B.R. Snow
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It is not really great, the water temps are over 70 by mid afternoon, so at that point trout typically don’t do well after being caught. Juan, glad to hear you and your family are okay. BR
Walleye are predators, streamers will work fine if you find them on the weed beds. They are easy then. However you need to figure out what they are feeding on and present in that fashion. BR
I did once, I did not have to pay, just to ship it to them. The shop I work with called them and they reached out to me and I had it back in about 1 week. It was not a major issue and I live in CO as well. BR
How can you pick just one?
Good point. It’s tough, especially when you switch from small streams to salt & such…
It seems Scott rods & Lamson reels are leading the way so far…
I’ve never fished a Scott rod & kinda want to keep it that way, for my bank account’s sake 🙂
The A4 fishes great and doesn’t cost a fortune. BR
I have a Scott S4 9′ 4wt with a red abel 4n on it, the set up is a fish catching machine, something about a red reel! BR
I use fluoro for nymphing here in CO, over the past few weeks we have had great days with numerous fish going 22-25 inches. In the small confines of the tailwaters, they really do a number on your leader against rocks and I notice a difference in the abrasion resistance with the 6x I use. The price difference doesn’t make much difference to me, it is an expensive sport, but I don’t need to pay for a boat or gas, so it is still much cheaper than regular fishing. BR
Simms is a private company, so there is no way to tell how they are doing. Hopefully the expansion goes well for them. I also hope scott rods is raking in the cash, they have quite a bit of my money as well. 3 new scotts have arrived in the last few months, the last one just last week:-) BR
Also I am not knocking their products at all, I use some of them. I also do not skimp on gear. I tend to over spend pretty much using scott rods/abel reels, I am a gear junky can’t help it. Was just saying that Simms is make strides to stay competitive as the less expensive options are quite effective and they need to figure how keep their name worth the extra $$. BR
B.R. Snow –
I have seen the test results that show that is not true man. When any wader is brand new it is going to do an excellent job of keeping you warm and dry and comfortable. The longer you go in that pair of waders, the most likely you are to see where your money has been applied. Knife-over breathable membrane technology is just not as controlled or as “quality” a process as the way a Gore-tex membrane is made (it is carved by laser out of a huge block to make a sheet, which is then bonded back to the face fabrics).
My old article “Breathing Underwater” in the articles section addresses this, but we weren’t allowed to get into all the nitty gritty because of political considerations. Suffice it to say that there really is a significant difference between Gore-Tex membranes and Toray membranes. The only wader manufacturers with a WL Gore license are Simms, L.L. Bean, and formerly Cloudveil, but they are now out of the fishing business. Everyone else is re-naming a product which they are buying from third parties and calling it their own. Of all wader manufacturers, Simms is the only one making them in an American facility (I have literally watched them do it) and their product is objectively superior across a range of categories. Of course it is also the most expensive.
Zach
I realize if you look at test results you can justify the price. We fish pretty hard year round here in CO and a couple of my buddies have simms waders, heck my jacket is simms, but their waders do not hold up any better than the rest. They are not any warmer during the winter either. They have a great product, no doubt, but in uses that include
Simms biggest issue is people are going to find out that for 1/3 of the simms price you can get waders which do the exact same thing, just as well. It is not like a fly rod, where it matches your cadence or you develop a bond with the company. It is not the same relationship, they are waders. They need to keep you dry and comfortable. BR
100% guarantees are only possible when you’re making your product overseas and your profit margin is sufficient to allow you to replace product for free.
Simms is the only American-made Gore-tex wader manufacturer. Gore-tex is legitimately more breathable than any competitive fabric by approximately 40%. It is expensive because there are licensing fees involved.
Simms and Scott Fly Rods are two of the only fly rod companies posting large growth and profits in the current economy. Scott does it by knowing its customer base and staying very close to its core. Simms is doing it by making very smart moves to expand into profitable softgoods sectors (high-end apparel, raingear) and mostly staying away from low-margin peripheral imported stuff which is simply rebadged from a design already created by a Chinese manufacturer.
This is a situation where you get what you pay for. I have two pairs of waders: a 1998 pair of Simms Guides and a 2006 pair of Simms Guides. I am due for another pair due to wet-out, but I’ll take a 6-8 year lifespan on waders, as hard as I use them, any day.
Zach
I actually use exclusively Scott rods, the waders I returned where made out of gortex, could be why LL Bean stopped making that product. BR
They do make good waders, but places like LL Bean sell really nice waders with 100% guarantee. I wore a pair for 5 years and they started to leak, they refunded my original purchase price no questions and I ordered another pair. I had no idea a company would do that, I just asked if they had a suggestion to patch as the leak was in the foot area and I had hundreds of days in the water with them. As quality waders are getting cheaper to make, Simms is going to have to do something to stay competitive, this is probably their first step. BR
Not so much fuel, the economy in general. They have reduced flights and increased the prices. You pay more and the planes are packed. BR
It is for UV protection from the sun, not all of us want to look like a prune at age 50, also it protects you from cancer. BR
It appears to be 9’6″, but a S3 7wt. Saw it on ebay. BR
