Hook Shedding and Mortality of Deeply Hooked Brook Trout Caught with Bait on Barbed and Barbless Hooks

Abstract

We compared hook shedding rates, mortality, and bleeding of cultured brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis subjected to intentional deep hooking on size-6 barbed or barbless single hooks (with line cutting) baited with leaf worms Lumbricus rubellus. Hook shedding at the end of the 6-week holding period averaged 20% and did not differ between hook types. Neither immediate mortality (average = 12.5%) nor mortality after 5 d (average = 20%) differed between hook types. Although we cannot demonstrate a survival advantage for cultured brook trout that were baitfished with barbless hooks over those caught on barbed hooks, we did find that significantly less bleeding was caused by barbless hooks. Further research examining whether the use of barbless hooks results in increased survival of wild brook trout or other trout species under different fishing conditions is warranted.