Barbs

[jechicdr]

I crimped mine and then twisted the hook in the pliers to essentially break the barb off.  This essentially leaves a rough spot on the hook.  Suspect it would not grab a thread, but it does offer some resistance to the hook sliding out, though it does not prevent it from coming out.

[Smossy]

I'm crushing it down with pliers every time unless I have the convenience of being near a sporting good store that sells barbless gom's. If they want to ticket me for crushing the barb to nothing. They will see me in court.

I crimped mine and then twisted the hook in the pliers to essentially break the barb off.  This essentially leaves a rough spot on the hook.  Suspect it would not grab a thread, but it does offer some resistance to the hook sliding out, though it does not prevent it from coming out.

This is the same technique that I use, but sometimes It doesn't get the barb completely off. Regardless. Its good enough.

[tmike]

Spend a little more and buy Gami barbless or go with the Matsuo Sikles and crimp them down good. Depends on how you are fishing and what you're fishing for. Just my 

[Smossy]

Spend a little more and buy Gami barbless or go with the Matsuo Sikles and crimp them down good. Depends on how you are fishing and what you're fishing for. Just my 

We exclusively only use Gami's here!
Maybe not always the barbless, but nothing some pliers cant fix, they have really weak/small barbs so they're easy to crimp.

[Skillet]

I do the same thing Ed does - bend the barb back and leave as big of a bump as I can.  Most hooks seem to break off at the base if you just crush them with pliers, and it seems that sharp edge would hang way more than the bump I get when I bend the barb back...  Been checked with the bent barbs and they never gave me any grief.