Ryan, are you suggesting a statewide ban on barb less hooks or did you mean a statewide ban on barbed hooks? Either way I catch fish both ways. When it comes to releasing, the barb less is much easier, especially if using bait.

Coot I tend to agree with you that barb less will help with escapement and possibly mortality. Commerical fisheries will kill more in one pass that the average fisher person could ever kill in a life time with the usage of barbed hooks.

Cowlitzfisherman ditto on what you stated.

4salt: Instead of imposing new laws just getting the ones on the books enforced would be a bonus. If our lawmakers would hire more enforcement agents instead of cutting them back, violaters would spend more time in jail and less time on the water.