Mark,
I agree with all of your observations hole heartedly, I also use only single
barbless hooks on spinning rods, as a matter of fact I use barbless on everything but the little tuna
because they seem to have a very keen sense of being able to turn the hooks
around and get free and when hookups are few and far between I would rather land the fish than lose him..
I go chunking with a friend of mine in the boat occasionally and I only use
very small hooks for this type of fishing so that if a fish does get deeply
hooked it causes very little if any damage removing the hook, I don't chunk very
much at all any more though due to my feeling that it is too damaging to the fish.
On the matter of fishing live bunker (pogies), which we still have plenty of in Connecticut,
if you choose this method of fishing you better keep the fish because it is
a very rare occasion that the bass doesn't take the bait into his throat.
One other thing I have changed is my drag setting, I have gone to setting
it much tighter than I used to so that I can land the fish much quicker at
the expense of a few lost fish. I have also put Spiderwire Fusion line
on my light action spinning rod and I have found that the increased
sensitivity that this line affords has the benefit of a very high percentage of
fish being hooked in the outer mouth area due to quick hooksets. I would like to add
that it really makes me sick when any fish I catch dies and anything I or we
can do, short of giving up our passion, should be done and would welcome anyones
input on this very emotionally charged issue...Thanks in advance....Striper..