Felt or tread bottom waders??

[I'mHooked]

So what's the prevailing preference on choosing felt or tread bottom waders?

 

I gather the felt is for the benefit of better traction on slippery rocks.

 

I would think of tread bottom as being an all round better utility type option.

 

Which is better in particular applications and why?

 

What considerations might I want to keep in mind?

 

 

Thanks, I'mHooked

[ChrisK]

I would go with a combination,cleat and felt bottom...Best of both worlds !!

Cleats/felt soles cut through slime and algae giving you a good grip on surfaces...Only thing I don't like about felt soles is they tent to gather up snow and you end up walking on compacted slush type snowballs on your feet...Not good but more irritating than anything.....

[bigreddog]

Felt does provide superior traction on slippery rocks. However, it's starting to fall out of favour with travelling fly anglers because of felt's ability to pick up and transfer invasive plant species from one body of water to another, such as didymo or "rock snot algae."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymosphenia_geminata

 

One alternative is to use aquastealth rubber, which is supposedly a nice, soft rubber that gives decent traction in wet environments. It doesn't beat felt in terms of traction and it's typically found only on higher end wading shoes (i.e. expensive), but you won't be moving any algae from one waterbody to another if you give it a good rinse. Plus, it's more versatile if you need to hike to get to your wading destination.

 

A less expensive option would be to use a standard rubber sole, but with metal or carbide cleats screwed in. Still not quite as good as felt, but it's a good 4-season solution, since it gives you grip on ice. It's a bit noisy (crunch!) and clumsy when hiking, but it does a good enough job of giving you grip on wet rocks.