 at 21:13 »
I'm not sure why you're voicing your annoyance here Matt, nobody has suggested or implied anything of the sort in this topic.
The forum members are always pretty good at respecting each others views in my experience  :z16

James Laraway

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #11 on: 29/07/2021 at 22:37 »
This forum is an exception though Mike...a good one it has to be said  :z16

I'm not sure why you're voicing your annoyance here Matt, nobody has suggested or implied anything of the sort in this topic.
The forum members are always pretty good at respecting each others views in my experience  :z16

Kav Ring

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #12 on: 30/07/2021 at 21:29 »
I'm barbless all the way or crushed at a push. also try to unhook in the water (both trout and course) unless i'm taking one for the pot. Generally find hook comes free in the net, although I've 'recovered' a few of other peoples barbed flies in fish I've caught!!

Eddie Sinclair

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #13 on: 30/07/2021 at 23:20 »
This is an interesting debate. I have quite a number of barbless hooks that I have tied flies on and an equally large number of barbed hooks that I tie flies on, I don’t often fish on stocked fisheries where the crushed barb thing becomes something that I have to consider,almost all of my fishing is on wild fisheries and I select flies from pattern without thinking is it on a barbed hook or not. I fully understand the rationale for barbless and have no issue with the implementation of this but I am currently on day one of a couple of days salmon fishing on the Dee and I don’t really see the same considerations given to salmon flies as I have for trout.

Thoughts ??

Graham Nicol

Re: Barbed, de-barbed or barbless ?
« Reply #14 on: 31/07/2021 at 07:39 »
I much prefer to tie all my flies with barbs and crush them. The reason is that with rainbows and sea trout when they jump I seem to lose most of them with barbless whereas that tiny crimp left when crushing barbs seems to hold on to the fish.

 




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