My Dad and I used to fish a lot together when I was a kid. If I fished with my brother, I got skunked, since he got to fish the best holes first. My Dad would take his time and teach me how to fish. We wore Lacrosse hip boots, with just a simple rubber, molded tread. Traction was limited at best.
We were near a spot along Deer Creek, in Maryland, that we called the abutments. It was an old B and O train bridge site. Lots of big rocks made great trout spots. As we waded a little deeper, my Dad began to lose traction.
Now no one likes or wants to fall in. My Dad had a big King Edward cigar in his mouth as he began to go down. He just would never say die. It took him many long seconds and 20 feet of doing the Watutsi dance, before he went down. Fortunately, his cigar was still dry. I also learned several new adjectives that day.
My Dad needed some real wading boots. Rocks are often round, and always slick as snot. We tried gluing outdoor carpets to our boots, adding stainless steel screws, gluing felt to the boots, and whatever we could think off. We also took oversized rubber galoshes and screwed aluminum shelf bracket sections to them. Aluminum tends to stick to the rocks. One of my best fixes was to bolt bottle caps, edge side out, to the galoshes, or onto the outdoor carpet, before I glued them on. Later I used bungy cords and flat chains, that sinched tightly to my boots. They all helped but none were perfect.
Today’s wading boot companies have come a long way. Simms has made great advances in designing legal, comfortable, and functional traction boots. This Montana based company has the best place to field test their products. Montana rivers have the slickest round rocks on the planet.
Simms’s latest boot is called the G-4 Powerlock Boot. I have been using their G-3 boot with great success. This boot using a unique rubber sole that accommodates custom traction screws. They work awesome. (Simmsfishing.com) This new boot will be available in January of 2023.
The Power lock design uses metal cleats that look like bottle caps! They must have seen mine. Anyway, the Vibram soles and boot construction are made to be the most durable and functional boot on the market. The aluminum bottle cap cleats look great, but they also come with a set of thermoplastic polyurethane, TFU, cleats. They are attached using a custom wrench.
The price is $500!!! You better get a pair that fits. Usually, I use a size up from my regular shoe size. Try them on at the shop wearing the socks or boot that you will be fishing in. The price is high, but these could be the last boots you ever buy. As a guide or active fishermen, you want to use the best to stay on your feet. When we age, our muscles and bodies can’t take much slipping, sliding, and falling. If this boot would give us more and safer fishing time, then I’ll take 2 pairs please.
My Dad would have bought this boot. Anything to keep his cigar dry.
Montana Grant
