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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.
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