Barbless Hooks

BY JOHN BERRY

I recently received an email from a reader. He was concerned about barbless hooks. In Arkansas, we are required by regulation to fish barbless hooks in Catch and Release areas. The point of contention was that he took great pains to mash down his barbs was concerned if it was enough to pass the scrutiny of the Arkansas Game and Fish enforcement officers? He had heard that they would put the hook point in a cotton ball and see if the barb would catch anything. My clients and I have been checked on several occasions in the past and this has never really happened to us. When I have been checked, the officers examined the hook but never passed it through a cotton ball. This is not always easy especially when you are fishing a size twenty two midge dry fly. The question remains, what is adequate to pass inspection? Since this can be a subjective determination, well meaning anglers can be in violation of the law, despite their best efforts. I feel that, if you make your best effort, you will be OK.

To avoid this problem, I have been switching my choice of hooks to ones that are factory barbless (hooks made without a barb by the manufacturer). I have encountered a few problems with this strategy. The number of hooks made without barbs is quite limited. To date, I have only found scud, nymph and dry fly hooks that are barbless. I have found no local source for other types of barbless hooks.

I have also found that barbless hooks to be more expensive. I do not understand why hooks that require fewer steps to manufacture cost more than hooks that require more steps. They certainly contain the same amount of metal.

I still own hundreds of barbed hooks and I am too cheap to discard them. Maybe I should donate them to some fly tying group that needs materials.

For those flies that I tie, for which I cannot find barbless hooks, I pinch down the barbs as I tie them. I have acquired a pair of Tiemco barb mashers. This is a great tool that I could not do without. They have smooth flat jaws that do quick work on any barbs. The handles are fairly long to provide plenty of leverage. The finger holes are coated with plastic to provide a certain amount of comfort. I have found it best for me to mash the barbs for all of the hooks before I tie the flies. You do not want to spend several minutes tying a fly only to break the hook as you pinch down the barb. I generally lay out the hooks a dozen at a time and debarb them all at once.

Over the years, I have tied thousands of flies and there are many that I still have that I did not debarb, when I tied them. To fish them, I have to pinch down the barb on stream, as I tie them on my line. I use my forceps and it is a hit or miss proposition. I always check the barb after I attempt to mash it down. Sometimes I have to go back and redo it. Occasionally, when I land a fish, I notice that the hook is a bit difficult to remove and I mash down the barb again.

All of this may possibly change. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is proposing the elimination of the barbless hook requirement for Catch and Release areas. Under the new regulations, you would be able to fish artificial lures with up to three treble hooks. According to the Commission, recent studies have shown a very low mortality rate with the treble hooks. The reason that we have a barbless hook rule in the catch and Release areas is to significantly lower the hook mortality rate. I personally cannot see how a lure with three barbed treble hooks can have a low hook mortality rate.

I personally started using barbless hooks a long time ago, well before the establishment of Catch and Release areas when I became a convert to Catch and Release fishing. But that is not the only reason that I fish barbless. I found that barbless hooks do much less damage to me and others around me than the barbed ones do. Whenever and wherever I fish, I fish barbless. I will continue debarbing hooks after the regulations change. I hope that you do the same. It will be safer for all of us.