My wife got a pair 2 seasons ago. She loves them. She has gone through most of the other makers and has liked these the best.
My wife got a pair 2 seasons ago. She loves them. She has gone through most of the other makers and has liked these the best.
Fishing with bait is like swearing in church.
I had a couple pair throughout my life. The last pair I had, I wore out in the typical 6 months (compression leaks in the feet, after several hundred hours of hard use), took them INTO the shop in Livingston while I was on a trip, and was told the warranty did not apply to wearing them out, regardless of the time frame. For $200 I can buy two pair of almost identical waders that last the same length of time (or three pair of the ones I just got), so I didn't buy another pair. They were decent waders, tho.
Am I missing something? $200 gets you 1 year of wading? I bought the Simms Lights for $200 8 years ago and still have no leaks.....Originally Posted by DG
Am I missing something? $200 gets you 1 year of wading? I bought the Simms Lights for $200 8 years ago and still have no leaks.....
I had that problem with Orvis waders. I blew through them in 6-8 months. I stayed with them because they kept replacing them for free, but eventually I got sick of it and went to Simms too. I've had them for 2 seasons and not a leak yet.
Fishing with bait is like swearing in church.
Chewy, I have yet to find a wader that will last me longer than about 6 months of fishing. But I fish HARD, and am wading all the time, in some pretty nasty country at times. So 6 months translates into about 3-400 hours of actaul standing and walking in them use.
My waders almost always fail due to compression leaks in the neoprene feet, which would happen with any wader brand. If I really thought a $400 pair of Simms would last me long enough to be cost-effective, I would get someone to buy me a pair to try. So far Simms hasn't sen fit to send me a pair to use to convince me to give them that kind of money down the road.
[QUOTE=DG;213831]
My waders almost always fail due to compression leaks in the neoprene feet, which would happen with any wader brand. QUOTE]
Please forgive my ignorance here, but what's a compression leak?
Dennis -
My first pair of Simms, their Lightweight that cost a couple hundred bucks, went over three hundred days with probably 4-5 hours walking / wading per day before I replaced them. I had to do some minor leak repair along the way ( mostly brush, trees, and an occasional fence crossing ) and they are still quite serviceable for warmer weather, to stay mostly dry with just a bit of "cooling." Simms discontinued my size in the Lightweight so I upgraded when I bought new, but got a good deal on a closeout of that model. After over a hundred days of the same kind of fishing, they are a bit dirty, but no leaks or obvious wear.
Don't mean to contribute to hijacking the thread, but ....
For what it is worth - Dennis makes an excellent point. Its not how long you own stuff, its how you use it. Using equipment frequently in tough conditions is a real test of the product. Having something for eight years and using it lightly may not say much at all about how well the product is made.
Getting back to Fly Tyer's original question. If you are only going to use them 5 times a year, I would recommend getting the most comfortable least expensive pair of waders you can find. To make the point, those Simms Lightweights I referred to above would last you about SIXTY YEARS, if they didn't likely just rot away before then. ( Maybe you can skip the waders altogether and wet wade ?? )
John
The fish are always right.
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