I am having a hard time finding flies tied on barbless hooks, so I am going to have to learn how to remove the barbs. How do you do it, or where can you find flies on barbless hooks.
You can smash down the barbs with your forceps... Sometimes it doesn't completely smash down the barb and you can get cited by the dfg. I'm not sure which fly hop sells barbless flies, but if you tie your own flies, you can buy barbless hooks.
Most fly shops sell small pliers that are used to pinch down the barbs on hooks. I've been flyfishing for over 30 years and have been to many, many fly shops. It's very rare to find flies that are tied on barbless hooks. Even shops that sell flies primarily used at barbless-only lakes or streams don't sell the barbless version. For example, the Reno Fly shop sells tons of flies that would be used primarily at Pyramid Lake, but the flies I've see still have the barbs on them.
Umpqua Feather Merchants is the distributor of Tiemco hooks in the USA. Over the years, Tiemco has been discontinuing some of its barbless hook styles. Unfortunately, UFM did not have a say in that decision. That means that there is less of a selection of barbless hooks.
A couple of years back, Tiemco discontinued the barbless version of the 5263 hook (aka the Woolly Bugger hook). Let's just say that there were a lot of disappointed fly tyers.
If you invest in a pair of blunt needle nose pliers with smooth surfaced jaws, you will more effectively flatten the barb with less chance of breaking the point of the hook off. The serrated jaws of forceps and regular pliers create uneven pressure along the point and barb and can fracture the metal, especially on small flies.