Fish Are More Harmed By............

[Mitch f]

I only asked because I didn't see other bass baits like spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, or crankbaits. And I don't know personally any bass fisherman that fishes barbless. But, I understand they will all now come out of the wood work. But I counter by saying, I still don't know you personally.

But to break down the choices offered, 1-3 are equipment and 4-6 are human.

And with that, you will always have to pick human. Without human interaction, there would not be any way to harm the fish.

There are a couple of guys in the MSA who wouldn't fish without pinching the barb down. Everyone I fish with thinks it's a non issue.

I once got flack by some fly fishermen at Taneycomo for fishing a jerkbait with barbed trebles. The spot where I was fishing had no restrictions.

I'm also very careful to release the fish unharmed.

As far as mishandling the fish; One of my pet peeves is watching Bill Dance lipping a fish then holding it up horizontally without supporting the tail to show the camera; drives me crazy.

[jdmidwest]

Six

[jasperflyfisher]

Number 6. C & R at roaring river on a nice day brings out people who kill a lot of big fish. Makes me sick.

[Chief Grey Bear]

There are a couple of guys in the MSA who wouldn't fish without pinching the barb down. Everyone I fish with thinks it's a non issue.

I once got flack by some fly fishermen at Taneycomo for fishing a jerkbait with barbed trebles. The spot where I was fishing had no restrictions.

I'm also very careful to release the fish unharmed.

As far as mishandling the fish; One of my pet peeves is watching Bill Dance lipping a fish then holding it up horizontally without supporting the tail to show the camera; drives me crazy.

It's a non-issue with me too. If you do, fine, if you don't, fine. Just don't preach to me about it.

And I hear you loud and clear about Bill. But the idiot's that get my goat are the In-Fisherman clowns. Can't you put the fish back and then talk about all of the BS science that went into it catching it?????

[taxidermist]

4. Fishing During the Spawn. Kills the fry

5. Fishing a fish to exhaustion during summer with light line, not only i summer but in winter too. Large fish are not athletes.

6. Mishandling of fish after being caught.

[Al Agnew]

Every angler who is passionate about fishing has their own version of what is harmful to fish. Some fish barbless, some don't fish with live bait, and some don't fish for bass anywhere near the spawn. Here is a list of some potentially bad things; Excluding environmental factors, In your opinion which ones are the most harmful to fish.

1. Live bait

2. Soft Plastics

3. Barbed Hooks

4. Fishing During the Spawn

5. Fishing a fish to exhaustion during summer with light line

6. Mishandling of fish after being caught

I think you have to differentiate between what's bad for the individual fish, and what's bad for the fishery. In my opinion, people sometimes get a little too hung up on trying to "save" every individual fish. It behooves us as ethical anglers not to let the fish we catch suffer more than necessary, but at the same time, the fishery can stand the occasional fish that dies after being caught. For instance, a lot of people say that if they hook a fish too deeply they cut the line and release it. But...the results are decidedly mixed on whether such fish survive long term. Contrary to popular belief, most of today's hooks do NOT disintegrate inside the fish, at least not in a time frame that could be considered healthy for the fish. I believe it's a lot better to take the time to try to work the hook out by coming in through the gill openings, as a number of past posts here and elsewhere have shown how to do. And if you can't get the hook out that way, I guess it's your decision as to whether to go ahead and cut the line, or just kill the fish and take it home.

On the other hand, I too get disgusted at the TV shows where they mishandle fish. It's easy enough to NOT mishandle them. Don't hold them horizontally with all their weight on the lower jaw. Don't touch them with dry hands. Don't hoist them into the boat and flop them onto the carpet. And don't hold them out of the water for five minutes while you're talking about how you caught them.

So...I believe you should do all you can to release fish with as little harm as possible.

Now, let's look at that list from the standpoint (seldom considered) of how those things affect the fishery.

1. Live bait--all other things being equal, live bait IS more likely to cause more mortality in fish. Doesn't really matter if an individual angler is good enough to seldom if ever hook fish deeply with live bait, if you're considering the fishery and not individual fish, allowing live bait means you are also allowing incompetent anglers to use it, and that means that those anglers may catch more fish than they would with artificials, and certainly kill more fish by hooking them deeply.

2.Soft plastics--same thing as live bait, but not quite as much of an effect. The difference between soft plastics and "flies" for trout is pretty significant when it comes to killing fish. The difference between soft plastics and hard baits for bass is probably a lot less significant. Remember, we're talking now about overall affect on the fishery from rules allowing soft plastics compared to rules disallowing them.

3. Barbed hooks--in my opinion, barbed hooks cause somewhat larger wounds, and they are more difficult to remove, thus likely to cause more mishandling of the fish. I think the difference here is less with bass than trout. Trout aren't as easy to handle as bass. Holding a trout while trying to remove a barbed hook fly is not nearly as easy as holding a bass. The wounds they cause possibly cause a little more mortality, but we've all seen a lot of scarred up fish that seem perfectly healthy. In clean, healthy waters, the wounds shouldn't be much of a problem. But the difficulty in handling the fish while removing the hooks makes barbless somewhat less likely to affect the population negatively.

4.Here's the one that everybody fears harms the population the most. But does it? Most game fish produce far more young than can survive the first year. It's possible that by the time that first year is over with, there will be about the same number of young of the year fish whether or not fishing is allowed during the spawn. Yet, we don't know that for sure.

5. Fighting the fish to exhaustion, in my opinion, is only part of the problem. The other part is that your margin for error is much less, meaning you're more likely to leave a hook, or a big treble hook lure, in the fish when you break off. But does this happen often enough to affect the population of fish? Maybe not.

6. Mishandling of fish probably has a significant effect on some populations, but it's hard to say. Of all the things that affect the mortality of individual fish, mishandling, along with mishandling because of live bait use, soft plastic use, barbed hook use, mishandling fish that are already stressed from guarding the nest...

So I can't really rank them, but I think that mishandling fish is the worst thing you can do with individual fish, and in conjunction with all those other factors that make mishandling more likely, may have the greatest affect on the population of adult fish.

[jdmidwest]

Six.

[troutfiend1985]

One for individual fish, followed by six.

[Stoneroller]

i know if you remove an adult bass from the nest while there are fry on it, they are pretty much instantly decimated by the panfish that are lingering at the edge of the bass's territory. even if you are fast say 30 seconds from hookup to release, i'd be willing to bet 90% or greater of the fry on that nest are dinner. those are scientific numbers but I have witnessed swarms of fry getting vaporized while the parent was on someone's line. that issue is going to be far less with an egg scatterer with no parental input after laying, like a trout.

i'm not saying that's the most damaging, just pointing out what happens. it's a zero issue for trout, huge issue for black bass.(fishery)

[Mitch f]

Great comments Al, I purposely left some of the statements vague to get some chatter going. It seems that the barbless thing is not that big of a deal to most guys. And to the rest of you thanks for the comments too!