Anyone try barbless hooks?

[danyeo]

I catch and release pretty much everything I catch. A few years ago I got into the habit of snapping off 1 hook of the treble hooks on all my lures and I don't see it affecting my catches and it's much easier to unhooked the fish with only working with 2 hooks instead of 3.

I caught a nice Smallmouth today on the Passaic, yet again, and I got him on a pretty big hook. It went into his mouth and came out near his eye. Instead of yanking it back out I pushed it out past his eye a little and snipped off the hook with some pliers and of course it came back out like nothing. And a few weeks ago I caught a Smallmouth on the Raritan and the hook was so far in his belly I also just cut off as much hook as I could and just let him go. I read here that hooks will dissolve after a few days and wrestling with the hook would have caused some major damage.

So has anyone tried barbless? Or at least squeezing the barbs down a little with some pliers?

[SaltLife1980]

I fish barbless hooks when i trout fish..

dont keep them so no harm if i drop them

[kcritch]

I fish barbless hooks on all of my plastics....especially Senko type baits that they seem to swallow without a tic quite often. I also release everything in fresh water and switched about five years ago for the same reasons. I just completely squash the barb on all my hooks when I get them so they are always ready. I have probably lost a few fish I may have landed over the years but mostly when I was being lazy and didn't anticipate the jump or head shake! I don't think the barb helps as much as people think in most situations. But I know I have removed dozens of hooks that I would not have been able too get out or that would have caused more damage and stress to the fish if the barb was in place. Hard baits and such I leave the barb as I have not had an issue with those baits. Except I do squash the barb if I use a trailer hook on a spinnerbait. . . which is very often. My opinion is the benefit far outweighs the chance of losing a fish here and there. Barbless really gets your heart pumping a little more when you got that big one at the boat that's for sure! :D