For many, angling represents a life-long passion that starts at childhood and continues throughout adult-life, where some claim to experience a connection with our more primeval hunter-gatherer instincts. Angling is one of our biggest recreational activities – a 2010 survey indicated 4.2 million people in England and Wales had been freshwater fishing over the previous two years. However, in an increasingly conservation and animal welfare conscious world, the common use of multiple point fishing hooks stands out as angling’s Achilles’ heel.
Whether as a requirement or through a personal preference to do so, all fish should be returned to the water quickly and unharmed. However, UK rod fishing rules currently exclude controls on hook types, and the type of hook used makes a huge difference to the chances of a fish surviving. That’s why a new campaign is calling for the phased ban of multiple point hooks is proposed, limiting anglers to using single hooks.
All anglers have a custodian role to protect native fish populations – including freshwater coarse (e.g. carp), game (e.g. salmon) and sea (e.g. bass). Commercial sea fishing is not considered, although it is worth noting that line fishing makes use of single (circle) hooks due to their superior hooking qualities. In recent years, the introduction of various controls has helped protect both fish and other wildlife. These include a ban on certain lead weights (or ‘shot’) and use of knotless mesh in both keep and landing nets. Banning multiple point hooks will continue this trend, helping to strengthen fish welfare and angling’s conservation credentials. It also provides an excellent opportunity to harmonise UK-wide rod fishing controls across all angling types.
There’s a catch
When good practice ‘catch and release’ – including use of single hooks – is followed, returned fish have the maximum survival opportunity to spawn and grow bigger. Single hooks have various advantages over their multiple point counterparts: they are much easier to remove – minimising any potential for physical harm, reduce fish handling time and the likelihood of stress. Artificial spinning baits (e.g. for predator fish species) often include multiple hooks; two or even three treble hooks (‘trebles’) may be used, each containing three individual hook points. These can additionally lead to the unintended foul-hooking of fish from the trailing hooks.
The advantages of single hooks are already widely recognised. Some Norwegian and Russian salmon fisheries restrict anglers to using single barbless hooks. For many years, this has been standard practice on North American steelhead and cutthroat trout rivers. Many English coarse fisheries already stipulate both single barbless hooks and maximum hook size.
The UK has various restrictions that require anglers to return caught fish, but no national requirement to use the single hooks that make it most likely that the fish will survive:
- Freshwater eels must always be returned alive.
- Before 16th June (England and Wales) salmon must be returned unharmed.
- The Scottish River Dee has a voluntary 100% catch and release code for salmon and sea trout.
- Due to concerns on dwindling stocks, EU measures required sea bass anglers to adopt 100% catch and release for the first half of 2016, with potential for further similar restrictions in 2017.
The closest we have to a ban on multiple point hooks is Northern Ireland’s angling regulations, which include ‘catch and release’ guidance that recommends use of small single, barbless hooks.
Angling for change
Formalising and harmonising UK-wide rod fishing rules on single hook use for all angling pursuits will remove inconsistencies, providing a common baseline to deliver lasting fish welfare and conservation benefits. This may also help strengthen angling’s conservation credentials through the lens of future public attitude surveys to angling.
Whilst treble hooks remain the favourite choice for many anglers when using both tube flies and spinning lures, a range of single hook alternatives are available (e.g. Blair spoons). A conscious business decision to market single hooks only might provide first-mover advantage for a major manufacturer or retailer, particularly where this is viewed as strengthening their annual social responsibility and environmental sustainability reporting.
However, changes to rod fishing rules should go hand-in-hand with steps to minimise potential disruption. For example, retailers may require time to adjust stock levels for single point hooks. Manufacturers may need to modify product designs (e.g. spinning lures) so that they function as intended when mounted with single hook(s). Regulatory bodies (such as the Environment Agency in England) will also need time to amend rod licence templates and communicate rod fishing rule changes to fisheries and clubs.
It is often said that fishing tackle catches far more anglers than fish. From its infancy, it has supported a wider industry, not limited to tackle and equipment: Izaak Walton wrote his celebrated book The Compleat Angler back in 1653, and it remains in print. From these beginnings, the leisure fishing tackle sector has become a major global industry – the latest identified estimate indicated they would exceed $20.3bn by 2015. Yet, of the vast array of angling products, the humble fishing hook is the only one that directly contacts the fish.
On the available evidence, there are no grounds where the continued use of multiple-point fishing hooks can be defended for any angling pursuit. A change to rod fishing rules, restricting anglers to using single hooks will help strengthen angling’s fish welfare and conservation credentials – pillars on which the industry’s future economic prosperity relies.
You can sign a petition calling for a ban on multiple point fishing hooks here. For more information about the campaign, visit www.singlehooks.org.
Stuart, across the board the science does not conclude unequivocally one way or the other:
https://activeanglingnz.com/2014/08/18/treble-v-single/
At the end of the day the angler’s skills are more important for release mortality than the choice of hook type – in particular how to avoid or deal with deep hooking.
Jan – I was interested to read your web page and the referenced publication. Firstly, I totally agree that an angler’s skill is very important to fish survival. Novice anglers can early on gain valuable insights from professional instructors and/or experienced amateur anglers. This includes: the importance of regular equipment maintenance; strong terminal tackle to enable fish to be quickly and firmly played to the net; always landing fish in a knotless net; and ensuring catch details (photographing, weighing and measuring) are recorded whilst the fish ideally remains in the water.
Reducing both fish handling and air exposure time are key elements of good practice catch and release guidance. As a rule, removing a single point hook is quicker when compared with a multiple point hook and takes less time still when compared with up to three multiple point hooks, as are often fitted to certain predator fish lures. Therefore, both fishing skills and ease of hook removal are simultaneously relevant where catch and release survival rates are concerned.
Across the board the scientific evidence does not unequivocally support your claim that “the type of hook used makes a huge difference to the chances of a fish surviving.”
https://activeanglingnz.com/2014/08/18/treble-v-single/
At the end of the day the angler’s skills in most cases – in particular concerning deep hooking – would be more important for the release mortality than any choice of hook.
Stuart there is much “science” published in the US, where I assume the brook trout study was published, which has no bearing on European style fishing. Americans fish mostly for the pot and trebles are used to stop fish escaping their fate and the standard of fish care in the US is particularly low. That is not the case in Europe where C&R is practiced on nearly all game and coarse fisheries. This view is incredibly simplistic especially when applied to lure fishing in both freshwater and sea water and large bait fishing at sea. You simply cannot take the US experience and extrapolate that to Europe.
There is no British or European science on this subject because it is simply not an issue for us over this side of the pond.
Mike – i’m delighted that this subject is prompting a range of views: vitally important when informing the way forward. In Europe, as you rightly say, catch and release – whether mandatory/ voluntary – is practised on an increasing number of game and coarse fisheries. Good practice guidance focuses on single hook use; where hook choice is an important consideration in reducing physical fish handling and air exposure times.
You comment that the view (on using single hooks) is incredibly simplistic. However, catch and release survival rates can be advanced through tackle innovation. When considering one of your examples – freshwater lure fishing – an increasing range of traditional lure patterns for both freshwater predator and game fishing (e.g. Flying-C spinners and Blair spoons) are now being marketed with single point hooks. There is also an increasing body of information on how to modify (e.g. Ogmore Angling Club) existing fishing lures for single hook use.
Concerns have been aired in the media that the fishing ‘action’ of certain lures can be detrimentally affected by replacing treble with single hooks. But, I believe this somewhat misses the point, as both existing lures can be modified and new lures designed to deliver the desired fishing action, irrespective of hook type. Indeed, controls on hook type will accelerate tackle innovation by both anglers and tackle manufacturers, whether for freshwater coarse and game, or sea angling. As these developments find their way into new products and angling equipment sales, they will likely also represent good business sense.
Are there data that justify this proposal? A colleague passed on the following published article that clearly finds no issue re. survival with treble hooks over singles.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5566297de4b09e02d653ecf2/t/58516623bebafb3f6c8c3d31/1481729576368/Kerr+et+al+2017+Hook+type+brook+trout.pdf
The referenced paper finds no statistically significant difference between single and treble hooks on fish mortality within the parameters of the study undertaken on brook trout. However, the study does not address all factors which are relevant to catch and release survival. The cumulative opinion from a range of international and national bodies recommends the use of single hooks to advance catch and release survival rates.
For example, the paper recognises that fish handling time (out of the water) is an important factor contributing to mortality in catch and release fisheries. This activity characteristically takes longer for a multiple pointed hook compared with a single pointed hook, increasing further when multiple hooks (up to three) are used. In addition, the extent to which a fish is physically handled is also a key consideration and correlates with handling time. However, the research excluded this important consideration which is one of the central pillars of all catch and release regulations / guidance.
Hooking location data from 44 trout (over 19% of the catch) were stated as missing because the hook was shaken out by the fish upon capture. Whilst these were subsequently excluded from the statistical analysis, they would have provided additional insights into whether hook type (i.e. single or treble) influenced the likelihood of hook shedding (e.g. in the event of the fishing line breaking.) Another observation is that only short-term mortality (up to 24 hrs) was considered.
Various bodies advocate the use of single hooks; internationally including the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization. In the UK (not exhaustive): Marine Scotland (Scottish Government Directorate), the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards (representing Scotland’s 41 District Salmon Fishery Boards – supported by the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and the Angling Trust) and Northern Ireland Government.
Much of the case for single hooks is built on cumulated empirical evidence from many decades’ observation, drawn from professional field staff and qualified fishing instructors. For example, a recent ban on treble hook use at a UK pike fishery was publicly supported by leading professional anglers, whom collectively have over 100 years angling experience. Conservation-minded anglers continue to innovate fishing tackle equipment to advance catch and release survival rates; perhaps ultimately enabling anglers to return fish before they even know they’ve been hooked.