barbless flies for next year

[spyderweb]

I have been using size 12 & 14 de-barbed trebles with tubes and articulated mounts this season, only lost one fish so far. I wish I could obtain barbless trebles in this country, not found any yet.

[Teifi-Terrorist]

I have been using size 12 & 14 de-barbed trebles with tubes and articulated mounts this season, only lost one fish so far. I wish I could obtain barbless trebles in this country, not found any yet.

To be honest SW, I haven't used trebles for probably over a decade now. I tend to use singles on almost everything, but do like a double on a tube and also dressed doubles. I have not experienced an increase in lost fish. In fact, to the contrary, I believe I lose less fish now.

Perhaps give the doubles or singles a go next season and see how you get on - there's usually plenty of barbless alternatives available for both, or just debarb accordingly.

Tight lines,

TT.

[andyantiquefly]

Hi Jan,

yes, but not a positive one. I did fish barbless flies at night many years ago on the Spey. It was a disaster, to put it mildly. I am confident fishing for all other game fish, including salmon, with barbless flies, but not sea trout - largely because of how sea trout fight.

They could have easily said single hooks or even micro-barb only, which would have made more sense and be easier to adopt.

As a side note; you could, of course, target brown trout at night - a time when a good percentage of larger browns are caught anyway. By doing this you can fish barbed flies as you wish. If a sea trout takes then the bycatch cannot be helped...

TT.

yes particularly sea trout as Salmon when they do jump is Moreno of a flop, compared to the full on pound for pound craziness of Sewin.
that said I’ve been flattened the barbs on Rapalas for years now because of seeing to many herliing take all three hooks in.

i do think with barbless the smaller the hook the better the chance for landing fish ie micro dries for Brown Trout embedding into the corner of the mouth.
in all honesty though sea trout are so baffling that even with a snake fly and fly treble and having the rod pulled out of ones hands they still have a habit of leaving you flummoxed