04-03-2008, 04:48 AM
[font "Pristina"][green][size 4][cool]Hi there EPCJMC - As MacFly stated they do make barbless hooks and you can also purchase barbless flies. With all the flies I tie I flatten the barb in my fly vise jaws or I use a very small pair of pliers. I practice C&R only. After hooking up, if you permit the line to slacken there is a good chance that the fish will throw the hook.
There is another, frequently overlooked, reason to fish barbless which has nothing to do with protecting fish and everything to do with increasing your strike to hook-up ratio. Simply put, it is easier to achieve a solid hook set when using barbless flies because you are freed from having to overcome the resistance of the barb. Admittedly, a barbed hook will hang on to a fish better than a barbless hook, but you have to bury the barb in the tissue of the lip or mouth first. The other advantage of a barbless is that many times I don't even have to net the fish as I can release the hook without even having to touch the fish.[/size][/green][/font] [center][font "Pristina"][green][size 4]![[Image: fish-on.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/fish-on.gif)
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There is another, frequently overlooked, reason to fish barbless which has nothing to do with protecting fish and everything to do with increasing your strike to hook-up ratio. Simply put, it is easier to achieve a solid hook set when using barbless flies because you are freed from having to overcome the resistance of the barb. Admittedly, a barbed hook will hang on to a fish better than a barbless hook, but you have to bury the barb in the tissue of the lip or mouth first. The other advantage of a barbless is that many times I don't even have to net the fish as I can release the hook without even having to touch the fish.[/size][/green][/font] [center][font "Pristina"][green][size 4]
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