Sunil -- I wasn't trying to be too aggressive on the barbed vs. barbless issue, either, so I hope you didn�t get that impression. Your comment brought up about three points in my mind.
First, when I first starting looking into this issue, I was surprised that we couldn't show a biological effect favoring barbless over barbed hooks. I had guessed otherwise, just based on common sense. So, perhaps I didn't do a good enough job of simply expressing my surprise.
Second, there is no DISADVANTAGE to pressing down your barbs. For example, inexperienced anglers find it easier to remove barbless hooks. I know that I said a couple of studies found that barbless hooks can actually cause more damage, but I still go back to my overall statement -- if you look at all the numerous studies, you can't see an clear advantage to barbed or barbless.
Now, perhaps a final point should be made about public waters, rather than everyone�s private ponds. On public waters, I'd prefer not to institute a barbless regulation, as we can't justify it based on biology. Public water managers are faced with ever-increasing complexity in regulations as more and more people use the public resource [maybe I should say that anglers are faced with that increasing complexity! :-) ]. So, I don't think it helps to impose unnecessary or unjustified regulations. I guess that�s just opinion, isn�t it?
Dave
