Single vs treble hooks?
Ayvazian et al. (2002)
• Shad (Pomatomus
saltatrix)
• Treble hooks produce
significantly higher
mortality rate than
single barbed and
barbless hooks.
Barbed vs barbless
• Study on Bonefish (Albula vulpes) - Barbless hooks were
expelled 3.9 times faster when located deep in the oral
cavity compared to barbed hooks, but there was no
difference in expulsion rates among barbed and barbless
hooks in shallow-hooked fish (Stein et al 2012).
• The barb also increases the size of the wound and makes
the fish more difficult to unhook.
• Unhooking time is significantly shorter when there is no
barb (Schaeffer and Hoffman, 2002, Alos et al 2008).
• Unfortunately some studies found that fishermen using
barbless J hooks caught significantly less fish than barbed
hooks (Alos et al 2008), but other studies show that
squashing the barb makes no difference to your catch rate
(DuBois and Dubielzig 2004)