Need advise about studded wading boots

I'm looking for a new pair of wading boots as the felts have peeled off of my old (generic) wading boots. This time I'm willing to up my game to better boots. I'm hoping to get hydrophobic felt with studs. I've read so much bad effects about regular felt I'm ready for the synthetic ones with studs. The only ones I have found are Chota boots. Any advise about these or other similar waders would be welcome. I fish mainly Pennsylvania freestone streams, some with lots of boulders. Thanks for any help. Ron

My new boots are the rubberized bottoms with studs. Not supposed to easily spread the bad stuff from one stream to another. They are very reasonably priced from Bass Pro Shop.

I got the same ones that Byron has and have been satisfied with them. The felt sole boots have been banned in Missouri and many other places. I think I paid around $70 for them on sale at Bass Pro.

Did I not read some place that the "experts" where having second thoughts about all the bad things they said about felts(?)

Look at Korkers, many options.

Korkers with Sevelt 2 soles best grip!

Simm's boots with either the aluminum or tungsten carbide 'star' cleats (the just plain hex screws are not as effective) is what I've been using and they work fine in the western states. Do not have any experience with Penn. waters, however...

I replaced my felts with Simms Rivershed boots a couple of years ago and I've been quite satisfied with them. Use a cordless drill to install the studs. The price wasn't bad for the quality of the boots, around $130 if I remember right. If you're not already using a wading staff, I suggest that you get one. A good idea even with felt and even with the studs, I don't feel the rubber grabs rock like felt. I have no experience with the new aluminum bar type grippers, but have heard good things about them.

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Originally Posted by DaleW

Did I not read some place that the "experts" where having second thoughts about all the bad things they said about felts(?)

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Max Bothwell, a research scientist for Environment Canada, who wrote an influential article that linked angler's felt soled boots to dydimo spread has now reversed himself and said that anglers are not responsible.

Here is his original article, On the Boots of Fishermen:

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wat/wq/stud...ymo-blooms.pdf

He now believes that dydimo has been in North American waters and that it is a change in water chemistry, specifically lower phosphorus levels that has caused dydimo blooms.

Read the article in the current issue of American Angler, July-August, 2013, pp 8-9.

"'I no longer believe the problem is North American streams is the result of it (dydimo) being moved around.' ?. Scientists are now convinced that dydimo lives in many streams, but blooms only when the water has far less than the normal amount of phosphorus?? The most damaging dydimo episode in the US seems to have been on Rapid Creek in South Dakota, where a six-mile bloom dramatically impacted a blue ribbon brown trout fishery. In 2007 and 2008, Bothwell and other scientists added phosphorus to sections of Rapid Creek. Sure enough, the dydimo mats shrank"

He published his findings in Freshwater Biology (2012) 57, 641?653 in an article titled:

Didymosphenia geminata growth rates and bloom formation in relation to ambient dissolved phosphorus concentration

"The blooms were present only in rivers where average dissolved P was very low. Didymo in higher nutrient waters had higher cell division rates, shorter stalks, and did not form blooms.

.... the blooms are caused by low nutrients in the overlying water, which promotes excessive stalk production. Subsequent surveys, experiments and observations in New Zealand have all been consistent with low nutrients (specifically low P) driving the blooms."

http://sciblogs.co.nz/waiology/2012/12/19/what-causes-didymo-blooms-rock-snot-in-nz-rivers/

I think this recent discovery makes more sense than the old theory that all of a sudden dydimo sprang due to anglers boots when anglers have been using these same rivers for over a century with no dydimo blooms.

What is causing the dydimo blooms, I surmise, is the current trend of reducing phosphorus in detergents and lawn fertilizer. So as we get rid of phosphorus to prevent algae blooms we get dydimo blooms.

Ever wonder why NZ has such a problem with dydimo? They have lots of crystal clear streams and rivers with low phosphorus because there is little run off from agriculture and lawns.

Basic epidemiology 101 states that we cannot stop the spread of what has already spread. How we then prevent disease is to make the target population less receptive to the disease. We allow the addition of some phosphorus into fertilizers in the river drainage of these dydimo affected rivers.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I didn't know that they reversed their science! Already using a wading staff, that's a no brainer. Ron