How is the water?

[Joni]

Tried this on another forum and I am loving the visuals/stories.

Did you ever take a spill or miss calculate how deep a pool is. Anyway, I mean :check your waders for leaks from the inside LOL.
Tell me about it and did it scare the **** out of you? Did you feel like an idiot/clutts, etc.

Did that belt work?

[Shane Stroud]

Back in late November I tripped over a submerged log and went for a swim in my waders. They filled up surprisingly fast. I don't think I've ever been that cold in my life.

I felt pretty stupid, and my wonderful wife hasn't stopped pointing it out since. When I left for the river today, she told me not to go swimming this time. That's a supportive woman there.

[arfishinbear]

OK as you know I am going in for knee surgery the 17th fo Feb, now, anyway my doc dosent want me wadeing in teh river untill my knees are fixed, my wife realy wanted to go fishing one day last week, so we grabed the ultra-lites and mepps and went to the river. I was wearing just a pair of jeans and tennis shoes. I steped on a big flat rock to make a cast and being the rock was wet, I slipped, fell on my a&& and went knee deep in 50 deg water, it was 44 and cloudy out. She was worried I would want to go home, but we stayed about an hour and fished. Right before left I wanted to make a cast into a chute that I couldnt reach, so being wet allready and a true fisherman I waded knee deep and fished the run lol
A car from TX drove up to a parking area right abouve where we was fishing and you should have seen the looks on their faces, they didnt know if the just seen one of the toughest outdoorsmen they had seen or the slowest LOL
I DID catch a fish out of that chute a nice 2lb bow.
Bear

[MTskibum]

I was fishing the upper gallatin, above big sky, not too far from Yellowstone national park in febuary in a blizzard with a buddy. Within 10 minutes of fishing i slipped and filled my waders up. I ended the fishing trip there. It was 2 and a half hours in a car for around 10 minutes of fishing, terrible experience.

[FrankB2]

I was wearing about 20 pounds of rubber chest wader 30 years ago, and
took a spill at the base of a 10' tall waterfall. It was terrible, and there were
lots of people there to witness my struggle walking to the bank !

Fast forward to this past summer, and my wife and I were fishing from our
canoe, wearing hippers. I stepped out of the canoe late in the afternoon, and
slipped on a small stone in about 10" of water. It's amazing how fast 10" of water can fill hip boots, and leave the rest of my clothes thoroughly soaked.

After the spill at the falls, I've been ultra careful, but still perform the occassional jig that keeps me upright after stepping the wrong way. After
wading WAY too deep a few years ago, I limit myself to waist deep water.
For me that means 3 feet deep. If my wife follows, she's up way past her
waist. I bought her a Folstaff last week .

No real exciting stories on my end......thankfully!

[axle27]

Until recently, I only had hip waders (first mistake, I know). I was walking just above a large riffle and stepped carefully between two rocks. I THOUGHT I had good footing. Evidently, the higher powers did not think so. On the next step, I ended up on my knees in 2 ft of water with my waders rapidly becoming weights.

DAMN that water was cold. I shiver thinking about it....

[Rip Tide]

There's an old adage that states...

Hip boots are a good way to measure just how deep the water was when you first got wet

[Rip Tide]

I've been for a 'swim' more times than I care to remember.
When I was younger, I counted on going in on Opening Day every year

The last time was in a tidal flow on Cape Cod....Nauset Inlet.
This breachway is about 50 yards wide and drains an estuary of about 5 square miles.... all in 6 hours. During peak flow that water is roaring.
Because the current was so fast, I wasn't getting a good drift, so I waded out onto a high spot in the flow.
Well, it wasn't even seconds until all the sand beneath my feet washed away and I was on a fast track toward France
Fortunately I was using a solid type stripping basket and was able to use as a float and kick my way to terra firma.

There's a lot of discussion on boards like this on why stripping baskets should always have drainage holes.....They'll never convince me

[Joni]

Originally Posted by axle27

Until recently, I only had hip waders (first mistake, I know). I was walking just above a large riffle and stepped carefully between two rocks. I THOUGHT I had good footing. Evidently, the higher powers did not think so. On the next step, I ended up on my knees in 2 ft of water with my waders rapidly becoming weights.

DAMN that water was cold. I shiver thinking about it....

I still on occasion, wear my boot foot hippers on the rivers. Heck, they are easy, just slide on and go.

But then...One year at Island Park BAND CAMP (just kidding) I was fishing the river. Now the river was flowing but no real force coming from it and the water was close to the top of my hippers. My problem was, I was side stepping across the river fishing as I went, but I guess I took to big of a step and just a little water went up over the top. Not going to say what my first thought was as I slowly felt water go down my leg LOL.

IT TAKES FOREVER to dry boot foot hippers out!

[fysh]

Yes I have, and more times than I care to admit. I can only say that most of them were when I was much younger and not as respectful of the water as I should have been.

Times that come to mind are trying to tip-toe through that last 15' of water on the other side of the river without water coming over the top of the waders. I didn't make it and that water was certainly cold. It still takes my breath away thinking about that.

Another time, well I would rather not let the story out, so let's just say that I made the local paper in Island Park, Idaho and became a charter member of the Henry's Fork diving club. Thanks for that Brad Smith. lol