Regarding barbs< you will hook more fish with barbless hooks for the same reason that you can drive a nail deeper into wood if it is of a smaller diameter less resistance as it passes through flesh and mor importanly bone or gristle. This will probably make up for the few that get away by hooking a few more. And lets face it barbs rip up more flesh and blood vessels on the way out than they do on the way in,ask your doctor. That should be reason enough to make you want go barbless at least for C&R.


Additionaly when the fish is on for an extended period of time, as in a big sucker, the sharpnes of the barb has a tendency to work against you buy cutting a larger hole and even cutting the hook out freeing the fish.
Another thing I have observed about barbs is there are a lot of well educated people who will never, regardless of what you show and tell them, stop using them its a mind set thing and remains one of those comic opera disscusions that will keep coming up as long as they make hooks with barbs on them.