Elkrun, you need some new fly fishin' friends who do punch barbs down.

Me, I've hooked myself 6 or 7 times. Ran some small fly hooks into various fingers, a big #4 leech into a finger past the bend of the hook, ran a #8 into the back of my head while double hauling in the wind. The weight of that 9 wt line hitting me was somethng else.

First two times I got hooked I wondered..."hmmm... did I punch those barbs down?"... and when I tugged on the hook it slid right out.

One of the advantages of fishing barbless about 98% of the time.