I have always thought the price of the studs they put in wading boots were way over priced. I was goofing around looking at facebook yesterday and I ran across an article tonight from someone with a similar thought train. Now I will admit I don’t do that much wading, I’m more into barrel rolls in float tubes, so I’m not speaking from experience here.
This is a great find. I just bought a new pair of boots and ended up getting…screwed…on the studs. I paid around $25 for a little plastic container of 20 studs. This was the first time I’ve had boots that could take studs so I didn’t know what I was getting when I ordered it. I just figured there was a reason they were so expensive. When I saw them, I slapped my head. They’re basically just sheet metal screws with a hex head with some small shot fused to the top. They work extremely well in the stream, but I wonder how much differently sheet metal screws would perform in the water.
It looks like these Kold Kutter screws belong somewhere in the middle between sheet metal screws and $1.50-a-piece studs. I’ll save the link for whenever I start losing the studs, which will hopefully be far down the road, for the price I paid!
Cabelas boots have actual screws for the studs, and they seem to work well enough. The steel is fairly hard and they haven’t worn off yet. That being said, I am not sold on the studs, would prefer basic felt for much of what I do, and if you ever step on your fly line…