Hi Chuck, Add me to the list of folks who always fish with barbless hooks. Never have felt that I was at a disavantage that way as opposed to using barbs.
Two additional advantages of barbless: it is easier to drive a hook point home while barbless because the cross section of the hole required is less with a barbless hook. Also, I never want to deal with a barbed hook embedded in somebody's finger (like my wife had long ago) or in my own ear (as I saw in a Brian O'Keefe slide presentation recently). Guy had this big saltwater fly hooked into his ear lobe like an earring, barb and all. That would put a damper on your day on the water! Wes Wada Bend, Oregon
