Great fish, and great thread! I'm constantly learning stuff on this site. I don't keep release fish out of the water long but now I'm going to be much more critical of my methods and more observant of the amount of time I goof with one.


General consensus is that barbless hooks are healthier for release fish, but does it really matter? If fight time, water temp, time out of water, lip holds, etc all add up to dead fish does the barbless even factor in much?

19 acre watershed pond
LMB, BC/WC, Bluegill, Crawfish, GShiners