I just take some needle nose pliers and round the barb off. Been doing this because fish a buddies pond and there has been no loss of fish getting to boat and hook slides right off. I do thesame on both my kids rods whether senko. Fluke or Texas rig and works fine

i caught a fish the other day that already had a hook in its throat i say that to let you know that the fish are surviving i did remove the hook without further damage to the fish it does upset me that people are to lazy to remove the hook or maybe they are just uneducated on how to remove a hook in such postion

I did an experiment on barbed vs barbless hooks a few summers ago in my pond after hearing Jimmy Houston say he debarbs all of his hooks. The only fish that got off were small squealers that could jump and clear the surface of the water by a lot and shake the hook. The bigger fish that tend to stay down, or the ones you can keep down when fishing from a boat tended to stay hooked, IF you can maintain pressure on the fish.

I lost one fish on a barbless hook from the boat, only because he wrapped up on a tree and tore it loose.

+1 on the line watching. Even with a full cast of line out, you can see BigGame twitch when the bass takes the senko.

I've alse had good luck with this tool:
http://www.basspro.com/Rapala-Stainless-Tools-Stainless-Forceps/product/30223/63781

It has scissors built in the bottom part of the forcepts. In the event that I do gut-hook a fish, I'll cut the line and work the hook through the gills - sometimes work it all the way through depending on how they are hooked. Fortunately I don't gut hook too many, but occasionally it happpens - but this is a great all around tool.

Brent

Yep, gotta watch your line like a hawk. A lot of times on a senko you won't feel a thing until they've already swallowed it, gotta see it coming.

I don't fish weithgless worms on windy days because you can't watch the line and it will simply turn into a gut-hook fiesta.

No barb sticks em better.

Flouro will make it a lot easier to detect!