Barbless Hooks

[Nookie Monster]

Why is there not a mandatory restriction on barbed hooks in all catch and release waters? I am not an expert on this issue by any stretch of the imagination but I think it would make sense to have all fisheries that have some form of catch and release policy to only allow barbless hooks. I have not seen the studies, but I have been told that there is no significant mortality difference between using barbed compared to non-barbed hooks. If this is the case, than why is the ocean fishery barbless? If going barbless in the ocean is to help reduce the mortality rate, make it easier to release the fish, and cause less stress on the fish, then why don’t all C&R waters go to barbless? I fish almost exclusively barbless hooks for salmon and steelhead and I don’t believe I have ever lost a fish because of it. I have had 30 to 40 fish days while trout fishing in Montana using flies, single hook spinners and treble hook spinners, all barbless, and it is so much easier when releasing a fish. I have watched people in Nehalem Bay and Tillamook bay really struggle trying to release wild Coho, and I think there would be a lot less stress on the fish if everybody where fishing barbless. Is there politics behind this, or what is the story?

[Vinny]

I've heard the same rumor, "insignificant difference in mortality rate."

Maybe it means,
1) when they're hook deep and bleeding they're gonna die, regardless of barb.
2) When they're not hooked deep, fishermen in general do a good job of releasing fish.

I use both types of hooks and I like the ease of releasing when using barbless hooks.

[rob allen]

ODFW is afraid to do anything without a half dozen studies to back themselves up. All the studies have shown little or no difference in hooking mortality between barbed and unbarbed hooks. I think we all as anglers know that the more hooks in a fishes mouth the more chance for serious injury to the fish. I use single barbless hooks for all of my fishing required or not and notice no difference in my hooking to landing ratio. Granted almost all my fishing is catch and release fly fishing so a 90% catch rate on trout and a 60% catch rate on steelhead is fine with me.
While plunking for spring chinook in the columbia using spin glo's and gamagatsu hooks I only lost 2 fish and only one of thoes did the hook come out. the other broke me off.. For me because i dont count on fish for food I see no reason to use a treble or a barbed hook.

[TheRogue]

I generally stay away from trebles...After a few years of fishing the "bench" at the mouth of the White Salmon, I've learned that my hook/catch ratio isn't worse, it may even be better with a quality single hook on a spinner. Now, a KwikFish would be a different story, I think......they come un-buttoned with two giant needle sharp trebles sometimes, singles maybe wouldn't be good at all.

I personally agree with much of the data I've read, that the barbless/barbed issue is pretty moot. When using bait, if it's deep, and the fish is bleeding, it don't matter, the fish is probably toast. As for not using bait, I always have needlenose pliers with me, it doesn't take a lot of practice to unbutton a fish quickly and without much damage, regardless of barbs.

kyle

[obsessed]

Studies done in Canada show a significant difference in hooking mortality between using barbed hooks and unbarbed hooks. In fact, in a study that used a variety of terminal gear (artificials/barb artificial/no barb, bait/barbs, bait/no barb), it was found that barbs were the biggest contributor to mortality, even moreso than bait. Following is a summary of a study that caught 336 winter steelhead over a two year period (1985, 1986):

barbs/bait 9.1% mortality
barbs/artificials 4.5%
barbless/bait 3.0%
barbless/artificial 2.6%
Total Mortality 5.1%

Up here in WA, we're pushing for state-wide release of native steelhead; in my opinion going barbless would also be a significant benefit to the fish. First things first though....

[boater]

there has to be a difrence in mortality rate or we would be allowed to use barbed hooks in the ocean, what is the point in barbless hooks if it makes no difrence.

[Point-of-Sale Clerk]

Unfortunately there is a lot of confusion regarding what study says what and why. As I have been a proponent of barbless hooks and have had several discussions with ODFW staff regarding the reasons why the use of barbless hooks are not required I will add my $.02 worth.

Two issues seem to be at the heart of the barbless hook question. First, ODFW found that the way they had written hook restrictions it was very confusing and that 80% of all the tackle citations written was for non-use of barbless hooks. As usual, ODFW tried to have rules that made biological sense and not practical sense. Instead of making an entire river barbless the entire season they tried to pick and choose times and areas on the same river. You could above this bridge but not below this line unless it was this time of year or the horse you were riding was wearing this color hat? Well, I thought I read that in the regs once. ODFW never seems to err on the side of simplicity.

The second mistake that I find to be the problem with many of the thought processes given birth to at ODFW is the fundamental miss-interpretation of data. In this case it was the lack of overall understanding of what constitutes hook mortality that may have lead to an errant conclusion. My understanding is that a study was done to determine the hook mortality between barbed and barbless hooks. Various hatchery smolts were hooked using both barbed and barbless hooks, euthanised, preserved, and sent to a lab for analysis. I was told that the results were that barbless hooks stood just a great a chance of hitting a major artery or vessel as a barbed hook. Data also showed that barbless hooks also penetrated deeper than barbed hooks. The problem with this data was not how it was collected but how the study was designed and how the data was interpreted. As fishermen we know that the advantage to barbless hooks is not in the hooking but in the releasing. The damage done to a smolt or juvenile salmonid while trying to remove the hook is perhaps greater than setting the hook. Tearing away at their tissue when removing a barbed hook while squeezing the fish and removing the protective slime that covers them is likely to be more harmful than the single point penetration of a barbless hook. If they really wanted to see the benefit of barbless hooks they should have had a group of 6th graders catch and release the fish for them, one group in one pond using barbed and the other group in the other pond using barbless. They should have let them fish for 2 hours with no adult supervision and when they were done count the number of fish floating on the surface of each pond to determine what kind of hook is better.
I guess it is all in how you design the test?

Although we seem to be focusing on barbed-v-barbless, I believe other aspects of hook design might be considered. Has anyone every used a barbless circle hook? I understand that circle hooks, by design, have a tendency to hook a fish in the mouth or gum line. Several people I have spoken too have made that comment. Any one else?

(ODFW barbless hook info can be found at the following site: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/...KGBarbless.pdf )

*** Clerk