Hooks, barbless or barbed?

[wingman]

Just wondered how many people are fishing ot tying on barbless hooks these days as I'm thinking about useing them for tying flies on. Also are pre-waxed threads effective when it come to applying dubbing etc or is it better to buy unwaxed and wax it with beeswax? thanks.

mark

[ACW]

Most of my dressing is done on debarbed hooks ,mainly because I have a rathher large collection of them.
if i need a particular hook I dont have ,i would search for a barbless model ,but happy to debarb if needed, that includes 95% of my dressing whether salmon ,trout grayling and SWFF .
Just my way I almost always use waxed silk and have not had any wax for several decades,my dubbing seems to work OK .

[scubacrazy123]

I only use barbless if I can get them. The problem is they are harder to get hold of, and they seem to be a lot more expensive when you can find them.
Otherwise I do as a lot of others do, use barbed, and flatten the barbs using the vice jaws. Some say that the resulting flattened barb hook holds a bit better, due to the very small bump resulting from the squashed barb. Either way, it's not too much of an inconvenience to flatten a batch of hooks up before tying.
As for waxed/unwaxed, I use both, if I need to use wax on unwaxed thread, I use the Veniards sticky wax, comes in a "Pritt-stick" type of dispenser.
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Gary.

[andreb]

barbless hooks are generally of a better quality steel, and therfore can be sharper and have better penetration. Barbed hooks are made of a lower grade material, due to the barbing in the manufacturing process, having to slice out the barb. Barbless hooks of a high quality are nicer to tie on, simply due to the quality of the steel. It is rare to find barbed hooks of the same quality steel as barbless.

[sewinbasher]

I use barbless hooks most of the time but I usually debarb a barbed hook as there are not many patterns of barbless hooks that I like.

The only tip I'd give you is to crush the barbs before you start to tie a fly, it's a bit of a waste to construct a nice fly then crush the barb and break the hook.

[wingman]

Thats some useful advice there, thanks. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of de-barbed hooks so might have to de-barb my own. I presume you just put the hook in the vice at an angle and then tighten until it breaks the barb, knowing me I'll accidentally remove the point aswell. If anyone knows of a good supplier of good barbless hooks at a decent price it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[dabhoy]

Originally Posted by andreb

barbless hooks are generally of a better quality steel, and therfore can be sharper and have better penetration. Barbed hooks are made of a lower grade material, due to the barbing in the manufacturing process, having to slice out the barb. Barbless hooks of a high quality are nicer to tie on, simply due to the quality of the steel. It is rare to find barbed hooks of the same quality steel as barbless.

Not disputing your claim of better steel being used on barbless hooks but I cant find any information to confirm this.

[Mrtrout]

Try these Mark, never lost a fish yet.
S.

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[andreb]

Originally Posted by dabhoy

Not disputing your claim of better steel being used on barbless hooks but I cant find any information to confirm this.

You don't need to go looking for information to confirm it. Simply tie a few flies, use the hooks, fish with them, and see for yourself. It doesn't take a metalurgical scientist to realise that not all hooks are the same quality steel. Some hooks just break when you try de barb them in the vise.

[dabhoy]

Originally Posted by andreb

You don't need to go looking for information to confirm it. Simply tie a few flies, use the hooks, fish with them, and see for yourself. It doesn't take a metalurgical scientist to realise that not all hooks are the same quality steel. Some hooks just break when you try de barb them in the vise.

I have tied on plenty of different hooks both barbed and barbless and understand that bit, but to say that some barbless hooks are of better steel than there barbed counterparts is a bold statement unless you are in the business of making them.

The argument for barbed V barbless is one that goes on and on.
Barbed flies cause more tissue damage supposedly where as barbless hooks can penetrate twice as far dependant on where the fish is hooked.
The only single difference I can see is in the ease of unhooking fish.