Barbless hooks (Page 2): Sport y'all have alot of restrictions out there. Any reason for minimum length n weight?

Grizzly 17 Loc: South central Pa

Sport wrote:

Goodmorning Dogman. I bought a few rebel td47 plugs, barbless. Untried, they look good. I also changed a few spoons to owner barbless. The eyes are too small, we'll see. Carolina rigs with plastics is an option. We have an 18" minimum leader length above 1/2 oz or greater on the American River. I've not found large eye replacement hooks barbless. Good luck. I'm in the same boat. TD47's came from discount tackle.

Sport y'all have alot of restrictions out there.
Any reason for minimum length n weight?

Sport Loc: Sacramento county north. California

Grizzly 17 wrote:

Sport y'all have alot of restrictions out there.
Any reason for minimum length n weight?

Hi Grizzly. I think it is to discourage snagging salmon.

mcdclc Loc: Pomona, NY

I have purchased and used barbless hooks in a local pond that requires them. My problem is that I find more fish swallowing the hooks making them difficult to remove without killing some of the fish. I find circle hooks much more humane as the fish mostly get hooked in the lips.

costuros Loc: Petaluma, CA

Not just a pliers, specifically a small needle nose pliers is what I use and it works perfectly. And of course keep the line tight when retrieving a fish.

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.

Grizzly 17 wrote:

Striper if live bait down this way at least Fred 👍

On the Coast it's Circle hooks only, with any natural bait, for Stripers. No barbless hooks.

Sport Loc: Sacramento county north. California

mcdclc wrote:

I have purchased and used barbless hooks in a local pond that requires them. My problem is that I find more fish swallowing the hooks making them difficult to remove without killing some of the fish. I find circle hooks much more humane as the fish mostly get hooked in the lips.

Hi MC, I'm looking for small barbless circle hooks. Size 2,4,6. Owner, Gamakatsu, don't appear to list them. Have you found small hooks?

robert95376 Loc: Tracy, CA

I use barbless hooks pretty much exclusively, and prefer to buy barbless but that's not always an option. When you want to debarb a hook, a dremel is probably the most effective, but I have pliers w/ smooth ends (i.e., no teeth on the grip), and clamp those on the barb then rotate the hook to work the barb down to nothing, or close to it. Simple test (per game wardens) is to put it through your shirt (probably flannel would be ideal) and see if you can pull it right back out w/o anything catching -- if not, GW will call that barbed (generally speaking). So, it's kind of a PITA to completely debarb them, but doable -- hence, I tie my own flies w/ barbless hooks to avoid that annoying debarbing step. Good luck.

As for how much harder is it to land them -- ezpz w/ my 10 ft 2 wt fly rod, quite a bit harder w/ my 5 ft 6 inch ultralight spin rod -- keep pressure on and you can land anything -- let it off and fish is easily gone. On my striper rigs, I also debarb them, and just haul those suckers in as fast as I can holding pressure.

Sport Loc: Sacramento county north. California

robert95376 wrote:

I use barbless hooks pretty much exclusively, and ... (show quote)

Thank you Robert. I have #6 carp/fly hooks, barbless that I like. I'm changing a few striper plugs to single barbless. I'll grind them. Luck to you also.

Grizzly 17 Loc: South central Pa

Sport wrote:

Hi Grizzly. I think it is to discourage snagging salmon.

Ok that makes sense.
I see people trying to snag them on the warden shows.👍

Grizzly 17 Loc: South central Pa

Fredfish wrote:

On the Coast it's Circle hooks only, with any natural bait, for Stripers. No barbless hooks.

That's right Fred I was l thinking barbless.
It is inline circle 👍

Dogman68 Loc: Merced California (centralvalley)

Thanks for all the info on barbless hooks my friends. I think I will try to buy some online if I can find small enough ones. I target trout most times so they need to be small sizes. The circle hooks sound good I have not even seen a game warden for at least 20 years here in cali? For what we pay for a license You would think they would be everywhere!

Sport Loc: Sacramento county north. California

Dogman68 wrote:

Thanks for all the info on barbless hooks my friends. I think I will try to buy some online if I can find small enough ones. I target trout most times so they need to be small sizes. The circle hooks sound good I have not even seen a game warden for at least 20 years here in cali? For what we pay for a license You would think they would be everywhere!

LOL, on the American they are everywhere. You'd think they could stop theft and vandalism in the parks.

Sport Loc: Sacramento county north. California

Grizzly 17 wrote:

Ok that makes sense.
I see people trying to snag them on the warden shows.👍

Also a 6' maximum for the yarn and bead guys. Same thing, snagging.

bd66 Loc: Forestville, CA

After you get the knack of landing a fish on a barbless hook, the landing percentage in all your fishing dramatically improves.

robert95376 Loc: Tracy, CA

Dogman68 wrote:

Thanks for all the info on barbless hooks my friends. I think I will try to buy some online if I can find small enough ones. I target trout most times so they need to be small sizes. The circle hooks sound good I have not even seen a game warden for at least 20 years here in cali? For what we pay for a license You would think they would be everywhere!

Ezpz finding barbless trout-sized hooks online. Try Fly Fish Food or J Stockard for example -- they'll have what you need almost certainly. I personally love the Hanak hooks -- they're super sharp and strong for the size. I don't buy heavy gauge hooks for trout, unless I'm using the hook to weight the fly. Lighter weight hooks penetrate better, generally speaking, so helps with hookups. I tie mostly nymphs cause I love tight-line nymphing, and use 'standard' weight hooks for the most part, sometime even dry-fly hooks for nymphs. That said, I prefer jig hooks most of the time, so standard is typically as light as those go (obviously not used for dry flies).