ChaseChrome, on 16 January 2012 - 08:53 PM, said:
Hey Guys I'm in the market for a new set of wading boots--what would you recommend?
My preference is something that is not hiking boot-like (had those not great for locating fish from pool to pool and bush-whacking).
Vibram is the way to go now but curious about brand.
Thanks a bunch!
Great Article about the Company and their boots
I love the fact that they have
ADDRESSED the "FELT ISSUE"
Hope this helps:
Testing the new Vibram Soles
by George Anderson
With all the talk recently about trying to control the spread of Invasive species around the US and the world, wading boot manufacturers like Simms have taken the big step of totally eliminating felt soles from their line. Felt soles on wading shoes have been the standard for years and they have (until now) done a better job of keeping an angler from slipping around while wading than anything other material manufacturers have found to put on the soles of their boots. Sure there were problems with felt – it wears down quickly, is miserable on snow and ice, and provides little traction on slippery grass banks. And trying to replace worn out felt soles was either very time consuming or very expensive. Most anglers figured if they could get a couple of years out of a pair of wading shoes that was about it.
But now there is a lot of concern about anglers transporting invasive species like Mud snails and didymosphenia geminata (didymo) from one watershed to another. Or from one country to another! New Zealand for example will not allow felt soled wading shoes to come into their country! And it makes sense. If we had all taken better precautions before we knew better it would have been easier to prevent the spread of whirling disease, mud snails, and a variety of aquatic nuisance species that raise havoc with the insect life that is so important as trout food.
Different kinds of rubber sole tread patterns have been tried in the past but none have really worked well under a variety of conditions – until now! But now the Vibram Company, which has made wonderful soles for hikers and mountaineers for years, has come up with an innovative new tread pattern and compound that grips well on slippery rocks yet seems to be self cleaning unlike the problems we’ve all had with mud and the normal Vibram soles.
OK – so everyone is talking about these new rubber Vibram soles, but how do they work and how do they compare to felt soles? That’s the big question that prompted me to try an on-stream test in early February on Armstrong’s Spring Creek here close to our home in Livingston Montana.
I’ve liked Simms wading shoes in the past, especially the Guide Boots, so on a recent visit to Simms in Bozeman, KC Walsh talked me into trying a pair of the new Vibram soled Guide boots. Of course after hearing all the hype from the Simms guys I was anxious to see if these new soles would work.
I figured that it would also give me a good excuse to get out on the spring creek and do a little fishing. After all it was now the first of February and although winter is a long way from being over, I always have the feeling that once we get into February, those early spring Baetis hatches show up and some great dry fly fishing isn’t far behind. But back to the issue at hand, – can these new Vibram soles possibly grip as well as felt?
Armstrong’s Spring Creek is perhaps the perfect proving grounds, as there is a variety of bottom structure. Everything from small rocks to larger bowling ball sized rocks, plenty of weed growth and lots of flat, slippery, slimy rocks to skid around on, even in mid-winter.
I figured that the best way to get a feel for the stream and to get a baseline for the test was to put on my felt soled boots first and do some wading back and forth across a wide but fairly shallow (and slippery) riffle. The felt soled boots worked fine but I was doing a little skidding and slipping around, especially when wading faster. You just get used to slipping and skidding as long as you don’t come close to going down. When fishing I just feel so much more comfortable if I can concentrate on the fishing and not the wading. In fact I rarely look down to see where I’m placing my feet, I just try to avoid the big rocks and hope that each step will find some security and keep me from doing a face plant in cold water.
So after a couple of stream crossings, I switched wading shoes and put on the Guide Boots with the new Vibram “Streamtread” technology.
After a few steps though, I was amazed that these new Vibram soles seemed to work even better than felt! I was cruising along with ease, and hardly slipping at all. Then I tried to induce some slippage on larger slimy boulders but the Vibram soles seemed to grip extremely well even on these flat slimy rocks. Sure they did slip a little, but on rocks like this you can do a real banana peel in felt soles! After another crossing I was convinced that these guys were on to something. The Vibram really did seem to work, and work well, not to mention the all the environmental bonuses.
But then I had an even better idea – I’ll wear a felt soled boot on one foot and the Vibram soled boot on the other and just go fishing and see if I can spot any difference. Right away on that first riffle crossing I could see some difference. When I put my foot down with the felt soled boot, it slipped just a little until it got firmly planted between the rocks while the vibram’s hard rubber boot seemed to cut through the slime and hold the instant I put it down. The difference was definitely noticeable. Sure, I had a few slips here and there with the Vibram, but overall I felt that I had a lot more confidence and could focus on finding fish.
The fishing turned out to be pretty good. There were some big rainbows congregated in the tail out of a run where they would soon be spawning and I had some fun sight fishing, using scuds and small Baetis nymphs. The rainbows loved the tan sparkle scuds and I soon had released three fish in the 18-20 inch class. While wading around playing these fish on 6X I just felt confidence any time I planted that foot with the Vibram sole as it was just slipping far less than the felt soled boot.
On the way back I remembered a couple of reasons why I’ve busted my ass with felt soled boots - snow, ice and trying to climb a steep, smooth trail. Climbing up or down these “beaver slides” of a steep trail is a piece of cake with the Vibram – they make a
huge difference here over the felt.
I got back to the bench where I had left the other boots and decided to put on both Vibram boots to fish another half mile of stream on the lower part of the O’Hair property. This was a combination of small slippery rocks and weed beds. It was a pleasure to cover these pools with such confidence I had while wading I caught only a couple more small browns but I sure didn’t slip around much. And climbing up and down those steep banks was a cake walk!
Back at the car I got thinking, I wonder how these soles will work as they get worn down a bit and not have all those little sharp edges biting into the rocks? I guess time will tell on that one. We’ll have a more long - term report later this summer. One thing I should mention is that Simms offers hard bite, tungsten carbide screw in studs for these new Vibram soles for added grip. Just make sure you have the shorter studs designed for the rubber soles though and not the long ones designed for felt soles. These are easy to put in and take out if you have the right size socket, although I found that I could do the job even with a crescent wrench. We use a socket on an extension, plugged into a power drill at work to make things quicker. It looks to me that you could put these in and take them out several times without stripping the rubber as these studs have a very aggressive thread, like a sheet rock screw.
Studs do give fantastic traction in most stream conditions, but they are not always the answer. In general, I think that most people would be better off without studs. On larger boulders or bedrock they can skid just when you don’t want them to. Studs can also cause damage to the floor of a fiberglass drift boat. I don’t think there’s a guide alive who will allow you to wear them in their boat. And Alaska guides won’t let you get close to taking a step on the pontoon of a floatplane without going crazy. Plus if you get your fly line between one of those studs and a rock and even the floor of a drift boat, it’s toast. You also don’t want to make the mistake of walking onto a nice wood floor with studs either or you’ll be in a world of trouble with your host.
The verdict is that the new Vibram soles rule. Some fly shops are taking the move of totally eliminating felt, even this year. If these new Vibram streamtred soles continue to work as well in six months as they did for me when new, I can see why these new rubber soles will prevail. You’ll be amazed with their performance and you’ll be doing your part to help protect our streams and rivers for future generations.
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