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Waders vs. Hip Boots

3K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  JMackanick 
#1 ·
I was wondering how many use waders vs. hip boots.

For those who use waders, do you use chest waders or waist highs? Stocking foot or boot foot waders?

If you use stocking foot waders, which wading shoes do you wear?

For those that use hip boots, what brand do you use?

Some may have both.

I also know that many wet wade in the summer.

Just interested.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I'll reply to my own thread.

I was wondering how many use waders vs. hip boots.

For those who use waders, do you use chest waders or waist highs? Stocking foot or boot foot waders?
I use both chest waders and hip boots but use the hip boots sparingly. I use stocking foot chest waders. They are Allen waders. They were a gift. They aren't very durable. My previous pair were Simms.

If you use stocking foot waders, which wading shoes do you wear?
I use Korker's convertible wading shoes.

For those that use hip boots, what brand do you use?
I don't know what brand my hip boots are. I believe they are LaCrosse.

Some may have both.

I also know that many wet wade in the summer.
I have a pair of wading pants that I use in the summer on some streams. I don't use them in remote streams where I think there might be rattlesnakes.

Just interested.
 
#4 ·
I have used the rubber hip boots for years and years and more recently the breathable hip boots. They were always boot foot waders. This arrangement worked well when I only fished a few days a year. This past year my started to fish much more often and started hiking and spending most of the day fishing. The cheap boot foot waders were really uncomfortable and tended to start leaking very often. I went through two $60-$100 sets of hip boots in the last say year and a half. The other day I had enough of fishing in February with leaky waders and ponied up for Simms G3 chest waders and wading boots. I hope they live up to the premium price tag. If I get a few years before they start leaking I will be happy. I will say they are the best fitting waders I have every put on in the store. I will see how they work once I get a chance to fish them. Another reason I went with chest waders is I always ended up being a little two close to the top of my boots and never close the the position I wanted to be in for the next cast. I may get a wading pant if I don't like the chest waders rolled down and converted to a pant wader.

On a side note I never wet wade so I have another layer between me and the poison ivy, sting weed, ticks, and snakes. I really don't like snakes.
 
#5 ·
I have both and use them both in different situations depending the water level and size stream I am fishing.
I also have which are my most used got to waders are Waist high waders(stockingfoot)made by Cabelas.
I believe Cabelas is the 0nly one who sells them now.
Hodgeman no longer makes them.
The waist high waders give me the extra protection in high water without the extra bulk of chest waders.
I'm not comfortable wading in water higher than my waist so waist high waders it is for me.
 
#7 ·
I wear chest high waders, but they are leaking and I will probably buy waist highs to replace them.

I think waist highs should be fine for both small streams and larger streams.

When I wore hip boots, I took on water pretty often. The stream doesn't have to be very deep to go over hip boots.

But chest high waders may be overkill. You really don't need to wade that deep.

And when doing a lot of walking in warm weather, chest high waders are hot and uncomfortable.

Waist highs might be the happy medium.
 
#9 ·
Wow. Simms G4 waders are really expensive. How long do they last? I've bought G2s before but never the G3s or G4s.

I'm hard on waders and they generally only last a couple of years.

My current waders were a gift and aren't going to last. I got them in October and have already had to patch them twice.
 
#14 · (Edited)
I wear uninsulated rubber LaCrosse hip boots in the style "Marsh 32"". They cost around $110.00 or so I believe. I typically wear out the soles on two pairs per year. I fish a lot, so this is understandable. I never fold them down to avoid cracking; I dry them by hanging them up by the straps. I never use the laces on the inside of the boot that are just below the knee.

Many years ago I bought a pair of breathable hip boots (booty type) and wading shoes.

Here's what I didn't like about them:

1. Even in reasonably warm weather they were too cold. I found myself wearing long-johns on cool October mornings, then I'd have to take the long-johns off later in the day so as to not overheat.

2. Compared to rubber hip boots, they offer little protection from rattlesnakes. Yes, I realize rattlesnake fangs would probably go through rubber hip boots like warm butter, but at least hip boots have a lot of air space between boot and flesh, which increases the odds of the fangs not hitting meat.

3. While playing trout up to my feet I always had to worry about getting the treble hook in my boots, thus creating a hole. With hip boots I don't need to worry about this.

4. While playing trout up to my feet I often got the treble hook caught in the laces of the boots or on the canvas of the boot itself. Talk about a pain in the ...

5. My feet always felt wet in the booties even though they were not wet.

6. The laces often became untied all by themselves.

7. Patching breathable waders is not as easy as patching rubber boots. I never successfully patched mine. The experiment was over anyway as far as I was concerned.

8. When fishing small streams, most of which have multiflora roses growing along them, I always worried about tearing them or puncturing them, which is much easier to do than ripping hip boots.

9. I couldn't stick my rod down in the top of the right boot like I do with hip boots when re-tying my spinner or unwrapping the line from around my rod tip.

10. I couldn't stick a small towel down the left boot like I do with hip boots since it was too tight.

11. I couldn't stick a no-longer-needed sweatshirt down my boot like I often do with hip boots.

12. I found it impossible to keep the sand out of my wading shoes, which quickly ruins the booties.

13. I didn't find them all that much lighter than hip boots since the wading shoes were heavy.

14. They were much more expensive than hip boots and the wading shoes wore out just as quickly as the soles of my hip boots.

15. The wading shoes were felt-bottomed and wore out within about ten outings. I walk a lot.

16. The wading shoes soles (after the felt wore off) were much more slippery than the LaCrosse rubber hip boot soles. LaCrosse uses a soft rubber which almost sticks to rocks -- sort of like felt.

17. Breathable waders took a lot more care than hip boots. I found myself rinsing the waders and the boots after each use. What a waste of time.

18. The pair I had were Orvis brand and were dark green. This was good. However, most breathable waders are very light in color and I wouldn't be caught dead wearing boots that bright when fishing for wild trout, which is what I mostly do.

19. They dripped a lot more than hip boots after I took them off for the drive home. The back of my SUV got wet. Also, while driving between streams during a day of fishing a lot of water drained onto my floor mat.

20. I didn't find walking in the wading shoes to be very comfortable. My hip boots fit like a glove and don't bother my feet even after a two-hour hike in 80-degrees air.

21. An extra pair of socks made the wading boots too tight.

22. I recall a time or two in the winter when I couldn't untie the boot laces because they were frozen solid.

23. Although it wasn't a concern during my experiment, I believe ticks would be a lot more likely to crawl up breathable waders than rubber hip boots.

24. And last but not least, they made me look too much like a fly fisherman. :)
 
#15 · (Edited)
I've had a couple of occasions several years ago where the laces on my wading shoes froze, but I haven't fished in the winter when it's been that cold for a long time.

The good thing about the convertible wading shoes is that when the bottoms wear out you can put new replacement soles on them.

I had a pair of breathable hip boots briefly a few years ago, but they weren't durable at all.

They have better traction than my hip boots which are rubber bottomed.

I probably should use my hip boots more, especially when fishing in very remote areas.

I wear gravel guards over my wading shoes, which keeps the hooks from embedding in the shoe laces. I do have to re-tie my wading shoes a lot, which is a pain.

On a couple of my favorite streams, one in particular, waders are necessary due to several stretches of water that are too deep for hip boots.

It's interesting to see what works for everyone.
 
#16 ·
Lacrosse Trapline hip boots-uninsulated when I wear hip boots. I wet wade in anything above 50 degrees so they don't get much use for my summer trout fishing. They have proven almost indestructible in trapping season. I wear them every day for about 3 months climbing over logs, sliding down hills, resisting puncture from wires and putting on hundreds of miles each season.
 
#17 ·
My opinion is that boot foot waders/rubber hip boots wear and fail more so than stocking foot if you're walking a lot. The rubber seems to dry rot around the seams. Chest waders, particually stocking foot are a pain in the butt to take off and on. I will NEVER wear neoprene waders again. I used to have a pair and they were way too hot for anything I did. The only time I would consider neoprene was if I was waterfowl hunting and standing in very cold water for long periods. I've never had a problem being cold in breathable waders that could not be fixed with a good base layer and thick socks.

I've never had a pair of waders that didn't eventually leak. I've been wearing cabelas breathable waders for some time now. Not sure if it's still true but they used to have a lifetime warranty. My first pair started leaking after a few seasons and eventually it became so bad that I was unable to keep up with constant patching. I sent them back under warranty and they sent me a brand new pair, no questions asked!! I've been a customer ever since.
 
#19 ·
Like a lot of others I own both and do use both although I find myself more and more gravitating to the waist high wading pants and korkers. Without getting into a lot of detail the ability to get into better casting position or cross a section I might not otherwise be able to cross in my rubber hip boots has really pushed me into wearing the waders a lot more. It's amazing how much more mobility and flexibility that extra 12" of wadability provides. I use Frogg Togg brand waders and they've been pretty good so far considering how I treat them. When I fish really small streams I do use the hip boots though for simplicities sake. I just buy the proline hipboots from Dicks Sporting good. $49 every Spring and they usually last me all season long. If I spent $300 on a pair they would also only last me a season. I do NOT take care of them at all. I beat the crap out of my boots so that's why I buy relatively inexpensive ones. Maybe this year I'll try the Lacrosses Frank uses just to see if there is a difference. Ideas from others are pretty good at times!
 
#20 ·
I have both waist high and chest breathable waders with stocking foot designs. The waist high are usually for the summer when streams tend to get lower. All of my chest high waders have been from LLBean. Anytime I find a leak, I take them back and they provide new ones even of a better model. That level of customer service is the reason I have stayed with them. Breathable waders with separate boots are preferred for myself for hiking and walking. The LLBean boots with boa laces and acquastealth soles fix the frozen part that frank was referring to. The boots also have holes in them to let debris,sand, etc to flow in and out causing less wear on the neoprene on your waders. With the amount of abuse these get put through, I am glad to get 2 years out of a pair. Most of the times, it is the stocking foot part that eventually leaks.
 
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