Fishing Tip

Very nice and simple fishing tip my family learned on a trip down to Bennett Springs, MO a few years ago. Absolutly wonderful fly fishing and the trout fought very hard. They were also very hard to get off the flies. We lost a lot of time just unhooking them.

Then my dad got the suggestion to use barb-less hooks from a new fishing buddy he met down there.

Barb-less hooks are fantastic.

First I will say that it is a touch harder to land the fish simply because you can do a 'long distance release' as my dad put it.

The second is that the fish can just... spit the hook out at you. If this happens and you see death in the fly flying towords your face... The motion of swatting at it with your rod can sometimes mess with it's momentum enough that it wont hit you.

I, however, have hooked myself so many times that I am very happy they were barb-less.

Only once did I hook myself with a barbed hook. I was very, very lucky because it was a miss cast and it got seriously tangled up in the elastic band of my sports bra through my shirt. My dad pretty much teleported next to me. We still don't know how he moved that fast or how he heard me squeak 'dad' over the sounds of the waterfall. I was very happy that It didn't get caught in my back.

The trick if you already have a bunch of tied fly's is to take a pair of pliers and crunch down on the barb. It takes a few crunches but they work fine.

And best of all, if you are fishing with someone that doesn't want to touch the fish that they just reeled in? Usually just a few shakes and they will be loose. Much easier and it gets you back fishing faster.

Unless you don't show them how to set a hook. That will also stop them from reeling in any fish. Yes, my dad forgot to mention this tiny bit of information to me, my sister and my mom. Yeah... my sister and I might have given him The Look.

But still, it was a fun trip. Can't wait to get on the water by my house.