When fishing for fish that I want to release and to live another day I will take some simple needle nose pliers and pinch the barb down to reduce the damage of the fish that i will catch and plan to release to catch in the future. Those fish that I have done so in a confined area have done very well even the ones that got throat hooked the gullet hook slides out and the fish was fine. Why does that occur with the tournaments, If you fish with pinched down barbs for a while you will realize that you will really lose very few fish If you know how to fish. I would think it would be in the best intrest for all tournaments on Cumberland to fish with barbless hooks if the fish are planned to be realesed be that bass ,walleye, striper, or crappie, on the other hand if you plan to catch and eat the fish then the barbed hooks are appropriate