safe waiting is a really important part of fly fishing you need to take care you need to have
the right equipment you need to plan a little bit before you get in the water so i'm going
to go through some of the things that'll help you wade safely more confidently and more comfortably
number one is equipment you need a belt on your waders you need to make sure that that
belt is cinched tightly if you happen to fall in what what could happen is that your waders would
fill with water you're not going to turn upside down but you are going to act like a sea anchor
and plus you're going to get your wallet and your phone and everything else wet if you take a quick
tumble with a wading belt you're not you're not gonna get much water down below so having a wading
belt is super important the other thing is the soles of your wading boots i'm going to give you
kind of the pros and cons of felt and rubber so let's start with felt soles filters are an
older more traditional way of covering the bottom of a waiting boot felt grips on slippery rocks
really well grips better than anything on slippery rocks so if you're in an area where you've got
a lot of round slippery rocks felt soles are gonna make your waiting safer and more secure
now there are some downsides to felt one is that hiking on a trail it's harder because you've got
you've got kind of a slippery smooth sole so if you're doing a lot of hiking felt soles can can
be a little tiring also if you fish in in snow or icy conditions you can build up layers of snow or
ice on the bottom of those felt soles and a final negative point for felt soles in
fact they're illegal in some places you need to check the regulations where you're going to fish
is that felt soles don't dry quickly and they can hold invasive species things like zebra mussels
and new zealand mud snails and ditimo and whirling disease and you can take them from one watershed
to another so you want to be careful if you have belt soles what you need to do is you need to
wash them really really thoroughly and scrub them with a wire brush they say clean inspect and dry
you really should do that with all wading shoes you should always before you move to a different
river clean them with water inspect them look for look for pieces of debris or mud on them and then
if you see any debris scrub it with a wire brush and then try to dry them as best you can because
that's going to kill those organisms rubber soles are great for hiking if you're hiking a trail
they're like a hiking boot tread and they're great for they're great for sand they're great
for gravel any place you don't have slippery rocks really super slippery round slippery rocks
uh rubber soles are great especially if you're going to be doing a lot of walking
the disadvantages rubber doesn't grip quite as well as felt on slippery rocks you can put metal
studs in rubber soles and that can give you a little bit more purchase on the rocks and
it's almost almost as good as felt on slippery rocks maybe not quite so those are the pros and
cons rubber soles are great in the snow if you're fishing in the wintertime or
you know early late in season and you might have snow or ice uh rubber soles are much safer than
felt soles so those are the pros and the cons you kind of gotta balance what kind of fishing
you're gonna be doing but always check the regulations if you're going to be using felt soles
and always clean inspect and dry your waiting shoes before you go from one place to another
so a third thing you want to have if you're unsteady on your feet or you're fishing a lot of
fast heavy water is a waiting staff most of them are collapsible you just pull them out
put them together lock them and you've got a third leg or a tripod that gives you a lot
more stability before you get into wade there's a few things to think about one is that you should
have polarized sunglasses uh because you need to be able to see through the water you'll be
able to see rocks and logs and things like that and if the water's really dirty and you can't
see into the water then you have to be extra extra extra careful and really move slowly and carefully
but polarized sunglasses in most cases are going to really help you see where you're
going the next thing is look for a shallow place to cross look for a place where usually a tail
of a pool or a riffle is where you're going to find the shallowest water so that's important
look for the right place to cross you don't want to cross in the deepest part of the pool
when you wade and you're not sure if the water's quite fast or quite deep and you're going to get
a little bit unsteady the best thing to do is to angle a bit upstream you want to always move in an
upstream direction when you're waiting if you get into a situation where the water gets too deep or
too fast and you're tired you can always turn around and retrace your steps you know you can
get back in that direction you've left yourself a trail of breadcrumbs where you got safe waiting
if you start in a downstream direction the current can get too fast and can push you into a deep hole
or into really heavy water and you won't be able to turn around and come back so when you're
crossing just just pick an angle and work upstream when you're crossing the river when you're waiting
you want to shuffle your feet you want to you want to move and feel with your toe
and then go toe ball heel and move along slowly shuffle just make sure that you're
getting a firm purchase on each foot before you take another step especially in fast heavy water
another thing i've found is you need to be really careful not to cross your legs you want to keep
your weight centered you want to have your knees over your ankles and you want to have the weight
your weight centered over your feet if you end up crossing your legs for some reason it can make you
really really unsteady so be careful to keep those those feet separated and don't cross your feet
for any reason one of the things you can also do is a buddy crossing where you where you lock
arms or just hold on to each other and go across four legs are better than two and a buddy crossing
with the waiting staff or both of you with waiting staff is going to make it even safer so that's
another option for you if heaven forbid you do fall in easier said than done but try not to
panic you can dog paddle pretty well in waders if you're in heavy deep water just stay calm paddle
off to the side try to get to shore as quickly as possible it's really hard once you fall in
to stand up again it can be very difficult so you need to just get to a really shallow place and if
you have to crawl out of the water it's not very graceful but do it you know just just get to a
shallow place try to get your feet in front of you if you can if you're going through a long stretch
of water you don't want to bump your head try to get your feet in front of you dog paddle get
to shore and dry off one final thing when you're using a waiting staff try to keep that staff close
to your body and either a little bit downstream of you or even with your body if you put that waiting
staff upstream you can get pulled away from it so keep it keep it here off to the side a little
bit keep it even with your body or a little bit behind you so you can push against the current
so safe waiting can make your fishing more fun more comfortable and obviously safer and if you
can't swim because there may be a time when you have to swim in waders wear a pfd not a bad idea
you