We're continuing Fly Fishing Industry Week here at the Underground with a Trout Unlimited (the other, less-popular TU) press release asking fly fishing manufacturers to discontinue the sale of felt-soled wading boots by 2011.

With a New Zealand ban on felt-soled boots finally passing - and invasive species appearing on most fly fishermen's environmental radars - the switch away from felt soles was probably picking up steam anyway, and this TU request can only stoke the boilers:

Many waders, wading boots and shoes used by anglers have felt-soled bottoms that are used to provide traction while walking in water. Felt is a material that transmits aquatic nuisance species such as New Zealand mud snails, the invasive algae called didymo and the parasite that causes whirling disease, a disease fatal to trout. Felt soles can very easily become impregnated with mud and other organic matter, and become difficult or impossible to clean and disinfect.

"While the elimination of felt soles on waders and boots will not entirely prevent the spread of ANS, this action will help reduce the risk and help protect our precious aquatic resources," said David Kumlien, executive director of the Whirling Disease Foundation.nbsp; This action will also help make the public more aware of the threat of ANS and hopefully will motivate them to change their behavior and practices related to other aquatic recreational activities that may also contribute to the spread ANS."

I've posted a few of my studded-rubber soled wading boot adventures; my experience has been largely positive, and at this point, I wouldn't go back to felt for financial reasons alone (it doesn't hold up to the sharp rocks lining the railroad tracks).

Simms has promised a response at the FFR show (I smell an orchestrated move, Undergrounders), and I promise to report what I know - when I know it.

See you at FFR, Tom Chandler.

trout unlimited, tu, felt soles, felt soled wading boots, wading boots, invasive species