Hooks...

[Alan Whitty]

I live about as far as you can in England from the sea,but I used to do quite a bit of beach fishing,plus a bit of boat fishing,so I watch a fair bit of videos on it,with so many anglers returning their fish I'm quite shocked that people don't crush the barbs,when you watch fish like smoothounds,doggies,whiting,codling being caught on 1/0-4/0 hooks these have big barbs so surely the bump created would be enough to hold fish on the hook,your views please...

 

[Ray Roberts]

I’ve done a fair bit of sea angling in the past, both boat and shore fishing.

My view is that you would land considerably fewer fish. Take up-tideing or fishing from the beach with breakaway or wired leads. The set up is very similar to bolt rig fishing for carp. Short hooklinks tied to a swivel and trapped between beads, well that is a chod rig or helicopter rig really. Most times the fish prick themselves on this sort of rig and many bites are drop backs, as the fish dislodges the lead. Usually there is no need to strike as the fish is hooked. Winding like hell and not striking proved the most successful method of dealing with these bites. I don’t believe it would have been as successful if we struck the bites. Both John Rawle and Bob Cox recommended this way of dealing with bites. If the fish can get slack line then there is every chance for it to dislodge the hook.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Alan Whitty]

Possibly Ray,I've done a bit of uptiding too,you had to wind down to the fish once the rod started nodding,because you had fed a load of line out,I just feel if you used barbless you would lose a lot,but crushing a 1/0 hooks barb would still leave a fair bump above the point,which most fish would struggle to shift once set...

 

[Ray Roberts]

Possibly Ray,I've done a bit of uptiding too,you had to wind down to the fish once the rod started nodding,because you had fed a load of line out,I just feel if you used barbless you would lose a lot,but crushing a 1/0 hooks barb would still leave a fair bump above the point,which most fish would struggle to shift once set...

I’ve nothing against crushing down barbs, I do it to the treble hooks on all of my lures, but that is a different scenario.

The rod top starts nodding because the lead has become dislodged and is bouncing if you don’t contact the fish quickly, then you have a very good chance of the fish slipping the hook. With my lures I never let the line go slack so don’t really suffer the problem, except occasionally when a jumping fish is shaking it’s head, I’ve lost a few like that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Alan Whitty]

Once you've contacted the fish you wind it in,so you have a tight line,bass or bigger cod can be a problem because their weight,or strength of fight can open a big hole that the hook can fall out of,highly unlikely with a smoothound or ray,if you are just fishing for the table barbed is the way,if not I think I would nip the barb....