Fishing Barbless Hooks
Just pinch down the barbs and call it good!” I hear it so many times over the course of the year, and have been doing it myself for decades. But with today’s specialized barbless hooks being crafted, pinching down the barbs should become a thing of the past.
In today’s growing number of fisheries requiring the use of barbless hooks, manufacturers are stepping-up to meet the needs of anglers, and Eagle Claw appears to be leading the way. With precision-made barbless hooks, not only is the goal to lessen injury to fish being released, but to land more fish where they can be retained in waters where barbless-hook rules are in effect.
For whatever reason, a lot of people struggle with the concept of buying barbless hooks. Folks are content pinching down the barbs on their standard hooks with pliers and getting to fishing. But when you look closely at hook design, it’s easy to see why barb pinching may not be the best option. Most salmon and steelhead hooks have rounded, needle-like points, which are great for gaining initial penetration when a fish is hooked. The goal of the rounded tip is to drive the hook deep into the jaw of a fish, past the barb. The barb then becomes the contact point that keeps the fish on the hook, not the point.
But when a barb is pinched down, essentially all it’s doing is extending the needle-like point. This rounded, elongated tip, when buried into the jaw of a fish, moves around, back and forth, even gyrates, which makes the hole bigger. Eventually, given any slack, the hook can easily slip out, allowing the fish to get away. New, barbless hooks are designed to remedy this issue.
In a recent conversation with Eagle Claw representative, Bill Matthews, he enlightened me to advances the Colorado-based, American-made hook company is striving for in their line of Trokar barbless hooks. “The Trokar hook features a point that’s sharpened on three sides, versus the traditional needle-like, round sharpening style,” Bill begins. “This design offers deep, sturdy penetration that sticks and holds.”
Not only does the three-angle sharpening create a wedge-style hook point, it’s broader compared to rounded points, so is less likely to move around and create a larger gap as a fish is being fought. In addition to the angled sharpening approach, the bend of the hook also takes into consideration the lack of a barb.
“The new Trokar Octopus-style barbless hook (model TK405B), features a 20º offset, which is bigger than most offsets, and it has a 30º downturn on the point,” Matthews continues. “So, combined with the sharpness of this style of hook, the angles maximize the ability to hook and penetrate, meaning catch rates increase.”
During last fall’s Buoy 10 fishery—where barbless hooks are mandatory—several select anglers were testing these Trokar barbless hooks. The overall reports were impressive, with many claiming the Trokar barbless hook equaled or bettered their regular hookup rates from pinched-barb hooks. Many anglers even swapped out their spinners’ treble hooks for Trokar’s open-eye barbless Siwash hook, model TK440, reasoning the single, long-shanked Siwash hook outperformed shallower shanked treble hooks. Even on twisting, twirling, hard-fighting coho—the ultimate in barbless fishing challenges—reports of increased hookup rates, prevailed.