Barbless?!?!

[Charlie Gonzales]

Nice post Paul.

The main reason I have pinched the barbs on most of my flies is that I fish the upper river so much, and must stay within the Regs.

[Ed Wahl]

Good reply Paul.

Maybe everyone should spend a little time in a meat line to learn to keep that fly over their shoulder.

I gotta add though,, you left a big opening for crass one liners. Like Darian said in a different post,.....must....resist.

So, with the A being barbless, do you think you may have dropped any more fish there than when using barbed flies in the delta?
Most of the stripers that I've released(very few compared to yours) I just backed it out, how is it with barbs up? Are pliers required? Lip mangling?


The only studies that I've seen involved trout, not these burly warm and salt water fish.

I've passed the point of hooking myself a long time ago, so now for me it's purely a question of survival of the hooked fish.

Just so you know, I still totally suck on the hook set. Seems like it's ingrained. So many years of trout fishing, it's tough to change up.

Shoot me a note when you've got an empty boat, I'd love to shove a hook in your ear, I mean, fish with you.

Ed

[Charlie Gonzales]

Ed in my experience most of the fish arent hooked real deep; more around the interior of their lips, or corner of the mouth. I just happened to have a years worth of drops in one night.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I have several reasons I fish barbless:

So I won't get a fine because where I am fishing has barbless regs.

So I can get the hook out of someone's skin or clothing easier,even mine.

So my flies last longer because I don't have to work as hard to remove them.

So the event is easier on the fish too.

I don't think we loose that many fish because we fish barbless.

This just my opinion from fishing barbless sense around 1975 for every kind of fish you can imagine with lots of other people too.

Doesn't mean I am right though................just my feelings.