Alaska bans felt sole wading boots for 2012

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Fisheries Board bans anglers' felt-soled boots

The Associated Press

Published: March 22nd, 2010 02:10 PM
Last Modified: March 22nd, 2010 02:10 PM

JUNEAU, Alaska - Alaska anglers will be banned from wearing felt-soled wading boots in streams and rivers starting in 2012 under a decision by the Board of Fisheries.

The ban is aimed at preventing the spread of disease and invasive species.

The board voted 6-0 in favor of the ban Friday in Anchorage.

Anglers wear felt-soled boots in streams to help their footing on wet rocks.

Trout Unlimited pushed for the ban. Project director Mark Kaelke (CAL'-key) says felt stays wet longer than rubber boots and carries more river sediment.

He says invasive species can survive on felt while boots are transported to different fishing grounds, creating the potential to spread disease

The Fisheries Board has jurisdiction over anglers only and the ban does not apply to other stream users.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Do you remember about 40 years ago when we used Barge contact cement to glue in-door/out-door carpet onto GI jungle boots?

No matter what you think or feel about this subject, very soon it will be illegal to sell felt sole wading boots in the USA.

Please remember, I had nothing to do with this. I am just a poor capitalist pig caught in the middle of it all.

No matter how you feel about the new Simms StreamTread boots they in no way can keep up with the insane demand for them right now. If I had another $50,000 for more inventory I would put a lot of it into Simms new StreamTread boots. What a $$$ pig............

We have a lot of nice felt sole boots in our wader room at 50% off to message board people.

Remember you need to buy boots one size larger than your street shoe, on average.

[Mike O]

do you have any in kids (my son is 8 ) sizes?

[amoeba]

See if you can get some information from Simms or Vibram as to when they will have just the soles available; I don't have any need for new shoes any time soon (I resole them until the uppers wear out - which for simms leathers takes about a decade), and no interest in mailing them away to Montana for resoling - there are plenty of shoe repairmen in Sacramento who can put on soles.

Look forward to what you hear what the manufacturer says, and buying some of those resoles from you soon.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

maodiver

Call the shop and see what they have?

We can get them in smaller mens sizes starting at $99 from Simms.

We have lots of smaller felt sole boots at 50% off too.

[huntindog]

have there been real studies done showing that felt soles cause more harm than any other part of our wading apparrel. I have heard more than one person say that this is entirely industry driven (aka a way to sell more boots). I am not doubting but i did a couple quick searches and couldn't find anything. Just curious.

[amoeba]

have there been real studies done showing that felt soles cause more harm than any other part of our wading apparrel. I have heard more than one person say that this is entirely industry driven (aka a way to sell more boots). I am not doubting but i did a couple quick searches and couldn't find anything. Just curious.

Not really, and your doubts are understandable. It appears that the problem is dirt, not felt. But we don't know since no one looked at felt after attempts to clean it.

You will find a something out their from TU - which is limited to some gray literature at the MS grad school level. The studies show that:

1. all wading materials, if not washed at all, carry organisms, and that vibram, neoprene, or breathable wader material release the organisms into water more than does felt.

2. felt, if not washed, carries more dirt around than other materials. since it doesn't come out of felt as easily (actually, the problem organisms didn't come out of it at all), I'm not sure what that means.

3. felt stays wet longer.

4. at least 75% of fishermen (in Montana) do not wash equipment between each use.

There have been studies of chemical and heat methods on viability of organisms, but not on whether the remaining viable organisms (would result in a transfer of a vector into another environment (i.e., in a lab setting, of course, such as a model stream). All this is possible, it just hasn't been done. What has been done is examination of viable/unviable residual organisms swabbed from the surface, and cultured in media. That's not the same as walking in a stream. Think of it like someone taking a swab of a toilet flush handle - and tracing it on some nutrient agar. You'll come up with all kinds of diseases. But we don't wear masks and gloves in those circumstances. The reason is that our bodies, like the environment, can resist small levels of exposure. Most of this is a function of inoculum size, not presence/absence.

Realize that none of those methods, whether its a pressure hose, or hot water, are the same as sterilization, such as for under high heat/pressure as is done for surgical instruments at a hospital, which would kill everything, and probably destroy your fishing equipment. But again, you could test, and determine the extent to which more practical methods such as pressure-washing, scrubbing with soap, and doing that with felt or rubber or anything else, reduce the risk of non-cleaning relative to sterilization or whether they are the same.

I too would like to know if the material makes a difference. If I were to have an opinion, it would be that cleaning makes the most difference, and if you don't clean, it doesn't matter if it's rubber or felt or neoprene or goretex or a boat hull.

The other thing I'd like to know if this new vibram works better than the aquatred. By the way, I have some of Kiene-purchased Danner's from ~1998 and had them soled with aquatred about 6 years ago and man does that stuff slip all over the place. I still haven't worn them out. I use them to clean out my mom's fish pond. But I'm really looking forward to trying that new rubber, when it's available, and experiencing the difference.

So get back to us all on what the story is with the availability of resole material; there's a whole bunch of guide and G3 boots out there, including mine. Interestingly, my G3 felts - which I bought locally at full retail cost 2 yrs ago - failed last year (the sole came off in one whole piece from a shoe, studs and all). Simms of course honored the workmanship warrantee, but declined to offer me their streamtread model (even though it was only ~$10 more in retail); instead, they provided a new pair of felt boots and a pack of studs. That was ~late last August.

[OceanSunfish]

If it's such a critical situation as painted by TU and the rest of the "industry", then why wait to ban felt soles until 2012?!

Another perfect example of common sense in the USA.

[caltagm]

http://www.stopans.org/Science_of_felt.php

[amoeba]

http://www.stopans.org/Science_of_felt.php

as I said, that's the TU propaganda site with the unpublished, non-peer-reviewed, MS thesis in it with the results I enumerated in my last post, none of which looked at felt after attempts of cleaning. More like the "nonsense of the felt ban argument".

The problem has never been demonstrated to be felt and everybody except TU knows it. TU can speak for themselves, they don't speak for me, the State of California, or anywhere else. They aren't helping matters by claiming victory over something that isn't the problem.

The problem is dirty equipment and people not cleaning it. Clean it even if it is rubber, or breathable waders.

Don't just buy rubber and claim you have done anything.

[LNelson]

I was electroshocking with the State Biologsts last fall and noticed the crew all had felt. I inquired about their choice of footwear and they replied that with proper sanitation they feel confident that they have no more probability of vectoring invasives than any other choice of boot. Their protocol includes bleach and complete drying. Having an extra pair of boots allows for one to completely dry the felt out prior to an outing. I own three pairs. They have gotten cheap lately*G*.

[wjorg]

This is complete crap!

Like with the release of Large Arbor Reels, now its time to buy more crap. Why do you think the industry embraces this. Stores now dont have to carry so much inventory of different boots which take a lot of shelf space. They can carry a few of the good sellers.

The part of the boot where it folds over to allow lacing of shoelaces contains the most grit and grime. Even vibram or rubber soled boots would still have this issue. Apparently some study came out of New Zealand where it shows equal risk with vibram/rubber soled boots to felt soled, but I havent found it yet. Regardless of the sole, the boot will still pass the bad stuff along. Most people dont clean their gear so the conclusion was that a felt ban will do little. A better idea would be to mandate bootfoot waders(like the stupidly discontinued Muckboot bootfoot waders) with no grooves to catch microscopic critters.

My 2 cents....

Vibram soled boots are dangerous! Encourage civil disobedience.

[OceanSunfish]

I have to agree with you Wjorg....

IMO, COMMON SENSE would have suggested that anyone traveling to NZ to wade-fish would have been required to LEAVE their "boots" behind in NZ!

I think it would've been easy to 'control' the few privledged angler's that travel to NZ each year, and certainly, those capable of traveling to NZ would not find hardship in purchasing a single trip pair of wading boots just for that trip, etc.

Sadly, the USA is very REACTIVE, not pro-active.

[wineslob]

Wasn't it TU that came up with the stupid regulations for the Lake Almanor/Butt Valley water temps?


Morons