I own six pairs of neoprene boot-foot waders and respectfully have to disagree with you about your “garbage” comment.
If you get high-quality 3 mm neoprene and dress according to the weather, you can spend all day in them and be completly comfortable. Funny you mentioned the word “garbage”—-I just had a friend get all huffy and puffy about how stupid and behind the times I am wearing neoprene....and offered to get me a pair of Reddington sock-foot waders for.....US$ 250——normal retail....$ 400. I think that’s ridiculously expensive, especially when you have to screw around with wet laces getting the wading shoes on and off.
With boot-feet, no wet laces....just kick them off and slip then back on and you’re done.
Back before C-19 , every April I took one week trips up to Alaska —- flew in to a river and drifted for 6 days back down to the ocean in my inflatable raft, camping in a new spot every night. Weather would go from loony-sized raindrops one day to side-ways blizzards the next day, then hot sun , then back to rain. I would have died of hypothermia doing that in gore-tex....
I had 5 mm neoprene for those trips and I was completely comfortable for six days straight. The only issue—-the boot-feet get damp so if you want the insulation to last 5 or 6 seasons or more, you crumple up newspaper and stuff both boots for the evening, then step into bone-dry boots the next morning.
I fish steelhead and salmon pretty much year round in my local rivers—- I use 3mm neoprene for spring and summer, 4mm and 5 mm neoprene for winter. IF I’m busting brush and going in and out of canyons, I put my coat in a backpack so the engine doesn’t over-heat. Ocassionally I’ll fold the top of the waders down to leave my chest uncovered if hiking—-a belt comes in handy for that
Brands? The top-of-the-line used to be Bare but they stopped making boot-foot neoprene and joined the Gore-Tex Cult. I own 4 pairs of Bare neoprene boot-feet waders and treat them like Royalty. If you find a pair of Bare boot-feet waders that fit you, handcuff yourself to them—-they are that good.
Nowadays, Kodiak makes a good pair of neoprene boot-foots. So does Froggs Toggs—-get the felted boot-feet style. Cabela’s also sells a good quality felted boot-foot wader for 1/3 the price of what you’d pay for a pair of Simms
For the 3mm thickness, I buy ProLine. You could pick up 3 pairs of ProLine boot-foot waders for what you’d pay for one pair of Simms. I typically get 4 seasons out of ProLine before I have to start putting sealant on the boots—-that’s the Achilles heel—-the rubber starts to crack from solar oxidation and from repeated bending in the same place .
10-15 years for a pair of gore-tex waders? Cough cough....maybe for someone who fishes once or twice a year????.....the sock-feet will eventually spring leaks no matter how well you take care of them. I dropped $ 300 for a pair of Simms for my daughter when we went up to the Skeena one October and the sock-feet leaked before the trip was over
The morning I took this photo it was -6 degrees C......the oranges in my pack froze solid then shattered like Christmas tree bulbs....gore-tex waders? Not for me, thanks...
