I am thinking about starting to use barbless hooks when I go for native brook trout. What are the pros/cons for barbless hooks?

[Skeeb]

I am thinking about starting to use barbless hooks when I go for native brook trout. What are the pros/cons for barbless hooks?

[Jamus]

if the suck the bait down to the there gut its easier to get the hook out with out pulling its in sides out with it.Also easier for the trout to soit the hook out.

[huntcamp]

It is easier to get the hooks out and they do les damage to the fishes mouth, but fish can also get off more too. You have to be more perfect while fighting the fish.

[hunterkid94]

pros- easier to get the hook out.
cons-fish can easily get off the hook.

[buckhunter]

Barbless hooks are worse than barbed hooks in some ways. Barbless hooks can penetrate the fishes mouth multiple times where a barbed hook will make just one hole. I always reccommend just pinching the barb down a little so it's easier to get the hook out.

[matouse3]

Good comment buckhunter, I also like to leave a little bit of the barb, more of just a bump, there to help hold onto the fish, but still allow for easy removal and less damage to the fish.
Just a side story, I used to fish in a barbless only stretch of river where we would all just pinch down our barbs. One day a Cons. Officer came down and was running a cotton ball across the pinched down barbs and was giving tickets to any hooks that snagged cotton. Real piece of work that guy.

[MLH]

Also much easier to take out of your own ear, finger, nose, etc.

Every once in awhile I'll break a hook completely off while pinching it down. Best to do it before tying the fly or, if bought, before hitting the water.

[Jim in Mo]

The idea with barbless was for catch and release. No harm to the fish.

[hothar]

You must be fishing for a different brook trout than we have in many regions of CO. Brookies here are pretty far down the catch and release list. Because they tend to proliferate, compete with other trout for food and territory, and become stunted when overpopulated, CO wildlife management, many y ears ago, implemented a special bag limit of ten brookies, under eight inches, in addition to the regular trout bag limit.

[Skeeb]

Yes, I guess we do have a more important Brook Trout in Pa...Maybe because they are the only true native fish here.

[Elliott Balthazor]

Pros.-there is less truama to the fish and it's a lot easier to take out the hook.
Cons.-it your not carefull and observant the fish will get off and you might lose the biggest fisf of your life.

[Nycflyangler]

Back in the early 1900s brook trout were stocked in areas outside their native territory like browns and rainbows were. They ended up outcompeting the native species. Now F&W agencies are trying to remove them so they can protect the remaining natives or restore them through discoveries of pure strains which they can harvest eggs and milt from and grow in a hatchery to create a large enough population that can be replanted.


hothar wrote:

You must be fishing for a different brook trout than we have in many regions of CO. Brookies here are pretty far down the catch and release list. Because they tend to proliferate, compete with other trout for food and territory, and become stunted when overpopulated, CO wildlife management, many y ears ago, implemented a special bag limit of ten brookies, under eight inches, in addition to the regular trout bag limit.

[TheFishFinder]

well obviously the pro is the fish come off of the hook easier the con is that the fish come off of the hook easier haha you just have to see what u wanna do catch and keep or catch and release

[babsfish4life]

The only way to keep barbless hooks from coming out is to keep the line tight all the time, other than that they are great. There are many waters around where I live that require barbless hooks now. I guess it is better for the fish.

[zackm]

Pros: less damage done to the fish
Cons: more likely the fish will spit the hook.