barbed or barbless hooks when pike fishing?

Use a hemostat or a pair of needle nose pliers....I keep a small one with me when I unhook the Trout I catch in the water........

Cowboy you can just push down the barbs you know?

Ryan-Barbeless hooks are a pain in the @33 especially on toothy critters. The best way is a good ol hook remover or plyers. A decent set of plyers even if the fish is hooked deep will let you push down the barbs. You can also look for the entry point and just slide the hook out. A boga and a set of plyers would be a good investment. Bogas just make it easy to unhook and make sure you dont rub the slime off on the ground. The fishes slime is important. Dont be afraid to apply force though sometimes the fish get a good hookset.

Edit:Cowboy you said you wanted all barbless hooks right? Just push down on the barb with a pair of plyers it pretty much debarbs them.

Try using pliers if your gonna go with barbed hooks. I personally dislike barbed hooks because it sometimes get stuck on a piece of skin* or in the corner where the fish's jaws intersect so It's impossible to remove the hook without injuring the fish, I wish I had all barbless hooks but they are not as common.

Pike Hooks

There are two keys to unhooking pike – the right equipment and the right technique.

Turning to equipment first, there are four basic things you need. They are a pair of long-nosed pliers, a pair of straight forceps (a minimum of 12” long), a pair of strong, long handled wire-cutters (for cutting hooks, not wire leaders or traces) and a latex covered gardening glove (if you are right handed the glove needs to be for your left hand, if you are left handed then it is for your right hand). For gripping hooks the pliers are always the first option ahead of forceps as they give you much more purchase. I simply would not go fishing for pike if I did not have all of these with me.

Now to technique. The first issue is how to hold the fish and get its mouth open. To do this, put on the latex glove, lay the fish on its back and kneel astride it (not on it!) with its head pointing away from you. Now, assuming you are right handed, slide your gloved left hand under the right side gill plate as you look down on the fish, and move your hand forward inside the gill until you get to the jawbone of the fish. Keep your fingers away from the bright red gill rakers as these are very easily damaged. Bear in mind that they will also slice skin very easily if you do not wear the glove (this doesn’t hurt, but you will bleed like crazy)! Use all of your fingers in this process and let your fingers protrude into the mouth from the gills. There are no teeth where your fingers enter the mouth, so you can’t get bitten. Now use your thumb to get a good grip on the fishes’ jaw, and then lift the pike’ head towards you. As you do so it will open its mouth. It has no choice. Now you can begin unhooking with your free right hand.

To unhook, as I said above, use pliers whenever you can. Look down the pike’s throat as you hold it. To get hooks out, don’t twist them but instead push them out in exactly the opposite direction to the way they went in. Personally I prefer barbed hooks. When you get experienced getting them out really isn’t hard if you use a firm action and I lose a lot less fish when using barbed hooks. There is no denying that barbless hooks will come out easily though. The only thing you have to be careful about is not re-hooking the fish if it wriggles as you remove the hooks from the mouth. If you can’t reach the hooks with the pliers then use the forceps, and remember that if you are still having trouble you may be able to reach the hooks better through the gills.

Never panic. Try to work efficiently and methodically but to do your best job stay calm! Remember too that if the hooks won’t come out you have your wire cutters and you always have the option of cutting the hooks. If you cut them on the curved part pushing the remaining bit through and out is easy. Cutting a hook is not a sign of defeat and it only takes seconds to fit a new one once you have released the fish.

Do try to avoid cutting the trace and leaving the hooks in the fish though. Very occasionally there is little alternative, and they do say that they will rust out quickly, but I hate to do it. It can’t be good for the fish.

Once unhooked you can lift the entire fish using the grip you now have. That helps when you return it to the water. When you do lift it though be aware that pike sometimes gape their entire head as a preliminary to shaking violently. If they do begin to gape, get them down to ground level quickly as the shaking can sometimes twist them from your grip causing you to drop them. Nobody wants to drop a fish two or three feet onto the ground!

That’s it really. Always do your unhooking on a soft surface and give the fish time to recover in the water before you release them. Beyond that enjoy your pike fishing and help other people who are having trouble unhooking whenever you can.

Tight lines.

should have been a cowboy, just push down on the barb with a pair of pliers. It does make them pretty much barbless