To Wade or Not to Wade?

This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: To Wade or Not to Wade?

Much to be said for your views, Alan. A lot of anglers over the past decade or two, since the arrival of ever and ever more "Wading Systems" - chest-high neoprenes and breathables, stocking -foot and boot-foot, with felt and cleats and other non-slip sole options - seem to have got into a mindset of "I've got the kit and I'm going to use it!", even to the point of deep-wading tiny streams and Southern chalkstreams. Bonkers.

As both a gamefisher and a coarsefisher, I can see both sides of the issue, yet I am inclined to agree with you, Alan - a lot less wading and much more responsible wading when you do wade.


PS - Over to you, Julie.

"Climb every mountain,
Search high and low,
Follow every highway,
Every path you know.

Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
'Till you find your dream."


Not!

Definitely NOT to wade.

I bought a DVD a while back about the upper Thames and the guy waded in up to his waist right by the bank to cast his waggler in.

Absolutely no reason at all to do it. He caught exactly the same fish that I catch fishing from the bank.

All that splashing and mud churning must scare the fish, it erodes the bank when they're climbing in and out and it must be a little bit dangerous too, since the banks are high and slippery and there are certainly some deep holes around and who knows what else knocking around on the bottom that you could get caught up in.

Absolutely no reason whatsoever as far as I can see to go in the water on a river like the upper Thames.

Thought provoking Alan.... for every action there is an ecological reaction.

maceo said:

Definitely NOT to wade.

I bought a DVD a while back about the upper Thames and the guy waded in up to his waist right by the bank to cast his waggler in.

Absolutely no reason at all to do it. He caught exactly the same fish that I catch fishing from the bank.
.

Click to expand...

That bleak must be ****** (annoyed)

---------- Post added at 17:00 ---------- Previous post was at 16:44 ----------

Paul Boote said:

Much to be said for your views, Alan. A lot of anglers over the past decade or two, since the arrival of ever and ever more "Wading Systems" - chest-high neoprenes and breathables, stocking -foot and boot-foot, with felt and cleats and other non-slip sole options - seem to have got into a mindset of "I've got the kit and I'm going to use it!", even to the point of deep-wading tiny streams and Southern chalkstreams. Bonkers.

As both a gamefisher and a coarsefisher, I can see both sides of the issue, yet I am inclined to agree with you, Alan - a lot less wading and much more responsible wading when you do wade.


PS - Over to you, Julie.

"Climb every mountain,
Search high and low,
Follow every highway,
Every path you know.

Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
'Till you find your dream."


Not!

Click to expand...

I don't get this. Of course if someone has bought an item they will want to use it. Whether this happens to be waders or reels. What difference does it make? honestly?

Fishing is fishing. Course, game, sea; it's all the same thing.

Of course you want to use anything you've just bought, but you should use it sensibly and with care. Just because your new motor has a top speed of 140mph doesn't entitle you to drive it at that speed all the time and anywhere you want. You get Wader Maniacs who routinely will get in up to their nips just to get the most out of their few hundred £s worth of waders, I assure you. Been using chesties for sea-trout and salmon fishing since the mid 1970s, and the things I have seen - people often wading chest-deep into the only deeper water in a run or pool, the very spots (indeed, the only spots) the ruddy fish are lying in, waiting to be fished for and maybe caught. So many kit-heavy, talent- and thought-free idiots...

Only time I would wade is if it offers me an advantage in covering the water/fish or makes casting easier.

Spey casting is far easier if you are in the water and the optimum depth for doing it being probably no higher than mid-thigh/bum.

Cannot see why I would want to get in when coarse fishing, unless trotting the far channel of a wide river. Don't do much of that nowadays so dry it is!

One last one on this from me.

Think before you wade.

Imagine this:

A sea-trout river some twenty-five to thirty yards wide, running shallow and fast over gravel for 100 yards or more before reaching a large, right-angle bended pool. You are on the left bank as you look downstream, forty yards above the spot at which the fast run pour its waters chute-like into the pool, all of this chutey pool-neck stuff happening not on your side of the river but on the far, right, bank. Now, you happened to know that the pool below is stacked with fish and will offer you some good sport with the fly as darkness falls, but it is now 8.00pm on an overcast evening, dull but still light.

You think of having a bit of fun fishing the run just above the break, where it chutes into the upper pool; you make to wade half-across the river, to fish the run's deeper and faster flow above the pool neck.

Big mistake.

You get in, begin to wade and "Whoosh!" three big fish bow-wave away across the river just feet from the left bank where you have just got in and are presently standing knee-deep (and about to get deeper).

"My God." you think. "Those fish were lying in no more than 18 inches of water running over featureless gravel tight against my bank. Surely any fish running up out of the pool would travel through the faster, rather deeper water on the opposite bank...?"

Nope. Not here they don't.

The last time I fished this pool, one I know very well, in Wales, I fished in trainers, crouched or kneeling, working a very delicately cast floating line, small tube fly and a palmered bumble on a dropper above it through the forty yards of left bank water above the pool neck.

Brace of fish before 9.00pm, before I got my chesties on and began on the pool.

The brace?

6.5 and 7.25 pounds.

Nice.

Think before you wade.

One of the best lessons in not wading was when float-tubing on a wild, upland lake in Mid-Wales. Paddling quietly along, parallel to the shore 15-20yds out, casting in to the shallows with small flies, we managed a steady number of brownies in as little as a few inches of water, right under the backside vegetation, using small terrestrial patterns like Coch Y Bonddu, Heather Fly and Deer-hair Beetle.

A wading bank angler would clear the whole area on putting the first foot in and even a non-wading bank angler, sky-lining, would do the same.

Great article Alan. Another wading phenomenon: why do some anglers wear full neoprene chesties in fine weather when fishing from the solid banks of stillwaters where wading is impossible whilst the rest of us wear comfortable boots or outdoor shoes? Best regards, Stuart.

I actually bought a set of breathable chest waders last summer....still haven't used em ! I did get them specifically to fish certain swims but due to the high water levels last year I couldn't get to fish those swims even with my chest waders. I do intend to try them out this year if the water levels allow. I must say that for the majority of my fishing is done from the bank or just in the edges as far as my wellies will allow.
Regarding the squashing of insects by anglers...mmm, i'm not to sure about that. Maybe in the regularly trodden spots this could be a problem but I really can't see it doing to much damage to the bugs overall. I reckon the real problem is poor water quality and pollution rather than anglers wading...jmo folks.