Taking care of the trout - Preserving our fisheries, part one

It's ultimately up to us to take care of our fisheries.

Montana's Fish, Wildlife & Parks has a complex job to do, but when it comes to taking care of western Montana's fishery resources, the most critical jobs are in our hands - literally.

I'm talking about how we handle trout. Last week I promised I'd write more about the best ways to do that.

Catch and release fishing is an effective management tool for preserving and conserving wild trout fisheries.

For some, it borders on a religious experience. Regardless of who does it or why, catch-and-release has to be done right to be effective.

It begins with the hook.

A common complaint against catch-and-release is that too many fish are lost when fishing with barbless hooks.

When I first started fishing barbless, because it was required where I was fishing, I missed a few fish and cursed the regulation that I thought was responsible. I was frustrated. This time, I thought, the regulations had gone too far.

The fact that I was required to flatten my barbs made me acutely aware of every miss, every momentary hookup that quickly got off. When I got together with other anglers to bellyache and complain about it, they were having about the same amount of success that I was. I was hooking and landing trout that rose gingerly to my small dry flies that evening about once for every four takes. And I had to work for every take, every missed opportunity. I was frustrated, annoyed.

Then one of the old vets spoke up. "How many misses did you used to get for every hookup, Chuck?" he asked. I thought back. I'd come up, no hookup, and make another back-cast. The misses were part of the game. I didn't notice them so much.

"About the same, I guess," I answered. That's when I began to learn.

Shortly after, a guy I fished with regularly discovered the magic of the hook hone. He carried a small Diamond Deb nail file and used it regularly to sharpen his hooks. I started doing the same, and noticed that my hookup ratio all of a sudden seemed to double.

I still missed a few fish when the trout were delicately sipping little mayflies on the water, but hooked more than I had before. Bigger bugs and robust rises spelled almost a "can't miss" situation when fishing sharp, barbless hooks. I was convinced.

I began sharpening every fly as I tied it on and re-sharpening after every fish caught, every stray cast that snagged a willow or drug over a rock, and after every couple of misses.

Sometimes even a sharp hook doesn't stick where it's going to hold. But if I get a solid hookup, the reason I'm most likely to lose a fish is operator error - not the hook.

Think it through: The swept area of the barb is greater than the skinnier wire of a de-barbed hook. That skinny wire barbless hook will penetrate clear to the bend with less hook-set from the caster than will a barbed hook with greater area. The barbed hook, not well set in a big trout's bony jaw, is more likely to produce an on-and-off couple of head-shakes than a barbless hook that penetrates clear to the bend.

Fact: I hook, play and land a greater percentage of trout fishing sharp, barbless hooks than I ever did fishing with barbs.

And the best part about fishing barbless is that once in the net, without the tension of the current to hold the hook in place, the barbless hook sometimes comes loose on its own. If not, just a little bit of extra effort with a flat-jawed hemostat (or forceps, sold in most fly shops) will quickly remove the hook.

Quick hook removal is quite often essential for trout survival. Here we're not dealing with the damage or mortality of barbed hooks per se, but the domino effects of using them. It takes longer, regardless of who does it, beginner or experienced angler, to remove a barbed hook. Time out of water and the struggle with a squirming fish to hold it still enough to remove a barbed hook can eventually kill it.

And that totally files in the face of why we fish catch-and-release. We fish catch-and-release to preserve fishery resources.

That's the biggest reason to fish sharp and barbless.