Barbed or Barbless? by Ralph Manns

Although studies reported in fishing magazines have suggested there is little difference between the survival of fish caught with barbless and barbed hooks, this isn't the case with black bass and larger predators. The studies were almost all made with trout, using small trout flies and/or salmon egg hooks with tiny barbs. On the few studies made with bass, the fish were juvenile and caught only once rather than repeatedly. The hooks typically used to take adult bass are larger and have much more damaging barbs than those found in typical trout gear.

Moreover, the studies measured survival and mortality of hooked fish, without assessing the non-fatal damage done by hook removal. Preventing damage to bass, not just increasing post-release survival, is the main reason we should use barbless hooks.

Now that catch-and release is more popular and the most rewarding fishing waters are those where special limits force the release of most hooked bass, the chances that bass will suffer hook injuries are much greater. For example, any successful angler who routinely fishes Lake Fork will catch many badly injured bass. In the spring of 1999, I estimated more than 50 percent of my catch at Fork had missing, bleeding, and/or baldly torn jaw bones and tissues. I caught many fish with badly distorted and disfigured mouths.

Some of the damaged bass were carrying hooks that someone had clearly cut off the leader at the hook. The unremoved hooks were fairly deep in the gullets of these bass and blocked any possibility that the fish could have eaten large prey successfully. Many of the hook-bearing bass were thin an obviously food deprived. Most of these hooks could have been successfully removed. I removed all of these slightly-rusted hooks by crushing the barbs and backing the hooks out.

Throughout the spring, I would see one or two nice Fork bass float by, belly up, every day -- wasted for either food or future angling enjoyment. Later in that year, the largemouth bass virus hit the Fork population, and poorly handled and released fish became even more likely to die. Some of these bass might have lived if the anglers had used more care in handling and/or barbless hooks.

Bass in Fork and similar waters may be caught repeatedly. My partners and I believe we caught several of the same bass on subsequent trips. Many Fork bass show black blotches that make it easy to identify individual fish. (The blotches apparently are a harmless by-product of catch and release handling, but that's another article)

Barbless hooks reduce damage to mouth and throat tissues when hooks are removed. They also make the removal process much easier, allowing hooks to be reversed out with needle-nosed pliers, and letting anglers carefully go through the gill slit to reverse long-shanked worm hooks caught deep in the throat. The most recent scientific study found that deep-hooked fish are more likely to survive if hooks are removed. Don't cut leaders unless you have no choice, and if you must leave a hook in a bass, leave a foot or more of the leader outside the fish's mouth to let it feed normally during the long, slow natural rusting process.

If a swallowed hook is difficult to reach, cut the line well above the hook and thread the tag end out the back of a bass' gill slit. Pull it tight and the hook will partially reverse, allowing you to more easily extract the barbless hook with a pair of long-nosed pliers.

Big barbs on hooks require harder hooks sets, and bass anglers will hook more bass with barbless hooks. I use them much of the time, and lose very few bass in the process. There are drawbacks, however. Barbs hold live bait on hooks, and barbed hooks must be used with live baits. Circle hooks are best here, unless the water is full of snags, as proper technique prevents deep-hooking bass with these hooks.

Barbs also help keep plastic baits in position for repetitive casting. On tough days when I must cast and cast many times to get a hit, I opt for worm hooks with small barbs. If a barbed hook resists easy removal, I crush the barb with my pliers and then remove it. Then I continue fish with the barbless hook until it is evident that I'm not getting frequent strikes and a slipping-worm is a problem.

Many anglers have recently started using barbless worm hooks, but still insist on using barbed treble hooks on hard baits. My experience is that jumping bass don't throw the barbless trebles or barbless spinnerbaits any more often than those with the smaller barbs that make hooking bass with hard baits so much more effective.

Each sportsman must make his own choices. Decide for yourself when the health of the fish and the fishery is more important than a very slightly increase in the number of fish landed.

Copyright c Ralph Manns, 2003 ralph.manns@charter.net

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