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Barbel conservation thoughts?

Lee Poultney said:
I think any hook, barbed or barbless, will cause some damage to a fish. It seems that this is a debate about what level of damage is acceptable to inflict.
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I agree it's just the barbed hook users seem to go a bit over the top every time barbless is brought up, just seems they're over compensating ;)
 
I've seen an angler on lower Benyons make a right mess of unhooking a fish using forceps,if you get a hook hold well past the bend it's much better to ease the hook out using a thumb nail.Difficult to explain but I'm sure you know what I mean.
 
Lee Poultney said:
I think any hook, barbed or barbless, will cause some damage to a fish. It seems that this is a debate about what level of damage is acceptable to inflict.
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Wise words . They are all hooks and they make holes in fishes mouths , use your loaf use the right tools if needed and you can extract them with minimum fuss in a few moments
 
ask yourself one question, if you had fishing rights on a water and stocked up with 10s of thousands of £s and you were advised by very experienced anglers that barbless could inflict much greater mouth damage would you take a gamble and allow barbless if you just paid out say 20.000 pounds in cash,
and prsonally i would rather not fish if i was told it was barbless only
 
I normally use barbless hooks and I cant ever recall thinking I have just damaged the fish's mouth, but when using barbed hooks by comparison it feels much worse when unhooking fish, especially silvers.
 
John Walker said:
ask yourself one question, if you had fishing rights on a water and stocked up with 10s of thousands of £s and you were advised by very experienced anglers that barbless could inflict much greater mouth damage would you take a gamble and allow barbless if you just paid out say 20.000 pounds in cash,
and prsonally i would rather not fish if i was told it was barbless only
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Yet again, someone saying I'm damaging fishes mouths more by using barbless, what a lot of b&&&&&ks :rolleyes:
 
Russell Emms said:
Yet again, someone saying I'm damaging fishes mouths more by using barbless, what a lot of b&&&&&ks :rolleyes:
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Anyone putting a hook, barbed or not, is doing some damage. Whether you believe that barbed or barbless do more damage than the other is down to individual experiences. Some anglers and fishery owners think barbless do less damage, some think the opposite. That's all there is to it, no need to be so defensive. You've made your choice, and good luck to you, others make their own choice. There's absolutely nothing definitive either way. You might be absolutely right, but you might not be. Each individual angler is free to make their own choice as they see fit, unless the fishery concerned enforces a rule on the subject.
 
ok Russel i bow to your absolute knowledge that barbless hooks dont to damage to larger fishes mouths, personally me i am always willing to listen and learn
to others young or older, i have friends that say they do, i have friends that say they dont, i have also seen a lot of close up damage which must have been made by a conjurers magic wand because there was no or very little mouth damage before barbless came on the scene, now logically that tells me something happened after they became generally available:)
 
Hi Everyone,
Bad anglers cause damage to fish, not the tackle..
I don't use Barbless, I use micro barbed, and fish, still do have a good chance of coming off and usually the hooks come out easy, so cant see the benefit of using barbless for specimen fish..
Always use the Fox SSB range in sizes 9 and 10, you cant go wrong with them, they don't blunt on gravel and ive yet to straighten one out..
 
Cliff Turner said:
I normally use barbless hooks and I cant ever recall thinking I have just damaged the fish's mouth, but when using barbed hooks by comparison it feels much worse when unhooking fish, especially silvers.
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With all due respect Cliff you did damage the fishes mouth, you made a hole in it ! I see what you are saying though , inevitably it is harder to extract a barbed hook form a fishes mouth than a barbless one , as you say it feels much worse
 
I always use barbed for big powerfull fish like Barbel, always barbless for small silvers ( bait catching! :) ). How many times do you need to hear it Russell before the penny drops and you do a bit of research on the subject? :rolleyes:
 
I feel most confident with the posh Fox micro-barb ones that come in a plastic foam display case like they were some kind of diamond encrusted jewellery - size 9. I sharpen them and it takes forever to get through 10 so probably worth it. Micro-barb is the best of both worlds for barbel I reckon. JUST MY OPINION.
 
Back in the 90s I was an avocat of barbless hooks and even tried them on my plugs and spinners with disastrous results. When a club that I was then secretary of decided to ban them on its specimen waters I remember kicking off at the meeting. I was then shown photos of a couple of our prime big carp showing the damage a barbless hook can inflict during capture due to the hook turning. These guys were top anglers who were only concerned for the welfare of our stock and convinced me that this was the right decision. I'm quite happy using micro barbed nowadays,...but if I ever manage to stick one in my finger I will no doubt wish that it was barbless!
Quite like the Fox as well Nick.
 
Like this Dave?
 

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"pulled out" I hate that term - torn out would be more accurate. Messy - wouldn't happen with a micro barbed hook.
 
Nick Clark said:
Blimey Howard were did you get that pic from - makes one feel ashamed just to look at it.
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It's a fish I caught from a local commercial Nick. Think I caught 6 or so fish that day and they all had mouth damage- but this was the worst by far. I think I packed up after that. Utterly depressing.
 
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