Switching to barbless hooks protects fish and makes you a sharper angler. Here’s how to do it

It was a perfect morning to start northern Ontario’s brook trout season. The ice had just left the bays, and mist crept from the surface of the frigid water. I laid my first cast in the sweet spot between some rocks, and was hit immediately. But the early morning jitters got the best of me—I moved too fast, and didn’t convert the strike. Chasing walleye earlier in the spring had made me sloppy, and I was used to relying on a barbed hook to make up for mistakes.

I collected myself and cast again, and the hungry trout gave me a second chance. This time, I kept constant pressure on the line, making the fish earn every inch it took. Finally, I got the trout in the net, and my barbless fly promptly floated out of its mouth on its own, making for an effortless wet release.

Barbed hooks offer us a sense of security, and fishing without them can be intimidating. Make an error or lose focus, and your odds of landing a fish drop quickly. But barbless hooks are better for the fish we catch, and for our fisheries as a whole. They’re also safer for you, while helping you become a better angler. To effectively make the switch to barbless, here’s what you need to know.

WHY BARBLESS?

When a barbed hook point penetrates a fish’s mouth, the barb helps secure the hook in place, even if there’s momentary slack in the line or the fish thrashes vigorously. However, a hook without a barb is much faster and easier to remove. And when you’re not yanking hooks out of a fish’s mouth with pliers, there’s less injury and bleeding, and the fish gets back in the water that much faster.

Barbless fisheries are becoming more common across Canada, especially in trophy waters where catch-and-release fishing prevails. In Ontario’s Nipigon system where I guide and fish, for example, the northern portion has a strict barbless hook regulation. Not so in the lower section, however, where I commonly see brook trout with scarred jaws from previous catches, a rare occurrence to the north.

Meanwhile, an undervalued bonus of barbless fishing is avoiding a bloody mess—or even surgery—if a hook accidentally finds its way into you. Believe me, that can be a memorable first-hand lesson about the difference between barbed and barbless hooks.