Is there a better option for summer wet wading? It was damn nice to not have my waders on but these flops aren't gonna cut it. Something else I should consider or just grab a pair of Chacos?
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Is there a better option for summer wet wading? It was damn nice to not have my waders on but these flops aren't gonna cut it. Something else I should consider or just grab a pair of Chacos?
I have a pair of the Simms wading sandals, closed toe. I really appreciate the toe when I jam my foot into an unseen rock.
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Chacos are completely serviceable, and nice to be able to just wear them all the time, but if you're fishing a bunch I'd look into a shoe that was closed off from getting shit in them.
http://www.simmsfishing.com/shop/foo...prap-shoe.html
I saw those the other day, and they look pretty cool. Nice to not have to bother with getting rocks out of your chacos all day. Which you will do a lot of.
Not if you want to keep your toenails, they aren't.Quote:
Originally Posted by brice618
Wait, was that a double negative? I'm trying to say don't wear Chacos. Because they suck.
Just get the Simms neoprene socks for $30 and you're all set.
Wet Wading socks and your boots, hate to sacrifice grip. But small stream I just use keens. Closed toe, not the open foot bed of chacos and they stay on your foot much better. I picked up their new model this year. Super nice and grippy so far.
I'm not gonna get behind wading in chacos either.Quote:
Originally Posted by Underoos
Buy some Simms neoprene!!! Great to add to your wading boot for hikes too. There are a few sandal companies that have covered toes. Simms socks plus those would be a solid route. I wear the Simms socks with my wading boots even in the heat of the summer when wading. I get some shit sometimes out of the truck by people who don't get it but when I'm hoofing it across shitty bottoms , awkward rocks and gravel bars, and through nasty brush, folks then tend to get it....Neoprene plus boots is the way to go if you are moving around on most western streams. I do wish I had a set of some slick covered toe sandals for the boat though.
Sorry to spam. Sounds like chacos aren't your best bet here, but I've got a size 11 pair w the toe loop, new, if you want a pair anyway. $60+ship
+7 for neoprene socks and wading boots
I've noticed that sandals in general suck for wading. Depends on the river bottom, but gravel gets sucked in between the foot and the sandal. Maybe the Vibram 5?
For me, fishing without waders or boots is like having sex without a condom, or surfing without a wetsuit.
Like multiple others above ^^ I have Simms wading sandels plus Simms neoprene socks if the water is chilly. Highly recommend.
keen trumps chacos hands down unless your a river rat lookiin for the chaco tan to impress cube monkies
i sure wish simms would bring back their keen built felt soled sandles
now that the whole demise of trout because whirling disease hype has subsided
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...psebdf7dab.jpg
you can buy neoprene socks from diveshops/ebay/whatever the fuck for <$10
But they wouldn't say Simms on them!Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
Come on, Hugh. We're fly fishermen, and as such it is our duty to let everyone know that.
But for real, the socks made for fishermen (Simms, Chota, probably some others) are taller so you can fold them down over your laces. I like that feature, YMMV. And like Schwery said, they are quite comfy and nice for hiking.
And they say Simms on them!
Yeah, it was nice. I plan to keep doing both of those things. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by BS720
I knew I could count on you guys to keep me from making a dumb purchase. If only you were there with me that time I bought the street food in thailand and it still had hair on it.
I got some simms neoprene wading socks on the way. Stupid question: do you still wear normal socks under these?
Absolutely. You'll get some serious stink if you don't.
No, unless you want them to get wet.Quote:
Originally Posted by dfinn
What are Chacos?
I don't. The Teton is so funky that nothing from my feet could make it worse. Both boots and neoprene socks, I just rinse them with a hose and leave them on the porch in the sun to cure. Works fine, but if you forget to do it the stink gets pretty bad. Once upon a time, Orvis and Redington made some nice felt soled wading shoes that were only half the weight of a wading boot and easier to put in a daypack but, honestly, neither model was as good at keeping out gravel as the traditional ankle high boot. I guess they never caught on and no company has anything like them these days. The Simms riprap shoe is pretty flimsy by comparison; its more of a boat angler option. Sandals?...Ha, I guarantee you, one streamside close encounter with a rattlesnake and exposed feet will never again feel like a wise option.Quote:
Originally Posted by dfinn
Isn't that what the vest filled with crap and flies that never get used is for? and the big logo'd hat? and the extra large sticker in the rear window of the suby?Quote:
Originally Posted by Underoos
how much taller? the pair I got at some dive shop for a couple bucks is about "standard hiking sock tall" and they work ok enough, without socks, and they stink, but they were cheap. but I have to bear the not supporting the community cross with them and that adds a couple extra ounces every step. If I'd bought the Patagonia ones I'm sure my farts would smell like Chanel No 5, I'd piss Pliny the Elder and my bowel movements would be regular, perfectly cone shaped, and march themselves into the toilet.
Suby? You're kidding me, right? I can't pull my double drifter trailer shitshow without a fucking truck, dude. And the Suby wouldn't get enough looks when it's parked in front of the fly shop. But that's where the giant sticker comes in. Or even better, double Titan vaults. A must have for any "huge flyfisherman."Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
Sure, I do drive a Subaru, but I fish for bass and sometimes use bait. Cro-magnon, if you will.
Anyway, socks. Folded down, the Simms are an inch or two above my boot tops. Pulled up they come to just below my knee. I wear them down most of the time. If I'm post holing into early alpine lakes I pull them up so my delicate stems don't get wet. Pretty nice trick, actually. I have a few friends that fish in shorts and pull them up for skeeters or thorny stuff.
protip: the sticker doesn't mean I'm spancered. It means I paid $50 for a fucking sticker.
spancered pro tip: if you don't fold the socks down then no one can see the logo
This entire thread is full of win! Underoos for president and Hugh for press secretary!
Eighty percent of the places I fish, snakes aren't a problem. Of the remaining twenty, boa's are more of a percentage than rattlers. I'll keep barebacking it. :biggrin:Quote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
a type of footwear that does not have a Simms label on them...Quote:
Originally Posted by DeathVan
streamside rattlers encounters?
sounds boatless
aint nuthin a 9mm and a blood pressure cuff couldn't fix
Oh, I've got boats. So do most anglers around here which is why I rarely float anymore. Victor, ID has less than a thousand people but it's got a Clackacraft dealership. You can't drive around a block in Driggs without passing half a dozen drift boats in driveways. Plus, there's probably about 200 guides around here and they almost exclusively float fish. So, when it comes to boat traffic, our famous floatable rivers are a total joke from the salmonfly hatch until after labor day weekend. Sloppy seconds doesn't do it for me. First tracks is where its at, imho, if you are looking to average 30-50 hookups a day. Same as morels; you don't look for a big bag full where everyone else is pickin!Quote:
Originally Posted by skifishbum
As for the 9mm, that's pretty much useless. Either you see/hear the snake in time or its too late. Pressure cuffs are only recommended for neurotoxic bites when isolating the venom from the heart and diaphragm muscles is relevant. I believe only the mojave rattler has a significant neurotoxic element in its venom. The rest produce a nasty hemotoxin. The real risk of rattlesnake hemotoxin is tissue damage so severe that the envenomed limb has to be amputated. A pressure cuff does nothing to stop that and while anti-venom neutralizes venom it does nothing to reverse damage. The limb will be withered for life, at best.
boatless here on the deschutesQuote:
Originally Posted by skifishbum
gotta watch where you step at streamside grass
watch the ricochet too!
http://photos-b.ak.instagram.com/hph...26740705_n.jpg
slc the opposite too many walk n wade guides on the provo not enough river miles not hard to push a bit or escape the 9-5ers which is 90% of the guides business
on the green seen 2 rattlers in 15 years both on the road
so wouldn't the 1st boat on the water get fresh tracks?
ive had 4 dudes willing to launch at 5:00 am and 2 of were mags
Pretty sure the Minneapolis shop has carved this mantra into a sign in their front window.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
MOJO makes a really nice water shoe. I wouldn't wade in them in a river, but they are great on the boat and for stringray foot shuffling the flats here. They drain really well, and don't take on the stink at all.
I got them in a cool fish blue and grey camo pattern, but I can't find a picture online.
I just noticed that steepandcheap has gravel cuffs on sale if anyone is still looking
That sounds nice, but up here the fish keep banker's hours, so your 5 a.m. launch doesn't do shit for you, unless you got 30 miles of river to run, and only the one put-in up high.Quote:
Originally Posted by skifishbum
it is important to note that while Chacos may not be the best wetwade footwear, they are mighty fine for drinking.
+1 for Simms neoprene socks. They are significantly more comfortable than the neoprene sock in my waders, have the lace hook and just work well. If you are covering a lot of rocky river/uneven ground you just aren't going to replicate the grip and support of your wading boots. I will however take the Chacos and the socks when backpacking to high alpine streams/lakes and looking to save weight, or Chacos only if it's super warm, mellow wading, fishing mostly from the bank, and/or a short session where I'm not covering a lot of ground (i.e., not very often). But they do have their purpose...
not sure where up round here isQuote:
Originally Posted by Jamespio
but big wary fish didn't get that way eatin durin bankers hours
they end when the bankers are starbuckin & boats start goin overhead and start again when them bankers laywers and river ran thru its are all tired from flailin the water 9-5 and wastin energy w/ shitty castin and number countin there experiences
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...bum/bigboy.jpg
5-9 - 9-5
do you ever fish those hours much?
[emotican inserted here]
Yeah. I'm with SFB on this one. During the back end of the runoff, the fishng is noticably slow before 10am until the pmds start moving up the water column and it tends to peak along with the pmd hatch. Whether you are fishing pmds, drakes, stoneflies...nymph or dry, sure, the action takes off around noon with that pmd emergence. But that's just a late june-mid july thing, imho, relevant to the colder rivers still drawing water out of snowfields. That's the only truth to the "gentlemen's hours" schtick that I ever observed. I think that myth started in the lodges, which have to sequence the guest's day according to the kitchen staff's hours not the fishing. Lodge guests don't get to see many magic hour spinner falls. They don't get to slap #4 salmonflies against the bank at 7am (which can be a lot more productive than tossing to the bank at 1pm with a convoy of boats running the banks). But once that water warms and the afternoon pmd hatches wane, midday can actually be the slowest fishing around here, regardless of whether you like boots or chacos.
Anybody try those Columbia Drainmakers? I've had my eye on them as they'd be perfect for a local creek that I regularly fish that has a hike in and once you're at the creek you hike in it for miles on end over the weekend.
What a friggin beast SFB....its fins are larger than any of my stream brookies so far...;-)
dfinn,
If it's shallow...go with the wading shoes...such great stuff these days. If deeper, again go with the breatheable waders with studded shoes.. the nicest things.... Both Redington's and Orvis's cheaper breatheables look good..and are sized well too.
I've put 30-40 days on the Simms Rock Creek felt sole boots and can now give a review. They still perform well but are showing signs of falling apart soon. The toe rand is splitting and the webbing "eyelets" for the laces are breaking. Seems like this $99 model won't even last 99 days of use. Bottom line: well built but used lower durability material to hit price point - that makes this a one or two season boot, at best.
update: and at around 50 days, the Rock Creek boot becomes a floppy, disintegrating piece of shit with cracks in all the materials and blown out stitching. My first three pairs of Simms boots held up over two years each (usually the felt would wear down before the boot fell apart). Now 99$ to Simms doesn't even buy you a one season boot. These boots are good for casual use in a drift boat, they will not stand up to much serious wading. If you want an affordable boat boot these will do but otherwise, yet another big FAIL for Simms boot line.
are there any decent boots at a reasonable (before brodeals/sales/industry largesse) price?