Our Federation is always proactively as fish friendly as possible and have been the leading lights in fish conservation and ethical practice. One practice that lets angling down slightly, particularly when practicing catch and release during match situations, is the use of barbed hooks. We have struggled to introduce or regulate the use of barbless or semi barbed hooks within our match scene, mainly because others including the world body of angling FIPS-M do not practice barbless.
Fishing with a de-barbed hook is without doubt a safer option that a barbed hook. When removing a barbed hook a good bit of damage is created via holding pressure on fish and damage of barb with the hook is removed. With a squeezed down barb anglers still have the advantage of a good hook hold as the bump of the barb remains, as long as there is not too much carbon within the metal. A manufactured barbless hook has no resistance to keep it embedded and can sometimes do as much damage as a barbed hook due to dropping out and repenetrating the mouth. The pictures here show a hook with a before and after being squeezed picture. Also, a new hook has landed on the market that tries to answer these concerns. The hook is call Gripz and is made by a company called Pallatrax. At the moment they are supplying the carp market but hopefully they will soon be making hooks that will cover the sea match scene. It involves a series of grooves on the inside of a slightly widened hook near point, with and ultra ultra sharp point. Let us know your thoughts about barbless. Thanks
