Talking Waders

In the years I've been fishing I've always had either neoprene or nylon waders and always boot foot, thing is they both have a few drawbacks, I guess all waders do. Having trashed my last pair of nylon waders last season the cupboard was lying waderless so it was time to look around for some new ones.

Nylon Thigh Waders

For my usual day to day wading in local rivers close to home I decided to stick with nylon waders, but not chesties this time, just a pair of plain old cheapo nylon thigh waders. These are ideal for some light wading, kick sampling and so on. You don't really want to be kicking up the dirt in an expensive pair of boots. The main drawback of this type of wader is the boots, they usually offer little in the way of comfort and tend to be heavy so traveling light with these is impossible.

Walking long distance as I tend to do is also unpleasant in this type of wader and I've arrived home after many a long day with sore feet and weary legs. While thigh waders are more packable than chesties they're still heavy, so great for short sessions on local rivers but rubbish for treking and long days. An added bonus is that these are about the cheapest waders you can buy, an average pair will only set you back £20 or £30.

I've had a few pairs of chest waders over the last few seasons but to be honest I never really wade above the thigh so it's a bit of overkill to be wearing chest waders and a bit of a pain in summer so these thigh waders are ideal.


Now, for the long days I spend away from my local waters all the waders mentioned above are out of the question, they're all too heavy or hot to be considered for long walks. For next season I decided to get something a little lighter, this means breathable waders and there are many, many options when it comes to this style of wader.

Hardy Flyweight

I've always traveled light but I've been trying to make my backpack lighter and lighter and having started tenkara fishing it's getting lighter still. Looking at lightweight packable waders soon narrowed my search to one pair really, Hardy Flyweight Waders however although these are the most packable waders I found I was left doubtful about their sizing. Looking online I just couldn't be confident they would fit and I wasn't traveling through to Glasgow to try them on so they were out.

This left me looking at other options, I noticed that my local tackle shop had Scierra CC3 chest waders on offer at £68.99 which is a great price so I popped round to try them on, sadly I was too fat to get them over my hips. Again the sizing looked OK on the website but when trying them on it was obvious I would have to go at least one size bigger.

CC3 Waist Waders

So, on went the search, then I found a great deal on CC3 waist waders £69.99, I've had waist waders in the past and really liked them. These are breathable though and stocking foot, not the boot foot I'm used to. The styling of the wader is pretty good and having given them the once over they fit perfectly (I got a size bigger) and feel really comfortable. They also came highly recommended by other anglers online, of course there are the "these waders suck" posts on various forums but you'll find that with any product. I tend to trust blogger reviews, there's no reason for a blogger to bum something up usually. It will be next year before I get a chance to test them but that'll give me time to mull over my next dilemma.....Boots!



These waders are really for walking days and when I walk, I walk a lot. I tend to spend more time on the bank than in the water when fishing anyway and the only time I need to get into the water is to cross the river so these waders should be ideal. The thing is I haven't used wading boots before and wonder if they are any good for walking long distance. My initial thought is to by a pair of walking boots as this is what I'll be doing most of the time. I've used a pair of 50 Peaks for wet wading and they were excellent for this, good grip on land and reasonable grip in the water, better than my regular boot foot waders anyway. I'll also team these waders with a good pair of gators to protect against the brambles a little.

If you use wading boots I'd be interested in your experiences and recommendations, equally if you use stocking foot waders with walking boots ???