Why wear a wading belt

Thread starter Roger Stephens Start date Feb 4, Roger Stephens Active Member. Occassionally in the past, I have heard mention that there is a possible risk of making it difficult to keep your head above water if you get dunked and you are using a wading belt with neoprene waders. When fishing rivers, I always use a wading belt around the waist of neoprene waders. I also have on korkers sandals and an inflatable vest. I figure that the weight of the korkers and floatation of the vest will make it possible to to keep my head up if I was sweep down stream.

When I am fishing from my boat on Puget Sound in the Fall through early summer, I will again use a wading belt around my neoprene waders and an inflatable vest. I like to wear the neoprene waders on the Sound because I figure that the neoprene would help to keep me warmer for a little longer if I were to end up in the cold water of the Sound.

I would appreciate any thought on safety issues both pro's and con's of using a wading belt with neoprene waders when river fishing or boating on the Sound.

Monk Redneck. These are the reasons I don't wear wading belts with neoprene With gore-tex though, you can get a kite-thing going on and should wear your wading belt always. Last edited: May 15, Kent Lufkin Remember when you could remember everything?

Neoprene on the bottom of your body is more buoyant than your top, especially if you're wearing a vest containing tools, extra spools and other heavier-than-water gear. In this case one's body can quickly assume a feet-up, head-down position in the water.

Air trapped in the inside of one's waders, whether neoprene, breathables, nylon or rubberized canvas will also float. See above for consequences. I know this for a fact as my brother damned near drowned about 20 years ago when he slipped and took a header in waist-deep water while steelheading in Northern California. Flyn'dutchman Member. I read a comprehensice report on the Fly Anglers Online bulletin board about two months ago on this subject. The author went into a swimming pool with supervision an tried out all the senarios.

The overwhelming conclusion was that the wading belt was well worth wearing. The need for a pfd is also there. The biggest cocern was that with water filled waders, the person could hardly climb out of the water due to the weight of the water in the waders. Verne Active Member. Last time I wore a safety belt it slipped down around my knees while I was wading in heavy water, no fun. I will take my chances without it. Old Man A very Old Man. I guess that safety belts are the way to go if you wade in deep water.

I for one never wade to my waist and I try to stay out of fast water. I have learned my lesson wading to deep. It only thats one time falling in a river for you to realize what you life means to you. Long time ago I was wading the Sauk South Fork and was wearing them old rubberized waders.

I was wearing a belt around my middle when I could find my middle. I took a wrong step and down I went.

It wasn't deep but fast. And even with the belt around the middle it took some time to get stopped and back on my feet. But treating a wading belt as a tool, and not a frivolous accessory, can really improve your efficiency and enjoyment of long, wonderful days on the river. Enjoy the day. Thank you all, for a wonderful and busy season! Book now to join me in Your support is greatly appreciated. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round.

This is my home, and I love it. And the river. Announcements , Podcasts , Tactics. But how many do we catch? And really, how many should we catch? What are the expectations? Counting is a way to gauge our success, not just against how well we did last time out, but how well we are doing compared to what is possible. How many trout could be caught if we had everything just right — the best fly and the perfect drift.

Set the hook. And set it hard. I suggest a fundamental shift in your approach. In this episode we mix it up. Fly Casting , Tactics. There are no flying fish in Montana, not in Pennsylvania, and not anywhere.

And yet, anglers everywhere love the false cast. The most effective anglers are the most efficient. And inevitably, these anglers catch more trout — a lot more trout. Announcements , Podcasts , Reading Water , Tactics. In this episode, my friends join me to share some of their best tips for reading water — seeing a trout stream, recognizing the currents in a river that hold trout and having the confidence to target them. Then we get into the philosophy of Cherry Picking or Full Coverage. That is, the speed at which we cover water.

How fast do you move from one place to the next? And what are the merits of hole hopping or trying to efficiently cover every likely piece of river that holds a trout? Because there are a couple of different ways to approach your time out there. Nymphing , Tactics. Using the riverbed as a reference is the most common way to know about the unseen nymph below.

Get the fly down. Tick the riverbed. Touch and lift. Find the bottom, and find fish. Better yet, find the bottom and know where the fly is. But how do we tell the difference between ticking the bottom and a trout strike? My friend, Smith, calls it the tap and the take.

Be part of the Troutbitten community of ideas. Be helpful. And be nice. Just the wafer belt with items attached and my lanyard. I really spend some serious time putting it together but take it with me for local and travel fishing trips. Great read. However despite swimming many times both in the surf and bobbing down the farmington river like a cork when I trip…I have never filled my waders to a point where it threatened my life.

I trip a lot and instantly my waders were pressed tightly to my body via water pressure. Did I fill up…sure…but not enough to sink. I forget which wader company it was…but back in the day someone died and the family had claimed the waders filling was the culprit…long story short, through live testimony an angler deliberately tired to sink himself in waders they disproved the notion that it could happen.

Edge cases may exist but…. Meanwhile you can carry all the cool stuff on a good belt and look good doing it! I did notice that the Fishpond belt seems really well built, and I think it would be a good solution. I purchased a Smith Creek net holder and the first time my net caught a branch, the Velcro closure on the holder failed. Perhaps I did something wrong? I very unhappy with the belt that came with my Orvis waders. I like their products a lot.

Would be happy to find out that I have been doing something wrong. Not perfect,but it works. Will you email me a pic of how you have it set up? No joke. So, honestly I think you might be doing something wrong. Send me a picture of how you have it set up. Email me. Belts are good for for keeping to much water goin down the legs if you fall into the drink. I also love the lower back support. I am a police officer in SE PA and have been fly fishing for years.

Thank you Dom for the blatantly obvious thatbl always seems ton elude me, lol. I am gonna get my gear together now. Love your blog and always learning from them. Dom, Great point on the utility of the wading belt.

I never caught onto the sling pack craze, I ditched my vest years ago. Along with a lanyard that is all I carry and I find it works well. Having worn a gun belt and chest rig for almost a quarter century in my profession, I was sold on this concept a long time ago.

The same concepts that work for military and law enforcement gear translate very well into our applications on the river.

Another good read, thanks. I explored waterproof options, but hated all those bags. And fishing comes first. So it took me a while, but I came upon the Ape Case listed above. I make it waterproof with a Ziploc freezer bag on the inside.

It works really well. Thank you for practically expressing an idea and feeling that has been formulating in my mind the past year. Well done!

Hi Dom, Good article. Also, I noticed the wading staff you use and clicked on the link to study more closely. Looking forward to hopefully seeing a future article on your thoughts and experience with respect to wading staffs.

Many Thanks for the read…, really enjoying it while on vacation. First thing, just ignore the belt loops on the waders.

Place whatever belt you use right over them. I plan a wading staff article soon. Wow, your not gonna belive this, but I went to a class I thought was going to be on euro nymphing at my local flyshop. Me the dope got things screwed up, it was a flyfishing , but I still a good time, one of things that struck me was the guys going through waders, the wading belt was not even an after thought. Kinda scary, but I love this, I need to get things off my shoulders, I carry all the things I may or may not need, but many could be far more manageable on the belt.

What are your thoughts on the net holster? All, I absolutely love the new Fishpond Switchback Wading Belt System for all the reasons mentioned by Dom, and concerns mentioned by others. So grateful Dom! My friend, Austin, uses the same, I think. I go through at least a litre of water on most every trip. I also had a bottle like that for a while by Katadyne, and I hated how much effort it took to suck the water through the filter.

Is the LifeStraw the same? Two days later, miles away near Whistler, British Columbia, a young couple were swept to their deaths in what could only be called a freak accident. They were wearing waders with wading belts and wore felt-soled wading boots. Wong hooked a fish and while backing toward shore, slipped and fell in calf-deep water. As she sat in the riffle unhurt, she laughed and continued to play the fish. Chan waded upstream to help her to her feet.

As he was pulling her up, he slipped and both were swept into a nearby deep channel. The guide could only watch in helpless disbelief as the river quickly dragged them around a bend and out of sight. Chan's body was found among rocks downstream. He had a deep gash on his head and there is speculation that perhaps he got knocked out.

Wong's body was never recovered. A lifejacket may, or may not have, saved one or both of them, but then again, Chan may have needed a helmet to survive.

The best drown-proofing is to be prepared. Carry a wading staff. A staff can be used as a probe to feel for ledges, drop-offs, or slick boulders. It is invaluable when used as a brace or third leg when crossing unstable terrain. One of the trickiest things to do while wading is turning around in heavy water in midstream. Allowing the current to pivot your upstream leg around a solidly placed staff makes doing a a piece of cake. It's kind of fun and a move certainly worth practicing.

Expensive wading boots and waders are nice, but it is the ten-dollar belt that will save your life. The only thing better than a wading belt is two wading belts. When you fall in the water without a belt, the waders fill up quickly. A wading belt can delay or even completely prevent water from filling the waders.

The belt should be snug and preferably have a slight amount of stretch to follow your contours. A good belt should have a buckle that can be popped open even when under a load.

The last thing you need is to take a swim, get your belt hung on a willow branch, and drown simply because you can't release the buckle.

Contrary to popular myth, waders full of water do not pull you under. The water inside the waders weighs the same as the water outside the waders. Swimming in waders is about as difficult as swimming in wet Levis. Another widely held fallacy is that wading belts trap air in the waders and cause you to float upside down with legs in the air. The truth is, as you wade, water pressure squeezes the air out of the waders and past the belt. If for some reason you fall off a boat with air-filled waders, simply bring your knees up to your chest, wrap your arms around your legs and squish the air out.

Waders kill when they are worn with stretchy, loose belts or no belt at all. The typical position for swimming anglers to assume is on their back, head upstream and feet downstream. Unfortunately for anglers, the defensive swimming technique is designed for someone wearing a life jacket and not a pair of waders.

Rivers move much quicker than a human drifting downstream. With your head upstream, the moving water quickly flushes in and fills the waders. The current can keep the mouth of the waders flared open and create, in effect, a sea anchor that will drive you wherever the prevailing force wants you to go. Michael Phelps would be no more able to fight these hydraulics than Rosie O'Donnell. A proper wading belt worn at the waist makes the sea anchor effect highly unlikely, and the same belt brought up around the chest will make such an event virtually impossible.

A belt around the waist and around the chest can turn a scary event into a fun ride because you are nearly bullet proof. With or without a belt, do not passively float down a river feetfirst in your waders.

Get on your stomach and swim aggressively down and across the current toward safety. In a bony rock garden you might fend off the boulders with your feet, but the bottom line is that the less time you spend in the water, the better the outcome.

Swim all the way to shore, then crawl out of the water.