Let’s take a quick safety timeout with Safety Expert Randy Hardhat and go over the importance of pinching down the barb on your fly. The barb is that nasty little thing located behind the point of the hook and is meant to prevent the fish from throwing your fly during the fight, but it also makes it more difficult to safely release fish without harming it. Spare those few seconds to pinch down the barb before making your first cast with that fly, your guide and the fish will thank you for it.
Barbs won’t go away by themselves, you’ll need a good pair of hemostats to get the job done.
