ESF reader Keith Herselmen sent us his review of a pair of Simms wading boots he has recently bought.
As with most people I stumbled across the Simms brand a few year ago, I purchased a set of Freestone waders and boots to take back to Africa for my uncle, who was travelling to Patagonia for a fishing trip. Due to the unreasonable baggage allowances by some airlines I had no choice but to wear the waders and boots through Heathrow (a right sight I must say) to avoid excess baggage penalties. I was surprised at how snug a fit and how comfortable the set was and felt that the next boots I would purchase would be Simms.
Twelve months down the line and the Simms Guide Felt Sole Wading Boots ended up in my shopping cart.
The boots have been used on two separate and very different trips so far, the first day was a wet and windy day on Colliford reservoir, Bolventor, Cornwall. Those who have fished Colliford will be well aware of the need to cover surface area. And several miles were covered through mud, puddles, wetlands and gravel beds.
On wearing the waders for the first time the aesthetics struck me, a lot of thought has been put into the style and design of the boots, with the combination of the quick dry leather and Gore-Tex material and the heavy duty rubber toe protectors and rubber for ankle support.
The boots are a fair bit heavier than other boots when dry. (When wet they don’t seem to hold very much water and dry very quickly.) Heavy duty stitching is visible holding the felt sole on. This is thick grey felt which is very compressed and personally it makes the boots look a lot cleaner than other makes and models with lighter or white felt soles.
I am a size 9 Boot and as a lot of fishermen find with wading boots they always tend to buy a size bigger to accommodate for a thick pair of wading boots. These are size 9 boots and there was no problem at all with fit, very spacious in the toes and snug fitting around the ankle.
The lace eyes are made up of five guide eyes in metal and leading up the boot there is a larger catch open eye for support on the ankle and a further 2 open quick lacing eyes at the top of the boot, for ease of access and speed this is very useful and a real pleasure when trying to take off wet wading boots.
It is a testament to the boots that on the first outing they were worn for a good eight hours and I hardly noticed them at all, no discomfort was felt whatsoever. After fishing I rinsed off the boots and hung them up to dry, by the next day most of the moisture was gone and they had returned to their original dry weight.
The second fishing trip was up on Dartmoor fishing the Duchy stretches of the east and west Dart and associated tributaries. This was a vast change of conditions to Colliford, a lot more stream and boulder navigating down algae covered boulders and pebbles. The felt soles worked remarkable well and traction was not a problem at all. The boots have quite a large camel foot-like sole for surface area, and I did find myself being rather heavy footed and clumsy in some of the quicker water amongst the rocks.
When not wading in the rivers the river banks are made up of gorse and clumps of grass which tends to be a nightmare to walk through, and is usually a hot bed for twisted ankles. This to me is where the best feature of the Guide Wading Boots comes into play: the ankle support is second to none, snug fitting and very sturdy and removes the possibility of rolling or twisting your ankle. Several miles of stream and bank were covered and the boots more than stood up to the test.
Because of the ankle support being so sturdy I could imagine that slight discomfort would set in if sitting in the boots all day while boat fishing, due to not having much ankle flexibility, in the same breath they are wading boots and cover every aspect of wading remarkably well. On a star rating I would not hesitate to hand out 5/5, and I believe it says a lot when it would take a lot to persuade me away from other Simms products with the build quality and style.
One very happy Fisherman.