Here's a hot sports opinion, do you know what the canadians require of their fishermen? Barbless hooks. Their studies have shown more than anything, barbless hooks save fish. Think about all that squeezing,tearing, pulling,and yanking of bass we do to get hooks out... not counting the gullet hooked bass. And what about the time we spend retrieveing our bigger, sharper more lethal modern hooks, especially in the summer? Saltwater anglers have gone to japanese "C" hooks to save fish, they are very hard to swallow, & 95% of the time they are hooked in the fish's jaw. How about barbless hooks just in tourneys? or just in summer time? or for pure anglers, not fishermen looking for a fish fry.? I am a texan and i know we are proud of our heritage and tend to eschew things from other countries, but does this one make some sense? these are people that count on fishing tourism as much or more than we do, and they say this is the way to go because they have studied it in depth. Is it going to make it more challenging to land fish? absolutely.. but isnt that part of the reason we love bass fishing anyway?.. the fight? tight line and good hook set required to land fish without barbs, and dont give'em slack ....but you can land them. whatch those canucks catch 12 & 13 pound walleye on barbless hooks, and 4-5 pound smallies "they dont have timber and grass to contend with" you say.... true but they have huge boulders up there and rock piles and mussel beds, the fish get in. Just seems to be a concept that works for the sustainability of the species up there. We love our bass here.... look at all the threads on bass care and the passion for keeping the fish alive (check out the passion on the post of the 15#er killed on choke canyon today if u dont believe me), would barbless hooks have saved her, dont know the circumstances but studies say she would have had a much better chance on a barbless hook.

this is a possible solution that doesnt get mentioned much. so call me a commie, pinko , pacifist, canada lover. not true, just might be a good idea passed from our neighbors to the north that love fishing just as much as we do. so why not? thoughts please

might be worth a shot, i know several years ago bass was sending out pkgs of barbless hooks for the fed tournaments in ca. dont know if they still do or not.

really ? didnt know that. I think it would take education from tpw and some TD's from some of the big tourney's to enact.

thats the only way it would gain momentum. I would like to see it come from the fisherman themselves, rather than some government regulation.

It would be very hard to police in tourneys is the only problem. You would almost have to have a pre-tourney livewell and hook check. but are we willing to do somehting like that if it means we have better fishing and our kids have better fishing?

I've gone to barbless on my soft plastics in the summer due to the number of fish I was having go belly up from being stressed even from a routine hook removal. When the water is 80+, oxygen deprivation is a really bad thing for the fish.

As far as being able to land fish - I landed my personal best 11-4 at night, in timber, on a barbless c-rig. I don't recall losing any fish last summer due to the hook.

I don't think it's a feasible option for tournaments unless on the club level and the players all agree to it. This would have to be a conscious decision by us fisherman, not a mandate.

Good post Sure to drum up some opinions.

why not just go to glass bottom boats so we dont HURT the fish at all..... What a purist joke this is!!!!! Next time you are watching Bill Mahr on HBO just let that socialist idea go before you start coming up with these new fishing ideas for the rest of us. JM2C

SRL it would be nice if an idea can be offered up for a rational discussion without someone acting like the fishing world is coming to a end.

=1

How will barbless hooks work when a 5 pound plus comes up shaking her head with your rattletrap/crankbait in her face?

i would like to know this, lol.

wah wah wah. go hug a tree while i eat a triple burger and park in handicap spaces

hooks aren't killing the fish, people hauling them around in their livewells are.

Wow. When I said this post was sure to elicit some opinions I was at least expecting them to be intelligent responses, not name calling and ridicule.

The man tossed out an idea that could be adopted by "sport" anglers pretty easily and it would have a positive impact on our fisheries. I'm pretty damn good at removing a deeply hooked fish without injuring them. But that extra 30 to 45 seconds that the fish is out of the water, in these temps when the fish is already stressed, is enough to kill them. It bothered me enough last summer that I started mashing down barbs on my soft plastics, in the summer only. If you've never had a fish die from stress or it doesn't bother you, then fine - don't change anything.

As for the 5lb'er with a rattletrap question - lol: I don't mash down barbs on cranks or topwaters. I don't usually get a fish gut hooked that way.

So we shouldn't have tournaments?

just had this discussion on the water today...
Maybe the more common live bait presentation for game fish in Canada has some part to do with it.
I agree that gut hooked fish would be better off with barbless hooks. I don't see how it affects the more common mouth hooked fish?

I'll add that removing a hook from the gut as shown in that illustration showing it being turned via pliers through the gills, does get the hook out, but can definitely harm the bass.

Instead, I bought strong wire cutters & the last 2 times I gut hooked a fish, I cut the hook as close as I could. Put the fish in the livewell & both times they were alive and well hours later.

Here's the kicker, when cleaning my livewell, in the bottom was the other part of the hook that the fish was able to expel!

+2

well if i'm casually fishing (leisure) i will go barbless, but if its any type of practice or tournaments, stick with the barbs. i dont see any issue with using barbless hooks and anyone who complains should really check their attitude towards conservation of our fisheries. it also helps for when you foul hook a fish so that the fish will hopefully free itself quickly as opposed to a fisherman reeling in a fish by its stomach/tail/dorsal etc and making the wound unnecessarily larger than needed. nothing wrong with barbs IMO but to cast stones at the very idea of barbless hooks is very closed minded and has nothing to do with tree hugging. its the same theory thats geared to why saltwater sport/tournament fishers are using circle hooks: it helps reduce mortality rates while still making it possible to catch quality fish.