Hi Tim,
I'm going to toss out a couple of rivers that you may be familiar with and the applications of soles that I use on them. How's that?
On the Umpqua, Pit, Upper Sac and McCloud I will wear studded felt or studded aqua stealth's. Basically the area's I wade on those are large cobble to bowling ball sized stones or have flat shelf rock, often covered in moss and they are slick as.......
It's the mixture of rock and moss that'll get me to use the studs.
On Hat Creek, the Williamson, your Fall R. ( OR. ) I'm more likely to use a non-studded felt. The areas on those streams that I wade are more meadowed, less mossy and not as boulder strewn.
Although taking all of those waters into consideration, if I had but one pair of boots and they had to remain in a single sole configuration, I'd go with the studs.
There are of course always exceptions, but for those water, that's the way I'd go.
One thing to keep in mind, studs are great in the water and on moss, but on large dry granite surfaces - like climbing around on boulders or scurrying down shelf rock, they can at times be like walking on marbles. It's the reason why the coach told you take off your cleats before you entered the locker room. He wasn't worried so much about the floor damage as he was by the lawsuit your parents would bring.
Another little tidbit, studs are tough on most anything you step on. While you might occasionally get away with stepping on your fly line with felts, nail the line dead on with a stud and it'll do some damage.
For all the years I was a dealer the two most common reasons that customers gave for broken or cut fly lines were: 1) Damage done by stepping down with studs. 2) Stripping ( or ripping ) a stuck line up from between jagged rocks.
Lastly, studs are a definite deal breaker if you're going to be fishing out of some one else's boat.
Hope that helps some, Dave
Ron, Sorry for the overlap. Good Stuff.
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