Barbed or barbless ?

[Olly]

I and many many carp anglers would take you to task about ""expensive wound dressing kits of dubious worth"". They are and can be excellent.
I wont go into the price or different firms/products argument. On many fisheries it is compulsory to have it available alongside the unhooking mat, forceps, etc etc.

The human product "Orabase", available from your Chemist/Pharmacist, is just as good and was one of the first 'wound dressings' to be used.

Much of the newer carp rods have now reached 3+lb t/c as the norm. There are a variety of reasons for this. Anglers casting farther and farther many due to an expert technique, some using a blunt instrument - a heavier lead, - which involves the use of a more powerful rod which requires a heavier line to stop it breaking held on a bigger reel! A vicious circle. The size of the fish has also increased enormously a 30lber being a goal in the 70/80s to high 40+ fish being available to carpers in many waters in the south.

I enjoy floater fishing and stalking but always try not to use a to use 'a hammer to crack a nut' - unlike many who want a fish - at all costs.

[Lovatts]

There's another thread running through most of these posts, and that's the consideration for the fish.

[Beresford]

My local club waters have a barbless only rule. They are mixed fisheries but I tend to target the carp. I have to join those who haven't seen direct evidence of their barbless hooks causing damage to fish. I find them much easier to remove – often they fall out in the net and if I catch small fish I can often unhook them in the water.

I have seen damage to fish from a braid – one called Berkley Fireline that I thought was a dreadful invention. I'm not sure if it's still made.

I do carry a wound dressing fluid with me. Obviously I have no way of measuring how effective it is, or is not.

[JAA]

I've personally had experience of losing fish on a barbless hook pattern, which stopped immediately I change to a barbed (with the barb broken off) or micro-barbed. There’s no doubt in my mind that long shank fine wired barbless hook are incredibly damaging, especially if fish are caught again, before the first wound has a chance to heal. The longer shanks give greater leverage on the point when a fish in being played, the barbells patterns are typically thinner in the wire on the point and the situation is exacerbated by shallow water where the fish is having to continually twist and turn under pressure.

Short shank thicker wire barbless patterns (Korda B's) stay in very well under all sorts of twists and turns, but generally come out very easily. I'm sure that the shorter shank and the thicker wire and in-turned point all contribute.

However, I don’t think that’s the issue. That fishing damages fish is inevitable. However, the problem I believe, and especially with carp, is more related to number of repeat captures. A typical hook-wound (any hook) would heal quite well if the fish was left alone, but often waters are so heavily stocked and fished that some fish must be coming out once a month at best and it’s hard to see, barbed or barbless, how this cannot result in permanent mouth damage. Much like the shrill posturing surrounding unhooking mats (now de-rigeur slings and cradles) and to an extent ‘wound treatments’, they’re often just fig-leaves desperately covering over the frequent multiple captures and over stocking to keep ego-driven anglers on the bank.

[Olly]

All about "personal prestige" or "greatness". Not about angling but anglers!

[Carp Artist]

I use micro barbed mainly, barbless when the rule applies.

[Carp Artist]

I use micro barbed mainly, barbless when the rule applies.

[Kevin]

We have a couple of club lakes that JAA describes,i wont fish there but the Fish mostly all come out with mouths damaged patched up wounds taped.
Repeat captures never give the wounds time to heal.
I wish they would close them for a while to let the fish recover.

Barbless.

[BeechmereLake]

I use barbed, barbless even micro barbed where ever but in answer to the original question I can firmly state to you going back sometime ago about 2002 I was match fishing at Drayton Reservoir for small carp, the rule was barbless hooks only as it was what British Waterways demanded, at the end of a match one day 3 of us watched as a suit arrived on the dam wall, he was one of BW 's property, long story short he told us that British Waterways had done some serious research into "Barbed or Barbless hooks" and came up with barbless hooks do more damage than a barbed hook.
You could of knocked us down with a feather when he also said "but since we are barbless here now we will stay that way, years along the road its very evident, some of those fish are big but you dont really want photos of them.

On a more finer note I have to say that on many of those horrible holes in the ground I fished many years ago the one thing you really noticed was the terrible condition of the stock fish, no lips, eyes missing fins split Im sure I dont need to go on, alas, move to small fishery run by Linears where barbed hooks are used the fish were in superb condition and you have to say that about 98% of their total stock over there, its very rare you see a fish with the scarring these small fish in commercials have and thats simply because they dont get caught daily.

On our club water its micro barbed or barbless and since most anglers who fish there are match anglers they use barbless hooks 99% of the time, whether pleasure fishing or match fishing, I dont need to tell you what some of them look like, move over to the big carp water which is 5 meters away barbed hooks are used and the water has some of the finest looking carp in the country.
I have to say for me barbless hooks do untold damage to fishes mouths on many of these commercials but then again does the angler really care, I believe not so much as a specimen angler does. Just my thoughts

[Olly]

So true the above - it is the style of fishing not necessarily the hooks used!

Big fish are sort after by dedicated anglers who treat the fish with care and return them quickly - mostly. (Many waters now ban any retention due to possibility of spreading disease.)

Match size fish is a gathering of fish/weight (stuffed in a net) - speed being the essence more fish landed = more weight - usually.

However there are exceptions to every rule so the above is a generality.