Are you crushed??

[Swimmer]

In the spring I do Mikey. Can't see mangling the mouth on all the schoolies.

[jim sylvester]

never....why put yourself in a predicament to loose the fish of a lifetime

I'ld rather cut my hand open to get a barbed hook out than loose a big fish

[Rockport24]

yeah, based on the advice of #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& and others I don't do it. I want every advantage I can get.

[LeCounts1099]

Every hook I throw into the Ocean has a crushed barb-- I truly feel the advantages of greater hook- penetration into a Cows' bony jaw greatly outweighs the distant fear that this will allow my dream- fish to come unbuttoned! You have to solidly hook up that Monster first, to have any chance to land it!-- a feat sometimes with plugs sporting largish- trebles, no matter how sharp! I can honestly say that I don't feel I've ever lost a big Bass because of this... bent- out fresh 4x-strong trebles way more often is my bane!

However, I've gone to what I'd describe as a "75% crush"... where the barb is still there, but crushed enough that it lays roughly parallel to the hook- shank. I feel this give me the advantages of having some/ enough barb... but still the advantage of easier penetration, & easier/ gentler unhooking of released fish (99.9% of mine, esp. cows). Works for me after 10+ years of field- testing!

[shadow]

only my spring time schoolie plugs other then that never.

[goosefish]

freshwater yes, saltwater no--I have no idea really why I do it that way?

[kippy]

only for schoolies or blitz of blues, otherwise no.

[In The Surf]

Sometimes April till the end of the first week of May on cocahoes and 4-6" slug-gos if I'm fishing during that timeframe but that's about it

[Mike P]

Nope--only on the 4" Storm shads, and only because shorts tend to inhale them. Barbless hooks will penetrate a fish's gill just as easily as a barbed one, in any event. You never hurt a fish with trebles when the belly hook is lodged in the jaw. It's always the back hook that gets under their gill plate and does the damage, and barb or no barb, the damage is done. Barbless hooks don't prevent injury to bass--they only make it less likely that you'll injure yourself unhooking a thrashing fish.

What do you do when a big fish plays that dirty rotten trick of reversing direction and swimming right at you, and you're fishing barbless? Can you really reel fast enough to prevent any slack at all from getting into the line? A tiny bit of slack is all it'll take for that barbless hook to fall out

And, there is a big difference between a "true" barbless hook, and a standard hook with the barb filed or crushed down. True barbless hooks have a bend in them that helps the hook stay stuck. I've yet to see a bluefish that couldn't throw a hook with a crushed barb by jumping and shaking its head.