What do you think of using barbless hooks or hooks with the barb flattened down? In Pro Tactics: Muskie Jack Burns and Rob Kimm recommend it especially for anglers fishing solo in case a green fish thrashes and gets a hook or two in your hand or wrist. Lyons Press Guilford Connecticut. Thank you for your thoughts.
I carry a Lindy Snag Proof glove for my left hand and most often use it when I’m fishing solo and hook into a pike with a treble-hooked lure. It has a rubber palm grip that helps hanging on to a slimy unwanted snot rocket that has nothing to grab. A small pike with a lure like a crank bait or a jerk bait in its mouth is like a bomb waiting to go off.
I also carry a Knipex or similar hook cutter. Never had to use it though.
I am convinced that barbless hooks are the way to go. It only takes one accident to put you in the emergency ward. Or worse: what if you’re hooked past the barb to your big fish which gets out of the net?
Thanks for your replies and experience.
Hi there, I can’t find Lindy Snagproof gloves. Are they still available under that name? Thanks again
I can’t close the big treble barbs without using visegrips. Smaller hooks are easy. BTW what do you do with a spinnerbait that has a single large trailer hook? If you flatten the barb on the first hook the second one is going to come off.
I can’t close the big treble barbs without using visegrips. Smaller hooks are easy. BTW what do you do with a spinnerbait that has a single large trailer hook? If you flatten the barb on the first hook the second one is going to come off.
Take a hole punch and poke out a few round pieces of plastic from a coffee can lid. Put the trailer on the first hook and then carefully shove one of the round plastic pieces on after it.
SR
Simple but brilliant!
Hi there, I can’t find Lindy Snagproof gloves. Are they still available under that name? Thanks again
Here’s a link for it. They are sold online at Amazon too. I bought mine in person so I could try it on though. Orange or yellow, right hand or left, various sizes.
That’s the thing. Amazon Canada and Cabelas have confusing descriptions of the glove. I want a left hand glove but the system keeps getting me right hand side. I own a right hand glove already
Bought a Bubbas fish handling glove instead at least it’s available in my size! Thank you for taking the time to help me out.
I think you are a much more accomplished angler than you are letting on.
In addition to going barbless try and keep as many fish in the net boat side as possible. There isn’t nearly as much thrashing around as there is when you bring them onboard. Lastly don’t do the Bass swing bringing hammer handles into the boat. You are guaranteed to know what it feels like to be stapled to a flopping fish doing that. Took me nearly 30 years but one finally got me…..it’s not much fun. 
Thank you for the compliment, and thanks for the advice re keeping the fish in the net. I wrote a column for Ontario Out of Doors Magazine back when they were called Ontario Fisherman and Hunter, and I was with them when they changed the name and went to glossy color paper. That was a long time ago though. I am returning to fishing after a 30 year absence. I’m finding it difficult not least because I am going to be 67 years old this August. Thanks for the kind words and advice. Michael
Nothing really has changed. The biggest improvements are in electronics and boat control. Anything else connected to catching Pike is connected to better marketing, prying the cold cash from our hands. Pike are every bit as dumb or smart depending on your view as they always have been. 
I have only used barbless hooks as required in the Sylvania Wilderness. I did catch fish, Smallies, but it does add an extra element to the landing a fish. never used for Musky. Yes they would be easier to remove from fish or man, but much easier for the fish to shake your lure or hook off.
Where we fish in Canada, both Manitoba and Saskatchewan, barbless hooks are required. Personally I think it should be barbless everywhere. It makes quicker and easier hook removal and release of the fish. Like others said the added bonus is in you get a hook in yourself you will be really thankful they are barbless. To be honest I can’t tell you the last time I believe I lost a fish due to the barbless hooks, it may happen but is far less than most think.
Dutchboy, I am at a loss. Recently I spent two six-hour periods on the water, the only explanation I can find for my almost complete lack of success (I caught and released a 14 inch largemouth) is that every time I am out on the water, it is hot, sunny, and cloudless. l am praying for rain the next time I go out. I found and fished a long, deep hole, including over the edges of the hole all day yesterday with no success. I was fishing a Mepps Musky Marabou, a Creek Chub Pikie Minnow, a Rapala deep diver and a twin spin (not inline) weighing about an ounce or so with willowleaf blades. Am I just being taught patience or am I doing something wrong? The marina where I rent from only rents out pontoon boats now so I can’t troll because of the canopy. I would have loved to troll some of the larger areas where the weeds meet the deeper waters. I varied my retrieve from slow to fast and bulged the spinner under the surface many times. I wore polaroid sunlgasses and saw no follows or short strikes. I have only caught five muskies in my life. This marina is only open from eight a.m. (too late for the early shift) to six p.m. (too early for the evening feed). I am very frustrated. Cheers, Michael.
An addendum, I am used to using a flasher depth finder and don’t have a depth finder at the moment and find that a huge problem. Difficult to mount a depth finder transducer on a rental boat, they won’t let you drill any holes. I spent $269 on a Striker 4 Portable kit but can’t figure out how to put it together, it’s like an Ikea puzzle and the diagrams don’t go with the parts. Michael
Hot, warm, and sunny is not good this time of year. I honestly wouldn’t even try to muskie fish in those conditions.
Try to target periods of higher likelihood of success. Sunrise, sunset, at night, and during rapid weather changes. If there is a storm or low pressure system coming, that would be ideal. Just be safe about it.
Keep an eye on the water temps too. 80 degrees is to warm to muskie fish and mortality is high when it’s that warm.
Those are tough times to fish for Muskie but Pike will still go. While fishing / trolling on a pontoon is hard it’s not impossible. There is a Muskie guide on Mille Lacs here in Minnesota that uses a pontoon exclusively. Your bigger issue is a lack of electronics. Buy yourself a good clamp on rod holder for the pontoon. You will need to land any caught fish on the front deck in front of the console and the supports for the canopy. I would use spoons and a mid depth crank bait, maybe get down to 5-8′ during mid day. Vary your speed with the spoons, run them deep, run them shallow. Pike will hit all the way up to 7-8 Mph so don’t worry you are going to fast. I try and stay in the 3-5 Mph range but every once in a while will bump it up.
Good luck, you have a 8 fish day on your horizon not counting hammer handles.
Thank you very much for your comments. Unfortunately the only marina I know of opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. so I know I’m out of the zone. One day years ago I had been getting skunked so I got up at 4 a.m. and went out to fish Helin Swimmerspoons in 16 feet of water, out on an underwater point. Caught two thirty inch pike and went back to bed when the sun came out. Thanks again. I’ll have to work something out with the new manager to get out on the water early or else find another marina, OR try to plan for that weather change.
Thanks Dutchboy, I really appreciate that you got back to me! I use to speed troll a Flatfish with a one ounce sinker for pike and did pretty well, lots of pike up to and including 30 inches. Never saw one a smidgin past that size unless I was drifting a leopard frog with a slipsinker in the morning at the edge of an underwater point’s side. Then I raised and lost a forty incher because I was expecting walleye and bass not pike and wasn’t using a leader on 6 pound test. I will re-read your comments and take them to heart. God bless. Michael
p.s. if I had to do it over again, needing a steel leader for six pound test, I have discovered that the G string from a mandolin, sold in a music supply shop, tests at about ten pounds with a haywire twist and is single strand nearly invisible. I looked forward to hearing from you since I posted. Thanks for keeping me going. Michael
Hot, warm, and sunny is not good this time of year. I honestly wouldn’t even try to <em class=”ido-tag-em”>muskie fish in those conditions.
Try to target periods of higher likelihood of success. Sunrise, sunset, at night, and during rapid weather changes. If there is a storm or low pressure system coming, that would be ideal. Just be safe about it.
Keep an eye on the water temps too. 80 degrees is to warm to muskie fish and mortality is high when it’s that warm.
Apparently Mn. fish are different than Wi. fish. My son went out Sunday morning for 4 hours and boated a 39 1/2 and a 43. It was a calm, sunny, warm day. Fished a shallow mud flat (3-4 ft) and caught both on a top water.
Famous guide Tony Rizzo wrote that hot sunny calm days are great for swimming boating and waterskiing, everyone who is not a musky fisherman. This was from “Secrets of a Muskie Guide”. What time of day were the fish caught in please? Thanks for your input. BTW I’m fishing in south central Ontario Canada.
Sorry I missed that you already told me he was fishing in the .morning. how early?
I’d look into hiring a guide that knows the lake you fish the most, they will vastly increase your re-learning curve. And for pike and muskies, I don’t think a depth finder is all that important, just a good lake map should suffice. There are decent apps in the states (Navionics, Omnia, and soon OnX) or you can get a flasher with GPS and just use that function.
If I had a flasher with or without gps I’d be a happy camper. I have caught two walleye 30 inches long by scouting out locations on a contour map. There are two areas on Scugog that have deeper water and I have been fishing in and around one of them not to mention the weedbeds all over the lake. I’m thinking of trying the second deeper area next trip. I have already contacted a guide for Scugog we’ll see what he has to say. Thanks guys.
Apparently Mn. fish are different than Wi. fish. My son went out Sunday morning for 4 hours and boated a 39 1/2 and a 43. It was a calm, sunny, warm day. Fished a shallow mud flat (3-4 ft) and caught both on a top water.
No, not really. Just because the conditions are not ideal doesn’t mean guaranteed failure. It just makes it tougher. Props to your son.
Ask any relatively serious muskie angler and they will tell you that hot, sunny, and flat is about the worst conditions that exist.
Sorry I missed that you already told me he was fishing in the .morning. how early?
Fish were caught between 8 and 9 AM.
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