02-26-2018, 09:42 PM
Yes, the barbs were still present, 0 effort to mash down the barbs whatsoever.
I've never fished the SFCR in heavy flows, we usually try to go around president's day to avoid it, but it would make sense that the bigger and brighter beads would work in that situation.
Back to the 90% or better of hooks found that have barbs present...We fished a semi popular hole on the Little Salmon for Chinooks a few years back (2015). The water got low and a snag that was obviously getting us gummed up became exposed. We were able to get out to that snag and used a net to pull a ball of dead line, hooks, sinkers, fish parts, etc from the bottom. It was foul. It had to weigh over 80 pounds, and that is not an exaggeration. When the fishing slowed up, which it didn't very much that year, we worked on salvaging everything off of that ball of line. We filled numerous, plastic, ice cream buckets with lead, and about 400-500 different hooks. I bet of those 500 hooks, 90% of them still had their barbs. Apparently people are not scared to fish with barbs. I'd be as nervous as a cat in a drier, but I am apparently the minority. As far as the lead goes, we donated that and the hooks back to the Little Salmon the next year while fishing=) That river just eats gear for breakfast. I can't imagine what kind of salvage one could do if that water became a trickle. You'd never have to hit the store up again...
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I've never fished the SFCR in heavy flows, we usually try to go around president's day to avoid it, but it would make sense that the bigger and brighter beads would work in that situation.
Back to the 90% or better of hooks found that have barbs present...We fished a semi popular hole on the Little Salmon for Chinooks a few years back (2015). The water got low and a snag that was obviously getting us gummed up became exposed. We were able to get out to that snag and used a net to pull a ball of dead line, hooks, sinkers, fish parts, etc from the bottom. It was foul. It had to weigh over 80 pounds, and that is not an exaggeration. When the fishing slowed up, which it didn't very much that year, we worked on salvaging everything off of that ball of line. We filled numerous, plastic, ice cream buckets with lead, and about 400-500 different hooks. I bet of those 500 hooks, 90% of them still had their barbs. Apparently people are not scared to fish with barbs. I'd be as nervous as a cat in a drier, but I am apparently the minority. As far as the lead goes, we donated that and the hooks back to the Little Salmon the next year while fishing=) That river just eats gear for breakfast. I can't imagine what kind of salvage one could do if that water became a trickle. You'd never have to hit the store up again...
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