new wading shoes. felt or aquastealth?

[effkarl]

I am in the market for a new pair of shoes. Bought the cheapest things I could find last year as it was my first year and I did not want to spend a ton of money if I did not like it. I have felt on the ones I currently use, which by the way have no support of any kind, anywhere. I might as well have bought a pair of canvas converse sneakers and attached some felt. Anyway, I have about 60 or so bucks I can spend right now. More in a couple of weeks. I really need to get a new pair before a trip to the west branch of the penobscot in mid june.
:?: Do any of you guys have a preference as to felt or aquastealth? The felt I have and am familiar with but it still gets slippery some times. (ie rock hopping on dry rocks when the shoes are wet.). What is the deal with aquastelth? I hear guys swear by it on other boards but am igonorant myself. What brands should I look at? I only live about 30 minutes from LL Bean so i was thinking that I would do well getting something from them but wanted to check here before I made any commitments. :? Thanks

[sbeausol]

i have thought about getting the aqua stealth but I can't seem to convince myself that wet rubber will stick well on wet rock... Any how I have stuck with the felt soles. I have had studded and regular pairs and found that the studded shoes can be a bit slippery on rocks. The biggest problem with felt is that it wears much quicker than rubber so if you fish a lot it is touch to get more than a year out of them. Then again you can put fresh soles on...

As for models - I have this pair from simms and they very supportive and priced pretty fair -

Follow this link for more info - Click here (http://www.simmsfishing.com/za/SIM?PAGE=PRODUCT_DETAILS&CAT=footwear&PROD.ID=14448)

[Tom Jutras]

I have fished with a freind who was wearing the aquastealth shoes last season. He had a bad time wading on the Pemi with me and sent his boots back to Beans. He traded them in for felt soles and he was able to wade much better with the felt soles. I think if you are fishing a drift boat and wading small gravel river and streams the aquastealth boots would be just fine. For boulders and slime covered rocks I think the felts are much better.

Tom

[Gerry]

I had the aquastealth boots for a few years - they were terrible. For gravel and for hiking or snow, they were ok. For the boulders and granite ledges we have on most rivers, they were awful. I have a pair of Danner Borger model felts with tungsten studs and they stick like glue to almost any surface. I also have a pair of Bean lightweight felts that are good also.

[Jammin' Salmon]

Stick with the felt--I put all my clients in boots with felt. They are made for our NH rocks!

Rick

[Boneylegs]

I find it interesting that everyone complains about the aquastealth not gripping on rocks...the rubber for those soles was specially engineered for rock climbing shoes. I bought a pair of the AS last year and had no problems on anything except the slime covered rocks on the Kennebec. Something about the dam controlled rivers having excessivly slippery slime! This spring I traded them in for AS with studs and have had zero issues with traction of any sort. If I had one complaint it would be that they are TOO grippy on dry rocks and boulders.

[fessiewig]

I was wading in a river last Sunday that had the "green slim" on the rocks and my felt soles just could not handle the slimed up rocks. On regular rocks in the water the felt bottoms worked just fine. I've been following this thread with interest as I was thinking of getting new wading boots and had just about written off the Aqua Stealth boots until BL's post. Now my interest has peaked once again. Do you think studded felt bottom or studded aqua stealth would work better or is it a matter of tast? Felt is cheaper.

[Boneylegs]

fessie:
I've never used felt soles, so I can't comment on the differences between them and AS. What I've read in other forums is that felt is terrible in snowy conditions because it packs up. I don't do a lot of snow fishing, but for hiking and rock jumping, the AS is the way for me. I just have to get used to the studs slipping on dry rocks.

[Owl's Roost]

Speaking from a very self serving point of view, having boots with permanent studds is a problem if you are going to get in and out of a drift boat. I'm sure you're saying, 'well how often am I going to do that". I for one would love to see you do it often but that's another story. If you have just one pair of boots and now decide to take a drift you will notice the boat owner's eyes begin to buglge excessively when you show up with what he or she considers Spiked Boots :shock: . All kidding aside they do raise havoc with drift boats and canoes. I've been happy with felts and removable studs.