Wading Boots – Adding Cleats

OK, it's winter again.  It's been snowing all evening.  There are 5 inches on the back porch.  Good thing I got out and enjoyed the sunshine last week.

I bought a pair of felt sole wading boots (Simms) six years ago and they came with cleats that could be fastened into the soles. At the time, the felt soles seemed to work adequately for preventing slips. After using them for a couple of years though, I have noticed they aren’t as slip resistant as they used to be. Remembering the cleats that came with the boots, I went into the garage and found the old box the boots came in. Sure enough, the cleats were still there. To see if they really improved things, I added the cleats to one boot but not the other. On my next fishing excursion I put the experiment to test. I was amazed. The boots with the added cleats were tons better, that boot didn’t slip at all. The boot without cleats was slipping on the moss covered rocks.

The cleats are easy to insert. The felt soles came with pilot holes already drilled. The cleats themselves were actually hexagonal head screws that could be screwed into the pilot holes. I will add the cleats to the other boot before I head out again. Also…I have another pair of wading boots (Cloudveil) with rubber soles that I want to add cleats to. I will use the pattern from the felt boots and drill my own pilot holes. I ran down to the fly shop and as I expected, they sell packs of cleats just like the ones that came with Simms wading boots.