I recently gave jerk baits a try and have had great success catching bass with them. I managed to catch 10 bass in one session. But the hooks do a lot of damage to the fish, mainly when taking them out. The fish mouth gets torn apart by the barbs.
I fish on a popular river with bass, bass, and more bass.
I've heard about crushing the barbs and I am considering it to make removing the hook an easier process, while doing less damage to the fish. Is there anything I need to know about barbless hooks? Negatives, positives. How big is the impact? I am fishing catch and release.
Posted by zegery
3 Comments
I primarily fly fish, and crush all the barbs on my hooks…I don’t think it makes that much of a difference as long as you make sure you keep pressure on the fish…what it will make a difference is if you accidentally hook yourself!
If you just crush the barbs and keep the same number of hook points, you shouldn’t lose any fish and the hook will slide out much easier. Just make sure to keep pressure on the hook.
A lot of people like to cut the other points off the hook and make it into a single hook, but personally I find myself missing a lot of strikes that way. It will definitely hurt the fish the least though.
You can also swap out the hooks for singles. Look up a YouTube guide to make sure they’re facing the right directions. You need hooks that have sideways facing eyes I think. Can’t remember the name.