Barbless Hooks Again

[JackPike]

Yesterday I fished at a nice commercial fisherie

didnt catch much till later on in the evening and had some nice tench but I noticed the mouths on most of the fish where battered lips torn barbles missing and where my hooks have been some nasty rips same with some of the carp I caught but not as bad as the tench. The rules of the lakes states barbless hooks only, when I tench fish on my normal waters where barbed hooks are allowed no problems like the above.

 

[ 11. June 2005, 08:04 PM: Message edited by: JackPike ]

[Peter Waller]

I can only guess that the fishery with the damaged fish has plenty of vegetation & people try pulling fish out, torn mouths rather than bust hooks.

[msutton]

Sadly I overheard one guy in the pub last week was boasting how he simply tears the hooks from fish, lips and all when he goes to his local fishery.

 

I wish he'd named the water thats all I can say.

 

It's a sad state of affairs when people feel the need to do that, all it takes to disgorge a fish is about 10-20 seconds.

[Johneh]

If its a barbless hook it takes less than 5 =p

 

People are so selfish, they are already through a small ammount of stress due to our human enjoyment, no need to hurt then for no reason.

[Jim Gibbinson]

I doubt that the problem relates directly to whether the hooks used have barbs or not - more likely damaged mouths are to do with frequency of capture. Most commercial fisheries are heavily stocked and heavily fished, with the result that some of the fish are caught too often - hence, damaged mouths.

 

It's a sad situation and one that provides ammunition to those who seek to get angling banned.

[Uncle Fester]

Perhaps the fishery had more recently gone barbless due to the mentioned damage to fishes mouths. One of the waters I fish is barbless only, and its a pleasure to unhook the fish. More often than not the hook is already stuck in the net and the fish is unhooked by the time you pick it up. Easy peasy. So less damaging for the fish.

Unc F

[Norfolkdan]

Micro barbed hooks are the way to go in my opinion. When using a barbless hook it moves around to easily in the mouth where you've hooked it, and there's quite a big sized hole where the hooks been (have a look next time you catch a carp or tench with a barbless hook.) The micro barb is too small to damage the fish, but big enough for the hook not to move around. You'll notice a lot of waters these days are "Micro barbed hooks only!"

[Will Wilkinson]

I use barbless pretty much exclusively in the smaller sizes <12 and either micro-barbed, barbed with the barb pinched down slightly to leave a smallish bump - great for stopping worms coming off the hook - or rarely a full barb, but only if it's a small one.

 

I've not had a problem with the small hooks moving around and only rarely seen it with big barbless ones after an extended fight on heavy tackle, hence I now use micro or fully-barbed hooks for that type of fishing.

 

Will

[deanbmw]

its not only the hooks that cause the damage to fishes mouths. The place i regularly fish i see people just skull drag good size fish out the water and not use a landing net to lift them out, then in mid-air the fish drops off minus its lips.

[Dick Dastardly]

I tend to agree with Jim that its not the hook just the shear amount of captures.Also I think its fair to say that more fish are caught by inexperienced anglers on commercial waters than on natural ones.