years ago I had the LL Bean some kind of rubber / studded boots. worked well out west but I damn near killed myself on the rocky streams inthe SNP and PA. freestone streams.Switched to he Weinbrenners felt and felt- studded and wading was less of a suicide walk. Haven't looked at the market recently but since the Borgers are no longer available I'll need to replace
best,
Steve
it's all good drifts
you can buy "used" boots for a lot less... depending on the boot & condition. I wouldn't wade without them... too old, too many dunks, one bad car wreck. (by the way, what size street shoe do you wear? I've just upgraded to new boots & may have an "extra" pair)
Last edited by Chaos; 06-12-2014 at 05:33 AM.
If you're looking for both hiking and wading boots I'd go with a pair of Korkers. (Which is what I have.) You can change the soles.
Randy
Last edited by randyflycaster; 06-13-2014 at 01:34 PM.
Have they improved those yet? I've heard lots of stories about the interchangeable soles popping off in addition to sand and grit getting into the dial for the laces and then it quits working.Originally Posted by randyflycaster
I suppose it all centers around what kind of water one is going to be wading in.
My wading days in waist deep water are about over, I'm not as stable as once upon a time. So these days hip boots are the limit to keep me in knee high water. And that's cool/cold water. There are a couple of streams I'll wade even as the water warms some and there I still like just plain ole' angle high canvas sneakers along with blue jeans, and I'll slosh around and try and catch something. Also, what I do depends on the what kind of a stream bottom I'm wading around in - like a gravel or sandy bottom, like to wade light, water temp permitting. Nothing elaborate in price, something like I posted below (if it posts!).
http://www.dhgate.com/product/couple...2-1|1770744034
nope. not true. (Boa's got a tool to undo the "dial" then you can rinse it out if you're paranoid)
I help out with the casting clinics that Orvis sponsors for free and they give us a discount so I'll probably look there first and see if Weinbreener will repair/ resole my old ones.I just picked up a pair of Korkers for my one son and a pair of entry level Orvis for my other one so I should get some feedback from them on how they work. Will be fishing with them this weekend.
Best,
Steve
it's all good drifts
I'm not paranoid, but here is my friends experience with Korkers he bought last year...
Bought a pair new at the beginning of the season and while I did fish a lot this year (pretty much every weekend from the beginning of early season, plus a few full weeks, and 2 weeks in Alaska) the boots were retired before my steelhead trip last weekend. From the get go I found the boots to be troublesome (in the least) when fishing silty spring creeks. It isn't much fun worrying about whether the soles stayed attached when trucking through muck... and they did fall off quite a few times. As mentioned earlier, the BOA lacing system doesn't really allow for a tight fit and it clogs pretty easily with sand/grit. The final straw for me was when the knob on the back which the soles attach to, ripped off. I used the rubber and rubber studded soles and pretty much destroyed both. Many studs and chunks of rubber are now missing. As a whole I couldn't have been more displeased with the boots. They were the most expensive boots I've purchased and they're the only pair that didn't make it through a full season. I'm sending them back with hopes that their warranty is worth a darn.
I've heard similar stories from other people as well.
Last edited by joekrz; 06-13-2014 at 11:59 AM.
Regarding Korkers...
I bought the first pair of 'guide boots' that had their first BOA lacing system and interchangeable soles.
I did have a pair of studded rubber soles come apart after some years of use. I had sand get in a BOA gear once.
I poured some water over the knob and it came free.
A while back, I went onto the Korkers website and filled out a form. They sent me a free pair of laces and pair of BOA replacement mechanisms.
Last year, those old guide boots died. The front toe caps started coming apart. I'll fix them sometime with some barge cement.
I just have to figure out how to get some good clamping pressure on them.
I have replaced those old guide boots with some new Korkers. The BOA lacing system has been redesigned. Now you can really crank down on them to get a really tight fit.
The first time I wore them, I had to loosen them up after walking in them a bit.
The changeable soles are now different than my old ones. The sole covers the entire width of the boot, rather than just inserting into the sole of the boot.
Time will tell how long these last. I'll be really happy if they last as long as my old guide boots did.
my state out-lawed felt.......so i bought the new cabelas .....and they suck.....Nothing works better than felt.....Nothing
and to add to that...theres an article proving that felt IS NOT the cause for spreading didimo.....its actually genetically alreading pre-existing.....its proven that our rivers are rising temps ..j
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