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Barbless hooks?

Ian Orchard

Ian Orchard

New Member
I use Gardner talon tip wide gape size 8 with a micro barb for virtually all of my barbel fishing. I was wondering the other day whether the micro barb was needed given the soundness of most barbel hook holds and the fact that we generally keep pressure on during the fight? I'd be interested in the thoughts of anglers who use barbless.
 
My fishing mate has river fished with only barbless hooks for a couple of years (ever since a bad experience with braided mainline).

He hasn’t lost many (if any fish) during that time. He tends to use fairly small (10, or sometimes 8) hooks and mono mainline these days.

FWIW I lost a barbel earlier this year on a micro barbed hook……..
 
I only use barbless hooks with the odd exception. I currently use Guru SMWG a lot (switched over from Drennan Super Specialist after some issues) rarely above a 10, a few carp hooks here and there, Drennan Ac Carp Pellet on the float 10 or 12.

The exception would be if I’m fishing somewhere that has a barbed only rule (e.g. Kings Weir) then a Drennan Specialist Barbel.
 
I use a barbed hook with the barb squeezed down to create a bump for barbel
I can’t remember the last time I lost one. (Although I don’t catch loads)
The bump is there to simply stop it falling out when it’s resting in the net as this happens a lot with just straight barbless hooks and I do fear it has potential to prick her in other places
Size 16/18 with maggots on the float I use micro barbed. It does make a difference to losses in these tiny sizes and I feel the risk of them trailing any tackle on float gear in the event of a break is extremely minimal. Usually just a tiny hook.

I’ve put a lot of thought into my hook patterns and types for certain fishing and I believe I’m fishing as safely as I can be
 
Used to always use barbless and rarely lost a fish but when I changed rods I was losing probably a third of the fish I hooked normally under the rod tip so it wasn’t like it was a poor hook hold as I’d played the fish to the bank before losing it. After losing what felt like a monster on the lower Severn I switched to micro barbed and only very rarely lose them now and it’s always straight after hooking them if I do.
 
I've caught quite a few barbel trailing varying lengths of braid and mono attatched to barbless hooks which had gone right round and out of the fishes flesh, so fixed permenantly! Infact the majority of the hooks I have removed from barbel have been barbless.
Imo, the theory of a barbless hook falling out is flawed.
A barbed hook doesn't keep penetrating once it is fixed, a barbless hook will keep prodding about as the angle is changed and can come right through, often folding over as this one had done ....



The fishs body was trying to reject the hook and it had a very large disfiguring infected swelling which I doubt would ever get anything like back to normal if the fish was lucky enough to survive.
A well known angler and perch fishing specialist Steve Burk actually banned barbless hooks from his waters because they penetrate so deep. Because a perches heart isn't far down it's throat and very often perch are hooked there Steve said that barbless hooks often punctured the perches heart, killing them, hence his ban of them...food for thought maybe?

Personally I feel much happier using a micro barbed hook.
 
I use bank tackle barbed hooks but always use forceps to flatten the barb, but I have and would also use barbless hooks with confidence. Per Ian's post above I don't believe barbless hooks go deeper, the barb makes it harder for hook to come out, not go in imo. Ive had a few in my fingers to prove that too.
 
Ian Woods said:
I've caught quite a few barbel trailing varying lengths of braid and mono attatched to barbless hooks which had gone right round and out of the fishes flesh, so fixed permenantly! Infact the majority of the hooks I have removed from barbel have been barbless.
Imo, the theory of a barbless hook falling out is flawed.
A barbed hook doesn't keep penetrating once it is fixed, a barbless hook will keep prodding about as the angle is changed and can come right through, often folding over as this one had done ....



The fishs body was trying to reject the hook and it had a very large disfiguring infected swelling which I doubt would ever get anything like back to normal if the fish was lucky enough to survive.
A well known angler and perch fishing specialist Steve Burk actually banned barbless hooks from his waters because they penetrate so deep. Because a perches heart isn't far down it's throat and very often perch are hooked there Steve said that barbless hooks often punctured the perches heart, killing them, hence his ban of them...food for thought maybe?

Personally I feel much happier using a micro barbed hook.
Click to expand...
My experience is bizarrely the opposite
I’ve removed a lot of hooks and rigs from fish especially in popular venues like parts of the Trent and every single one was barbed. Some of these hooks don’t seem to rust or corrode quickly either meaning the potential of dragging rigs for many many days.

Barbless hooks from my experience fall out so easily I got quite worried about it because it was happening all the time. Fish swimming round in the net with an exposed sharp hook somewhere in there with it which is why I adopted to the squashed barb. Resolving that problem mostly.

I don’t believe barbs stop or reduce hook penetration at all. They just stop hooks coming out.
 
Thats a kamasan animal barbed hook, I could pull hard on that and it was fixed. If it had been the barbless version it would have gone right in to the bottom of the shank.

 
Ian Woods said:
Thats a kamasan animal barbed hook, I could pull hard on that and it was fixed. If it had been the barbless version it would have gone right in to the bottom of the shank.

Click to expand...
That can’t go in any deeper Ian
Barbed or barbless you would have to physically twist the hook back over to get that to go into your hand further. Pulling on the line is just going to make it hurt more 🤣
 
Another point we’ve also got to consider is the amount of force we apply to a hook through our rods.

It’s often enough to straighten thin gages of hook. People tend to forget that when the barb theory’s are talked about.

“Barbed hooks don’t twist or penetrate or turn etc etc.”

I say they do …..! With that amount of pressure applied to the hook there’s no way that little barb is doing anything to stop it moving or turning where ever it wants to go during the fight.
IMO barbs of any description do 1 job and they do it very well. Prevent the hook from coming out.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
That can’t go in any deeper Ian
Barbed or barbless you would have to physically twist the hook back over to get that to go into your hand further. Pulling on the line is just going to make it hurt more 🤣
Click to expand...

I was experimenting, odd as it sounds 😉, I did exactly the same with a identicl hook in the barbless examples and the hook did go right in to the bottom of the shank. They were only size 14s and not thick wire so it looks much worse than it was. I found the barbless hook did hurt more going in and whilst in there. Removing them, the barbless did come out by pulling it with my finger and thumb, I used a disgorger on the barbed a quick shove and it out. If you press the hook back against your flesh so as to let the barb follow the track it made on entry it cmes out quite easily.

A thought....no one pushed the one in the fishs mouth round as it was. The hook was very similar to those pallatrax hooks in shape, kind'a similar to a circle hook.

I remember using barbless hooks when catching carp and numerous times the hook point had come right throught and caught on the landing net mesh and pulled out the other side of the fishs mouth so I had to cut off the hook and pull the line back out.

I'm not preaching to anyone or trying to tell anyone what hooks to use, i'm just pointing a few things out is all 🙂👍.
 
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