While the new rubber soles seemingly offer evolutionary potential – studded rubber soles could ultimately replace felt/studded felt, largely for economic reasons – the standard sticky rubber probably won’t replace anything anytime soon.

My recent October Caddis trip found me wearing Simms’ new StreamTread (Vibram rubber soled) Headwater boots, while Older Bro wore one Korkers Guide Boot with a plain “Kling-On” sticky rubber sole, and one with a studded rubber “Kling-On” sole.

Korkers were made for testing

I quickly discovered the plain, un-studded Simms soles worked… OK.

Well, not really.

I didn’t fall.

But I did skid. And slide. And skate.

The same soles that performed surprisingly well on the fairly flat-bottomed-but-snotty Rogue River failed miserably on the Upper Sac’s angular streambed.

Step on a rock that angled downward, and my boots were sure to follow.

If the Vibram-soled Simms wading boots are destined for wide market acceptance, then they’ll do so on the back of one of two things:

• Massive growth of fly fishermen accessing easy-wading rivers (like the Rogue or Bitterroot)
• The liberal application of Simms Wading boot studs

The Korkers Story

The Korkers Guide Boots were seemingly tailor-made for this kind of testing; the soles are interchangeable, so it was easy to stick a studded rubber sole in the left boot, leaving the plain “sticky” rubber sole in the right.

The results were (by now) predictable.

The lack of grip offered by the plain rubber sole made the right boot immensely unpopular with novice wader Older Bro, and in truth, you could actually see the difference when he waded.

His right boot didn’t stick, and his left boot did.

OK.

This was sorta expected.

Wading Boots, So Far

I’m slowly but surely working my way towards one conclusion: For general, all-around use on freestone rivers, most anglers will want to add studs to their “sticky” rubber soled boots.

Straight sticky rubber might work fine on easier rivers, and if I fished the Bitterroot exclusively, plain rubber would be enough.

And yes, for small stream work, you’ll have to pry my Patagonia Riverwalkers – the only truly “sticky” rubber soles of the lot – from my cold, dead feet.

I’ve gotten along OK on the Upper Sacramento with my plain rubber Patagonia boots, but on steeper freestone rivers like the McCloud (hard wading), and the Pit River (got insurance?), plain rubber could earn you an eventual trip to the ER.

What’s Next?

The Underground’s fulltime Wading Boot Engineer stayed up all night and added studs to the Simms boots, and the Korkers will soon be sporting one felt sole alongside the studded rubber.

As I said before, studded rubber might prove a worthwhile replacement for studded felt purely on longevity and economic grounds, but first it has to deliver near-studded felt grip.

That may not be all that difficult; my old Weinbrenner studded rubber boots worked well enough to become my everyday boots, and the new rubber soles should (hopefully) deliver better grip than those.

In other words, more to come. Stay tuned.

You’re looking at a pair of Korkers Guide boots with a studded rubber sole on one foot, and the plain rubber on the other.

Studded rubber on one side, plain "sticky" rubber on the other (courtesy my cell phone camera)

This, I think, should prove interesting.

Next I plan to do the same with the Simms wading boots, and yes – the Korkers will eventually permit me to compare studded rubber to studded felt (these thing were made for testing).

With any luck, I’ll return (sans dunking) with pictures of big trout and a review of the real difference between studded and un-studded rubber – and some idea as to whether the Korkers studded rubber soles will cut it on the Upper Sacramento.

Naturally, all this is subjective (well, not the big trout part), but if it’s one thing fly fishermen manufacture in abundance, it’s opinions.

See you on the river (finally!!), Tom Chandler.

They’re better than ever – and ideal for some applications – but not quite ready to take on the toughest wading challenges… unaided.

What's next for the Underground's sticky rubber wading boot test? Grip, baby. Grip.

Because I’m sick and tired concerned about the whining safety of the Underground’s Crack Team of Wading Boot Testers (how many emails complaining about compound fractures should one guy have to endure), the small stack of rubber-soled wading boots are facing some alterations.

Simms was nice enough to send along a set of their carbide-tipped screw-in studs, and the Korkers can be equipped with a set of studded rubber “Kling-on” soles – and also felt & studded felt.

So here’s the gig.

One of the Simms soles will be on the receiving end of studs, and in a daring, in-stream, boot-to-boot comparison, we’ll see how that boot compares to the other unstudded sole.

The chameleon-esque Korkers will be outfitted with a mixture of studded rubber, felt, and studded felt, and we’ll see what happens in our direct, boot-to-boot comparison.

The Patagonia Riverwalkers may remain unaltered for a while – the “control” group for sticky rubber.

Slowing the testing a little bit is a busy work schedule, a couple weeks of 90+ degree temperatures (that’s a long string of hot for up here), and an ongoing desire to fly fish the little stuff (backcountry streams and lakes).

Accordingly, I plan to enlist the help of some of the local attention-craving helpful guides.

There’s more to come on the equipment front, though things move slowly here because we foolishly actually test gear before we write a review – a process which results in more accuracy, but less throughput.

It’s just how we roll.

Coming Up

Proving that nothing interests people more than the fear that someone’s getting something they’re not, my review of the Redington fly rod & reel combo triggered inquiries from a pair of fly rod companies. And yes, I may enlist the help of the Undergrounders in deciding what rods to test.

Then there’s the story which is going to blow the lid off the fly fishing… err… fly fishing hat industry.

In other words, through years of testing, we’ve identified the World’s Best All-Around Warmweather Fly Fishing Hat, and because we’re externally validated nice enough to share, we’re going to let the world know it.

Some days, it’s just plain great to be us.

See you [teetering, windmilling, and falling] on the river, Tom Chandler.