Crushing hook and treble barbs -pro's and cons

[The Mad Hughesy]

Hey AFO,

Who on here crushes the barbs on their hooks and trebles? Wether it be for easy removal from fingers and other body parts, or releasing fish much more easily..

Me personally, I have never been lucky enough to bury a hook in myself, I'd imagine it'd hurt like all buggery, I leave my barbs as is. My only concern about squashing them is that it has a greater risk of pulling the hook or treble from a fishes mouth... What exp have you all had with this? For those who do crush barbs, have you found that you loose more fish? Or are you more concerned with having the fish released quickly and safely than landing more fish?

Chris

[rayke1938]

I crush the barbs on all my hooks when bait fishing as I release most of my fish.

I normally use wide gape hooks for my freshwater bait fishing and the fish are usually hooked in the side of the mouth and even with the despised forky the hook is easy to remove.

I have crushed some of the trebles on my lures and really should do all of them.

With a lure treble it if the hook is deeply embedded and the inconvenience to go to nearest hospital to have it removed.Whilst in around 60% of the time you can remove the hook there are instances where the hook has gone through a tendon in your hand where surgical intervention is necessary.

I have not noticed any difference in the number of dropped fish.

One thing it is quite difficult to purchase barbless hooks with the only ones that I could find are carp hooks from the UK

Cheers

Ray

[The Mad Hughesy]

Thanks for that ray. Good to hear from someone that fishes quite regularly. Especially in regards to number of fish landed

[Manni79]

I don't see a problem with barbless hooks and have used a number of times. Just keep the tension on the fish and you won't have any issue dropping fish.

In actual fact you'll probably have a better hooked up rate with barbless hooks, there is actually less resistance to set the hook as opposed to a barbed hook

[Luvit]

I crush most of my lure hooks for my own safety. The only time I have found it a disadvantage is when a cod pulls you back into structure and you release tension on the line to hopefully allow her to swim out. Otherwise if you have tension on it at all times I don't think you would drop any more fish. Would lose more to poor rod work and impatience IMO.

[PlasticFantastic]

I've started crushing the barbs on my trebles especially yak fishing as it makes it a lot easier to release the fish easily as for losing fish as long as you keep tension on the line i dont think there shouldn't be any issues also not sure if it helps but crushing the barb would make for an easier hook set as you're not having to drive the treble in past the protruding barb.

Cheers

Mark

[Dinodadog]

Only barbs I have crushed are the one on the spinner bait to get the stinger hook on. Never had any trouble with releasing fish thats got anything to do with barbs on hooks. But have had trouble being hooked up myself a few times.

Dino

[regulated]

I don't see a problem with barbless hooks and have used a number of times. Just keep the tension on the fish and you won't have any issue dropping fish.

In actual fact you'll probably have a better hooked up rate with barbless hooks, there is actually less resistance to set the hook as opposed to a barbed hook

Agree.

Peter Pakula actually did a very good discussion on the science behind hooks.

Main points were:

Better hookup without a barb,

sharpness of the hook,

Angle of hook point,

rest of the hook shape dramatically affects the actual hook up and hook up rate,

Lb line needs to be matched to a certain hook design,

drag setting needs to be matched to a certain hook design,

hook dynamics in the water ie how it sits and moves while traveling will get a better hook up for a certain fish. Marlin 330' to 30' proved the best results.

hook needs to be matched to the fish.

So much in it I couldn't believe we actually caught fish with off the shelf hooks.

[regulated]

Other funny fact he said was barbless hooks hardly sell in australia because there is a stigma behind them, people don\'t buy them because they think they will loose more fish. They will also not get as many hook ups as manny said because you have the extra resistance of forcing the barb through.

I still use barbed hooks because I am shocking and keep dropping tension.

[Gad]

Agree.

Peter Pakula actually did a very good discussion on the science behind hooks.

Main points were:

Better hookup without a barb,

sharpness of the hook,

Angle of hook point,

rest of the hook shape dramatically affects the actual hook up and hook up rate,

Lb line needs to be matched to a certain hook design,

drag setting needs to be matched to a certain hook design,

hook dynamics in the water ie how it sits and moves while traveling will get a better hook up for a certain fish. Marlin 330' to 30' proved the best results.

hook needs to be matched to the fish.

So much in it I couldn't believe we actually caught fish with off the shelf hooks.

WOW.. before I read that, I thought I was a reasonable fisho :cheer: now, I realise I`m just plain arssy

[The Mad Hughesy]

So crushing the barbs seems to be the way to go... Il have to try it next time

[samsteele115]

I've been wondering about this for a while. I'm a c-rap fisherman and drop fish anyway so I may as well crush the barbs :whistle:

Do you literally get some pliers and squash them? I'm presuming there's no fancy way of doing this

[rinkerdink]

Other funny fact he said was barbless hooks hardly sell in australia because there is a stigma behind them, people don\'t buy them because they think they will loose more fish. They will also not get as many hook ups as manny said because you have the extra resistance of forcing the barb through.

I still use barbed hooks because I am shocking and keep dropping tension.

I have noticed a few stigma's in my short time here, I think it's largely due to the myth (IMO) of the whole built for Australian conditions sales pitch. I got told recently that if you dropped an overhead or spinning reel in the sand it would never ever work again and that I should be looking at an Alvey for surf fishing. I know you can buy barbless trebles from Europe as they are preferred by many specialist pike anglers as they help with the hook up and a quick catch and release philosophy.

[regulated]

You can file them off. Even thinner

[rinkerdink]

http://www.tedcarter.co.uk/drennan/drennan-e-sox-extra-strong-pike-trebles

I recently bought an overhead surf rod from this crowd, very quick and what I thought was reasonable delivery costs. With a £-$ rate as it is I think it might be worth a look. Subtract 17.5% from prices for VAT/GST if it's delivered anywhere other than UK.

They only seem to have semi-barbless (crushing the barb gives a similar effect) hooks on the site rather than full barbless.

Apparently they do ocaissional free worldwide shipping offers - I'm on the mailing list :-).

Sorry it looks like an advert for them, I promise I have no affiliation :-D

[rinkerdink]

yes get some long nose pliers and try and squash the point of the barb back onto the hooks body, not a very good description but it should look like a bump after the point when you are done instead of a proper barb

[freedomhawk12]

I don't see a problem with barbless hooks and have used a number of times. Just keep the tension on the fish and you won't have any issue dropping fish.

In actual fact you'll probably have a better hooked up rate with barbless hooks, there is actually less resistance to set the hook as opposed to a barbed hook

Agree.

Peter Pakula actually did a very good discussion on the science behind hooks.

Main points were:

Better hookup without a barb,

sharpness of the hook,

Angle of hook point,

rest of the hook shape dramatically affects the actual hook up and hook up rate,

Lb line needs to be matched to a certain hook design,

drag setting needs to be matched to a certain hook design,

hook dynamics in the water ie how it sits and moves while traveling will get a better hook up for a certain fish. Marlin 330' to 30' proved the best results.

hook needs to be matched to the fish.

So much in it I couldn't believe we actually caught fish with off the shelf hooks.

WAs that at the offshore night a few weeks ago. That was an awesome talk he gave a d I don't do offshore fishing of any sort but his talk on hooks was extremely interesting.

[mick fillet]

Charltons sell barbless hooks. I've bought many a box of barbless hooks over the years.(trebles). I don't really notice a diferance in the hook up rate. How ever I have to say I have never landed a foul hooked fish on barbless hooks all foul hooked fish from squire to bass have all been landed on barbed hooks.

I will never use barbless hooks surf fishing or deep droping offshore cause I think the barb allows the bait to stay on the hook and stays presented nicley and the barb stops the flesh bait slumping down into the gullet of the hook

[aussie123]

Barbless hooks work fine on most fish with little noticeable difference in catch rates.

Where you do lose a lot of fish on them is when you are catching certain fish that jump a lot.

Trout were always one fish that you would lose plenty of when they jumped as it was often hard to keep a tight line and the weight of the lures would dislodge the hooks very easily.

If chasing Marlin,hook points and barbs are best ground down to enable better penetration through the bone.

Light tackle hooks are best when a fine wired hook is used with a longer narrower point and virtually no barb as it is very hard to drive a hook home through the bone on light line and rods.

Heavy tackle is best with a thicker gauge hook with the point ground nearly off and a new short but sharp point made.Also the barb should be taken down by at least half but it as not as critical as it is on light tackle.

Back in the days before chemically sharpened hooks we always ground the barbs off our hooks when chasing large snapper on 1kg line.

It was near impossible to get a sold hook up with barbed hooks on 1kg because of the boney mouths that a snapper has.

[sunnydays]

Interesting thread! I might give it a go too.

[Little Grey Men]

The majority of my fishing is chasing bass in a kayak, as I've said on a few other sites when this topic comes up, the only time I use barbs on hooks is when I forget to crush them. I don't like the idea of barbed hooks getting stuck in me while the other hooks on the lure may be stuck in a strong angry bass that's having a fit trying to get away.

I like the idea of sliding the hooks easily out of the bass as well, also I can't remember how many times I've hooked small bass in the eye after they've swiped a lure, a crushed barb means they get to keep that eye. Releasing the bass in the best possible condition appeals to me.

And as others have said, keep the pressure on the fish and you should be fine.