Barbed or barbless..

[Ronan|Raven]

Just wondering what everyones preference is? I do a lot of spinning for Pike and Trout and usually remove or flatten the barbs on my lures. Loose the occasional fish but I do not find it much of a difference (apart from last night when I lost a lovely trout.....!)

[stevenmu]

When fly fishing I always debarb the hook, I've forgotten once or twice and I've found them much harder to take out. I hate the extra stress that puts on the fish so I always remember now to debarb.

When trolling spinners or lures I tend to leave the barbs on though, I've always found them easy to remove and I don't feel I'm causing the fish any additional stress.

[.Ger]

Originally Posted by Ronan|Raven

Just wondering what everyones preference is? I do a lot of spinning for Pike and Trout and usually remove or flatten the barbs on my lures. Loose the occasional fish but I do not find it much of a difference (apart from last night when I lost a lovely trout.....!)

I use barbless when freshwater fishing (Except deadbaiting) because many moons ago i lost a few due to stress when i intended to release them, and I use Barbed when sea fishing because I think the bait needs that extra bit to keep it on the hook.

[coolwings]

I use barbless for softmouth or leathermouth fish, and micro barbed for hardmouthed fish.
Whatever the target species, if the hook is attached to anything with weight, like eg a spoon, plug or deadbait, I always have a barb on the hook. that's because I've found that headshaking throws barbless hooks where there is weight to fling away during the headshake.

[bitemybanger]

I use barbed for spinning for pike only as they tend to be hooked around the lip area but de-darb when using deadbait. O i use barbed for coarse fish too.