You know!;)

Crush all barbs all the time easy on the fish and on me or my fishing partner,saved a trip to the hospital a couple of time.

I generally use treble hooks and generally crush the barbs. I don't have hooks for different fish. So I generally crush them all. I know it makes it a lot easier to get them pesky Bloooooooofish off. Thats usually all I catch anyway.

glad to hear so many folks are crushing them down.. :kewl:

i will sleep better tonight :D

I never crush the barbs.Which is sick as much as I fish IN the water.I have had hooks in my hand also.Its not fun.ur skin is amazing its like shoe leather.thanks for the reminder.I don't really bother with skoolies.So they are safe.

I crush the barbs down on all of the hooks on my plugs and jigs. I also sharpen my hooks frequently so that they are always sharp.

No barbs except on jigs. Hook more fish, loose more, catch more, less risk to myself.

95% crushed , only the real big guns have barbs

I only crush em when I'm into alot of schoolies or bloofish. I don't trust those evil bastids.

I don't go schoolie fishing in the spring, I usually wait until Mid may and liveline Herring (not this year tho) I never crush barbs

Always crush the barbs....Easy release..

barb-barb- barb
 

ex-zac-ly...me too....nothin like remembering pullin a 3/0 out of your hand on monomoy one night ,to help squesze the barbs ...:eek: :eek:

I love Barb,Why would I smash her.??

Take this advice, you won't be disappointed. Definitely crush down those barbs, but do it this way: using pliers, grasp the point end of the barb and crush it to the hook shank. Leave a bump in the barb at the proximal end (towards the shank). This will act as a partial barb, and usually keep the hook embedded. You are lessening the resistance of the barb to penetration into the fish's jaw, and the pinched hook will be easier to drive deeper into that jaw. The bump from the pinched barb will keep the hook there pretty sufficiently, and I don't feel that I've lost more fish by doing this.
Also, I like the fact that doing this makes it easier to release...me. Landing large bass, I've driven hooks into inconvenient places such as my thigh, and through the nail on my middle finger. Pinched barbs made it easier to avert an abrupt end to my fishing trip in each case. I have a fishing buddy who was landing a bluefish and had a hook (barb unaltered) driven into his hand. He now has no feeling in that part of his hand, and that happened a few years ago.
Pinching barbs shouldn't have a large effect on numbers of fish landed (if you do as instructed above, and keep pressure on the fish while fighting it), but even if you do lose a couple, it may save your body parts.

Always crush. Goes in easier, comes out easier. I leave a bump like the above example (actually it's almost impossible not to..).