Hi,
Just a quick question,

What is the main difference between wading boots and walking boots (when used for stocking foot waders) ?

Thanks
Joe

I have thought about this before and have come to the following conclusion:

The walking boots will be too narrow, the wading boots are made on a wider last. The soles are generally hard plastic/rubber compound and therefore a bit too slippy in the water on rocks with slime.

But being a true Scotsman (as opposed to a Yorkshireman ) I haven't given up on a usable but far cheaper wading boot and some hinking boots look similar nowadays to wading boots with their fancy paneling etc. Or should that be, wading boots look more like hiking boots nowadays

I will one day, source a wider fitting walking boot, stick some Simms hard bite studs into the soles and give them a try for approx 1/3 or less of the cost of medium range wading boots.

The cost of wading boots, for all the time they last is shocking.

If anyone here has made the transition to walking boots successfully, then let us all know the make, and price etc.

Well, I wondered that too, so bought some cheap over-sized walking boots from Decathlon for £15 and guess what, they've been brilliant, more comfortable and lighter to walk in than my felt soled wading boots. Saying that, I bought them because for one stretch of river I fish I don't need felt soled, in fact they're a bit of a liability on the muddy banks, and I walk a fair distance there. Makes you realise what a rip off wading boots are though.

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I bought these (when they were on offer at £16.99!):
Regatta Guideway Mid Waterproof Shoes | GO Outdoors

Then screwed these into the soles:
Snowbee Wader Studs

I do tend to lose a few studs each trip but they do the job nicely and for £22

Like Jeff though the part of river I fish doesn't require felt soles, it's quite easy wading with a gravel bed - I'd look further into it if I was fishing rivers with a bed of slime covered boulders.

Rob.

Here is the result:

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Started: 19/09/2010 | First fish: 11/12/2010 | Biggest fish: 8lb Brownie

I too got fed up of overpriced wading boots which seem to last a season
I got a pair of size 12 (i am a 10) Hi-tec hiking boots from Trespass for £24.99
I have put 6 studs on the heels, so far no issues The river i regularly fish is a mixture of rock,gravel and silt. The main advantage i have found so far is that i am not slipping on grassy banks and walking the river banks is far easier.
As i have yet to give them a full season the jury is still out, but if i get a full season out of them I am ahead on cash terms.

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BROWN TROUT:THE RED SPOTS HAND PAINTED BY GOD

I have some that I wear in the boat... studded boots in a boat are a NO NO!!!.... slips and cutting through lines..... I had to develope a reasonably new method of footwear last week on the river..... arrived... got gear out of car... tackled up my rod.... put breathables on... searched 5 minutes for my wading boots.... I had left them at work where I had been replacing studs on them .... I had nothing to fit over the boot foot of my waders so decided I was going to mimic the Bone fishing'flats' brigade with shorts and 'slip-on' canvass shoes....(it was that or go home) the initial plunge was breathtaking... but as the the session progessed, it was really refreshing with no probs except walking through brambles and nettles... oh and bits of gravel in the shoes.....

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Before you cast the fly, make sure you can handle the fish! Vuoi imbrogliare? Poi Non competere! (If you want to cheat, then dont compete)