Lets talk wading boots

My original boots were the cheap canvas felt soled boots sold by Cabela’s. I needed a pair of rubber soled boots to fish in Alaska during visits to the village where my daughter taught school. Alaska does not permit felt soled boots. I bought a pair of Korkers and have been pleased. They came with an alternate set of studded felt soles. To me, studded felt has a better grip than studded rubber.

wildtrout2 said:

Couldn't agree more, especially if you're spending an entire day on the stream. I just gave away a pair of Orvis felt sole size 9, because they were too tight. They felt (no pun) great when I tried them on when I bought them, including putting on the same socks I'd wear while fishing, but after a mile of fishing they were very uncomfortable. I went with a size 10 and it made all the difference in the world!

I wouldn't fish with anything other than felt soles, because they give me the best grip on the mountain freestones I fish.

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Most wading boots tend to shrink - especially after the first season of use.
I wear size 11 regular shoe size
But always buy size 12 wading boots
If they,re too big that first season, I add a second insole to take up the room.
Or wear thicker socks

RH1 said:

So im going to soon be purchasing my first pair of waders and boots. Im not sure if it's possible but I would like a boot that is versatile in different waters. In Ohio alot of streams have large rock bottoms while some are more gravel and loose stone. From what ive been reading, PA seems to have extremely different stream and creek bottoms. Is it possible to find a sole that is versatile enough to fish these differences or should I be planning on 2 different pairs of wading boots..
Let's hear the advice from the experienced experts!

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I've settled on having both choices available to me. My choice of boot depends more on how much hiking/walking on dry land I plan on doing than anything else. Lots of walking, I go for rubber soles with studs or cleats. For less walking, felt with studs. Felt is superior traction on rock and gravel while in the water, but is terrible in mud and snow on land. Hiking can wear felt down pretty quick depending on quality and design of the felt sole. Rubber holds up much better to lots of walking and when used with studs/cleats offers pretty good traction on rock, and superior traction on muddy banks or trails. It also does better than felt in snow.

With that said, I do not wade bigger, potentially more dangerous water, without felt.

I bought a pair of Korkers "Pebble Mine" Devil's Canyons in 2022. The lowers were starting to detach so I sent them some pics. They were 18 months out of warranty yet they still sent me a credit for $209 toward a new pair of my choice. I went with the Bantam Lites, cant wait to try them. Unreal customer service, Im a customer for life

I bought a pair of korker devils canyons for last weekd trip to the laurel Highlands.
4 long days in them and they were perfect.
Super light and very comfortable

I just bought a cheap pair off of Amazon for about $70. I bought some stainless self-tapping screws from the hardware store and screwed them into the soles for another $8.

RH1 said:

So im going to soon be purchasing my first pair of waders and boots. Im not sure if it's possible but I would like a boot that is versatile in different waters. In Ohio alot of streams have large rock bottoms while some are more gravel and loose stone. From what ive been reading, PA seems to have extremely different stream and creek bottoms. Is it possible to find a sole that is versatile enough to fish these differences or should I be planning on 2 different pairs of wading boots..
Let's hear the advice from the experienced experts!

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Get Korkers and then get different interchangeable soles for the different stream types. I use felt bottoms with studs for slippery rocky streams like Penns and vibram studded for other less treacherous streams ( or when felt us banned).

Personally I found Korkers to be junk. The interchangeable sole is a cool feature not any other brands really offer. With multiple pairs I experienced the front of the boot where the teeth of the sole kind of “bite in” get worn down from use.

This would cause the front of the sole to come unbuttoned in either mud or wading through heavy current. Additionally, I found the rubber/felt on the soles wore rather quickly exposing the orange plastic on the sides. The plastic coming on contact with rocks provide no traction and in fact made it dangerously slippery. Last, the stitching/fabric on the sides around the laces deteriorated over time causing holes and loose gravel to get stuck inside.

I currently own 2 pairs of Orvis pros - 1 rubber with studs and 1 is rubber without studs for fishing in drift boats or small/easy wading streams. The majority of my fishing days I’m walking 3-6 miles and each pair is still holding up after 75+ uses each. I realize they aren’t cheap, especially with the studs (I think Orvis just jacked them up to $50 a set), but I’ve found with boots and waders you get what you pay for.

I’m just saying that 3-6 miles of walking per outing with 75 + outings is an absolute “shitwhack” of wear on a pair of wading boots, probably should buy them!

Dear RH1,

I probably have 7 or 8 pairs of perfectly usable wading boots in my garage. Some of them probably have a dead mouse or two in them, or maybe the rat snake that went after the mice, but they are 100% functional. That said, I'll only comment on my most recent acquisitions.

Paramount Outdoors cleatable rubber soles. They came with the cleats for $ 89.00 at FISHUSA

Chota cleatable felt soles. They set me back about $ 40.00 on closeout and came with the cleats too!

So many of today's ultra-premium wading boots are synthetic material. They cost up to $ 400.00. And if you don't store them in water, they shrink at least 2 sizes when they dry out. You need a damned firehose and lots of patience to get them on your feet.

My favorite wet wading boots are pair of canvas Hodgman cleated felt soles bought NIB for $ 29.00 plus shipping on eBay 2 years ago. In a pinch, I have a 30-year-old pair of Simms studded felt Freestones that still do the job.

Except for Winter in snow or ice, or oozy mud, cleated felt soles, and some common sense will keep you upright in 99.9 % of PA streams.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

FWIW my Korkers do the same thing with the sole coming loose, but in my experience this comes at the end of their life anyway. You step on it and snap it back in and keep fishing. Not a day ender by any stretch.

My Korkers (Buckskins) are 4 or 5 seasons old, with a lot of high mileage small stream days in there. Yeah, the seems are blowing, the tabs on the soles aren’t as strong as they used to be, they need laces - which they’re not getting, the insole is worn through, but, I wore them today on a 4 or 5 mile small stream day, and they handled it just fine. They live to fish at least once more. Certainly satisfied with my purchase and felt I got my money’s worth. Purchased a new pair and have them new in box when the time comes.

Boots are a consumable. Comfort, safety, and lifespan, versus cost is the calculation.

one thing few mention in the discussion on boots is arch support and stability. In my experience, cheaper boots fail at this- and some pricer ones. When I was 30, it didn't matter. It's not just about comfort, but also stability.
for my feet, the higher end Simms models is the ticket. In my experience, the outers last longer than the support and stability. The same is true of my sneakers (aka athletic shoes).

I bought the korkers devils canyon boots and was very impressed with them on my recent 4 day trip. I have very bad arches in my feet, actually almost no arch! The devils canyon boots were so comfortable for all day wading and walking.
Also, I dont think I seen anyone mention how wide these boots open. Putting these on and taking them off was so easy. My friend had a pair of Simms that he struggled horribly getting on and off. He now owns a pair of the korkers to.

Like work boots you get what you paid for.
Work=Danner nothing comes close for comfort 4-5 miles everyday standing 8+ miles.
Fishing=Same

I used Korkers Greenbacks, the cheapest model, for 8 years before they fell apart beyond repair. This year I replaced them with the Korkers Darkhorse model. I was skeptical of the BOA laces but they have been incredibly convenient and stay snug all day. Still dreading the day they inevitably break but replacement BOAs are cheap and apparently easy to install.

For years I only used the rubber, felted, and studded felt soles. The rubber are more or less useless in my opinion, as far as traction. The studded felt were acceptable but over time the felt degrades and gets slippy, and the studs are tiny.

This year I spent the $70 on the carbide spike studded soles and they are an absolute game changer. I find myself wading the Lehigh and barely needing to grab my wading staff, which was an absolute impossibility before. I can navigate other water without the use of a staff at all. This past week in high water on Penn’s, another notoriously slippy stream, although not nearly as tough as the Lehigh, they performed flawlessly. Wish I had pulled the trigger years ago, can’t recommend them enough.

Beware of carbide on super hard quartz infused rock, ESPECIALLY if the carbide is starting to wear.

I have literally slid down large flat hard rocks like I was on ice skates using carbide studs.

The rule of thumb for all slippery places is new studs trump old studs every time. When the studs wear, (even carbide) the bite diminishes and levels the playing field in terms of grip.

When in doubt, screw in new studs. I carry lots of extras of different types (carbide, hardened steel, aluminum) with me in my gear bags and a suitable tool for removal and insertion.

Bamboozle said:

Beware of carbide on super hard quartz infused rock, ESPECIALLY if the carbide is starting to wear.

I have literally slid down large flat hard rocks like I was on ice skates using carbide studs.

The rule of thumb for all slippery places is new studs trump old studs every time. When the studs wear, (even carbide) the bite diminishes and levels the playing field in terms of grip.

When in doubt, ...

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Go with felt soles. 😉

Traction requires that either the sole should bite into the surface, or the surface should bite into the sole. That’s why hard surfaces require soft soles, soft surfaces require hard, and combinations of hard and soft materials are better than either alone: Felt soles (soft) are improved by small carbide (hard) points, and rubber soles (hard) are improved by larger area aluminum (soft) cleats.

wildtrout2 said:

Go with felt soles. 😉

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The studs I use are in felt soles which is really all I use and have used forever.

I only own one pair of rubber soles and that's on a pair of wading shoes I had made especially for the Letort where I barely wade, but the bank-side mud clogs the felt and makes it VERY slippery and a pain to clean afterwards.

FWIW - Not all felt is equal either. My very first pair of wading boots were Russell Wading Shoes made by the Russell Moccasin Company that featured real wool felt soles and a stacked real wool felt heel. The felt they used was the same thick white felt used on the hammers in pianos.

The grip difference between real wool felt and the synthetic crap found on other wading shoes is like night & day and equal to studded felt. I still have one pair of their felt bottomed shoes without studs in rotation as well as the rubber bottomed pair they made me for the Letort.

All of their shoes & boots were custom and handmade by a single shoemaker in Wisconsin to your foot tracings & measurements so the fit was perfect and the price was reasonable compared to today's imported wedge heel, mass produced options.

AND they offered repair and resoling so a pair lasted a REALLY long time.

Excluding the rubber soled version they made for me, I have only owned two pair of their wading shoes since the 1980's. The pair of felts I'm still using have been patched, repaired and resoled once or twice. I also have a pair of their Chukkas and a low hunting style boot that are 15+ years old and going strong.

Unfortunately, Russell Moccasin changed hands a number of years ago and as a result they discontinued a TON of their other shoes & boots and the wading shoes. It's probably a good thing because a pair of their boots today are triple the price of the last pair I purchased 15+ years ago.

Kms said:

Hard surfaces require soft soles, and soft surfaces require hard, so combinations of hard and soft materials are better: Felt soles (soft) are improved by small carbide (hard) points, and rubber soles (hard) are improved by larger area aluminum (soft) cleats.

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For the best grip it is imperative that your studs DON'T protrude too far so the only thing making contact with the rocks are your studs. The top of the stud should BARELY protrude past the sole material so the sole AND the stud make contact.

If you are adding studs to rubber, it should be placed in a recess of some sort. If it is felt, the worst option are sheet metal style screws UNLESS you make a recess. Otherwise go with Grip Studs or Guideline style tiny head carbide studs that can be installed with the right amount of protrusion.

FWIW - For comparison's sake using the same felt bottomed Chota STL shoes, over several days and trips over the years, I tried several different studs at a stream where I've slipped with worn carbide studs and even a carbide tipped wading staff needs to placed carefully.

Knowing that worn carbide studs were risky, I experimented with other options including Russell Wading Shoes with real wool felt.

On my Chota STL's shoes that have stud posts with minimum protrusion I tried:

The best grip I got hands down was with brand new Kold Kutter or Gold Ice Screws which diminshed slighty by the end of the day. That's becuse they are VERY sharp and cut/bite into the rocks better that a carbide "point."

The second best was plain the REAL WOOL felt on my Russell's

All the carbide studs when new were pretty good, especially the Orvis PosiGrip but not better. However, the bite lasts MUCH longer than hardened steel screw-in studs.

The aluminum sheet metal screws were OK, but surprisingly not as good as the Kold Kutter or Ice Screws, probably because they dulled FAST and weren't large enough to grip like aluminum bars or disks.

On the day I slipped at this stream with some worn Orvis PosiGrip studs, I landed HARD on my forearm and could have broke it or my elbow in the process or hit my head on a huge rock behind me.

Even worse that that, I could have broken my rod or reel... 😉

So for ME at this particular stream if I am not using my Russell's, I'm screwing in a new set of Kold Kutter or Gold Ice Screws in each day. It is a bit of a hassle, but they are cheap enough and I'd rather spend a few bucks and minutes and know I am getting the best grip possible at the worst places.