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Originally Posted by Jman
Anyone fish with barbless hooks? I'm thinking of doing it when I go with the kids. What are the downsides?
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No significant downside really. Catch and release fishing should be done with barbless hooks, mostly because it makes it easier to release a fish unharmed if you don't have to handle it much to unhook it.
The barb makes it marginally more difficult for a fighting fish to throw a hook, but it's a surprisingly small difference. Maybe for kids it might make a difference, since they usually don't pay enough attention to keeping the line tight during a fight, so they might lose more fish wth barbless.
Hook injuries really aren't all that common in my experience. I teach my kids to handle hooks by the bend so the point can't get them, and to keep their lines slack when handling hooks.
I haven't switched to all barbless.
Eye protection is warranted of course.
