I purchased these boots about a year ago and they have held up to probably 100 days of fishing quite well (my Chacos bare most of the load in the summer). As you can see in the picture below, the tread has worn down a bit, but the rubber the soles are made from is extremely sticky and in most situations they still do well. They aren’t very good on big, slimy rocks. Luckily, there aren’t too many of those on the Pere Marquette. Third Clay Banks up in the fly water, the Rainbow Rapids area, and Barnet’s Rapids are all places where these boots do not excel on the PM. But they do so much better on most other surfaces than felt, e.g. dry rock, dirt, sand, and mud, not to mention the dubious ecological benefits sticky rubber soles are supposed to offer, that I have so far greatly preferred them.
In addition to their good performance, the ease with which they go on and off far exceeds any other boot I’ve ever worn. This is something Tom Chandler also mentioned in his review of the boots. Easy on, easy off. And they are very comfortable, stable, and as a bonus, extremely light weight. As I mentioned above, they have been very durable, even in the face of the lightweight construction.
However, now that winter is here and I’ve been walking in a bit, as opposed to floating, I have to say that these boots suck. They are absolutely horrible on snow and ice. When we were making the santa video I fell down twice while literally standing still on the boat ramp at Custer. Kevin and Steve enjoyed that very much. A lug sole sticky rubber boot is much recommended over the rather wimpy four star shaped tred of the Patagonia Riverwalker for snow and ice.
So today I went out and for $1 purchased a bag of 3/8″ hex sheet metal screws. After some not insignificant difficulty I managed to put them in the soles and will test them tomorrow. Hopefully I won’t fall down in the woods or break off a big lake run brown.
