barbed hooks

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

I've recently "crushed" the barbs on a few of my lure in the hope that should I catch a pike the barb wont get tangled in my net (which usually seems to happen)

Anyone done this and found their catch rate drop due not hooking the pike? or he pike getting off once hooked

 

[mikench]

I fish barbless on all fronts. It hasn't affected my catch rate at all. I still blank!

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

It seems whenever I do actually catch a pike then I spend 2 minutes unhooking the pike and 10 minutes getting the lure out of the net

 

[Keith M]

I'm in the process of changing the trebles on a lot of my lures to large single hooks and removing the forward hooks on my double hook lures so that only the rear single hooks are present; although I'm having to try and match the hook weights where possible to try to retain their action so I might have to just remove the points on the forward trebles if they are still needed to balance their action in the water.

Plus I have also made up a lot of pike traces which have a single circle hook on them which I think is much kinder to the Pike. Plus a few with semi barbed in-line double hooks for mounting larger deadbaits.

Whether it affects the number of Pike that I hook remains to be seen, but it should certainly reduce the number of holes in my Pike landing net and make unhooking a lot easier and more kinder this late autumn/winter.

Watch this space ??

Keith

 

[Mark_Leathwood]

It seems whenever I do actually catch a pike then I spend 2 minutes unhooking the pike and 10 minutes getting the lure out of the net

Have you tried one of the nets with a rubberised mesh ? Quite a few companies offer specialist lure nets nowadays and they're very good indeed.

 

[Mark_Leathwood]

Have you tried one of the nets with a rubberised mesh ? Quite a few companies offer specialist lure nets nowadays and they're very good indeed.

 

[deno chapman]

I've recently "crushed" the barbs on a few of my lure in the hope that should I catch a pike the barb wont get tangled in my net (which usually seems to happen)

Anyone done this and found their catch rate drop due not hooking the pike? or he pike getting off once hooked

I got myself a rubberized net to cut the lure tangle issues, rather than risk losing the fish. Now I still don't catch but at least I'm tangle free

 

[keora]

For some years I've crushed the barbs on the hooks I use for pike fishing, and not had an increase in the proportion of pike I've lost.

For dead baits I avoid treble hooks and use a size 1/0 Mustad Demon circle hook - and I squeeze the barb flat on the hook. I don't use deadbaits longer than about 6 inches

As for trebles on lures, I just use one at the tail end with all the barbs squeezed flat. If it's a lure with two tandem trebles, I remove the leading treble.

I use soft plastic shads a lot these days because usually there's only one big hook on shads up to about 6 inches. Sometimes I squeeze the barbs flat, other times I don't.

 

[John Aston]

I use crushed barb -not true barbless - for all my lure fishing, and have for years . I lose very few pike , but rather more perch. But that is attributable to the fact - I think - that fish are often hooked in the membrane at the side and behind the mouth , that leaded jig hooks have more mass and can be ejected with a headshake as the membrane tears easily.

 

[peytr]

Crushed barb on all lures for pike and perch - crushed or barbless for coarse fishing.

I am under the impression hooking chances are even higher and I practically never loose fish. Unhooking is a very relaxed operation and the pike I guess agrees.

However: When using crushed barbes do not use a stiff rod and braid. That combination cost me some fish. I now prefer a soft (glass) rod and Nylon all the way: With that combination it's easier to keep a minimum of tension on the hook.

 

[steve2]

I will stay with whatever I feel I need to use at the time barbed or barbless. I don't believe in the scheme of things it make much difference to fish welfare. But if it make you feel better go barbless.

 

[bigdog78]

Crushed barbed hooks for me.. all rubber shads though. Deadbaits? I have literally last week started using one barbless size 2 catfish hook. In the scissors every time now, where as before i was finding the lowest treble/double hook near the back of the mouth.

 

[Badgerale]

Trebels can be such a menace, not just in fish but getting stuck in nets, clothes, and potentially yourself.

I'll gladly suffer the occasional lost fish to lessen the problems they cause.

 

[Old fisher]

I've recently "crushed" the barbs on a few of my lure in the hope that should I catch a pike the barb wont get tangled in my net (which usually seems to happen)

Anyone done this and found their catch rate drop due not hooking the pike? or he pike getting off once hooked

Hi Some years ago I was really into pike fishing and was a member of the PAC. I had over 200 lures and crushed the barbs on all of them. I only dropped a few pike after hooking, but that is also the case with full barbs. Barbless trebles are in my opinion a great asset when netting the pike, I used to do a lot of summer lure fishing and the club I was in at the time allowed summer pike fishing. In 20 years that club only 3 reports of summer pike problems and in each case it was caused by anglers who had trouble unhooking pike because the barbed hooks got tangled in the net mesh and as we all know, in summer the pike should be returned as quickly as possible

 

[Philip]

Trebles can be a PITA for all the reasons already mentioned, however I have just recently swapped back to using them for Zander. The reason being that Zander with their small boney mouths are notorious for dropped runs so I figured a treble gives me 3 x as many chances for a hookpoint to find a hold. I use the semi barbed sort..one point with barbs to hold the bait and the other two barbless.

At the end of the day the object of the pastime is to catch fish & each person will have their own line as to what is acceptable or not. For me trebles are fine for predators so I’ll give them another whirl, however if I don’t see any increase in hookups I’ll swap back to singles again.

 

[Old fisher]

I only used fully crushed barbs on all my lures and when dead baiting I used the standard semi-barbed hooks. When I was really into pike fishing and lived in Kent, there was a shop where they sold totally barbless hooks for lures. Gradually I replaced the crushed ones as I purchased new lures, and used the crushed barbs on lures I made myself. Making plugs yourself is a very rewarding thing to do. When you catch on these homemade plugs it gives you an extra buzz, and I think everyone who has done this will tell you the same. One thing I always found, and this is only in my own opinion. was that manufactures seemed to put trebles on their lures that were too large, and that was another reason I replaced the hooks on newly acquired lures.

 

[dorsetsteve]

Chinning pike when appropriate makes a massive difference, I can chin and pop the hooks out a fish without it ever really leaving the water and it’s my preference. The net is often a hinderance.

 

[Ray Roberts]

Rubber nets are a godsend, it takes longer sometimes to get the hooks out of the net than it does out of the pike.


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[steve2]

Never had tangled nets when we use to gaff them.

 

[Old fisher]

Chinning pike when possible makes a massive difference, I can chin and pop the hooks out a fish without it ever really leaving the water and it’s my preference. The net is often a hinderance.

Chinning pike when possible makes a massive difference, I can chin and pop the hooks out a fish without it ever really leaving the water and it’s my preference. The net is often a hinderance.

Hi Chinning pike should on safety grounds only be done by people who have a great experience with pike. If your fingers enter the pikes gills too far real damage can be done to the pikes rakers. Also if you are say, dead baiting, your fingers can get caught in flying trebles that can often be near the gill slits and If the pike should wriggle about and your fingers get hooked (I've seen this happen) damage can be done to both pike and angler.