[cool]Hey, you're really getting into this stuff, ain'tcha? You raise some good questions, that should be addressed early in the game. Let's start with proper care of waders, to keep them intact and serviceable as long as possible.
There are a couple of things that waders do not like...heat and lingering moisture. The former leads to dry rot and seam failure. The latter causes mildew, which can degrade the waterproof coatings.
Refrettably, I use the Hodgman Wadelites a lot too. I roll them up and stash them in a dripproof bucket for the ride home. As soon as I get home, I store my tube and hang my waders to dry...inside and out. It is important to get the perspiration and any water leakage out of the interior, more than drying the outside. I have two hooks high on my garage wall that I hang the shoulder straps of the waders on, so that they hang with the inside open to airing out. They should be dry within a day or so. Then, fold them and keep them in a closet inside, to keep them out of extremes of heat, cold and moisture.
If you have neoprenes, it is more difficult to get the insides dry by merely hanging them open. Many 'preeners rotate the drying process...hanging them first with the outside exposed, and then turning them inside out and letting the inside surfacr finish drying. Failure to dry the insides will soon result in your having to wear a clamp over your nose, so that you can stand the smell of yourself while fishing in your rank waders. It will also shorten the life of both the material and the seams.
If you need to clean them before hanging, a spray with the garden hose, on the front lawn will take care of most scum and water marks. A mild soap solution will handle oil rings, if you have fished around too many boats. If you have been using foul smelling bait, and it has gotton on your waders, you may need to spray some laundry presoak on the stains and let them sit for awhile before brushing and spraying clean. If you wash off all the detergent you will not hurt your waders. After all, rubber gloves are what you wear to protect your skin from that stuff.
WHAT TO WEAR BETWEEN WADERS AND FINS. That is something I have been toying with doing a separate writeup on for awhile. Over the years, I have used everything from tennies to wading boots. In modern times, we have a much greater selection of options...including those inexpensive "reef walkers" (also known by several other nomenclatures).
There are several factors to consider in choosing a protective foot covering...to keep from getting holes in the bottoms of your waders when you walk in the parking lot or on the shoreline. I wish the neoprene boot portions of the Hodgman and other lightweights had a hard sole, but they do not. So, if we want to be safe from glass, hooks, stickers, etc., we need to wear something else.
In the olden days, my favorite waders were the ultralight Red Ball waders. They did not have special feet...just the light waterproof fabric of the rest of the waders. I could add a couple of pairs of socks, for warmth, and slip on a zipperless skin diving boot and I was good to go. Within a few years, several tubing manufacturers came out with tubing boots with zippers along the sides...just like the latest models for skin divers. These made life easier.
In the early 80's, Cabelas came out with a float tubing neoprene boot that had a wrap around strap with velcro on it, to correspond with the velcro stitched on the side of the boot. These things are the greatest boots ever, for easy on and easy off...especially when you have on extra layers in cold weather. ALAS. They stopped selling them several years ago. I still have three pairs, in three different sizes, that I rotate through during the different temperature seasons of the year.
What I use for fishing "wet"...with no waders...are the "flats boots". They are neoprene, with a zipper on the outside. They work well for fabric feet waders, or for your bare feet with a sock for blister protection, but they are tough to get over the neoprene foot pockets of the new design lightweight waders. Here is a pic of the Redhead line that I use. I got mine from Bass Pro Shops, but similar models are available from any skin diving outlet and many water ski or fishing outlets.
![[Image: 62899.jpg]](http://image.basspro-shops.com/images/images2/62500/62899.jpg)
I know several tubers that wear wading boots over their Hodgmanns. They have smaller feet than I do. If I could find a pair of wading shoes large enough to fit my size 13 feet, already stuffed into socks and waders, I would never be able to find a good pair of fins large enough to accomodate them.
That brings up a major point. You need to think this thing through forward and backward. Do not buy fins until you have first bought your waders and then some kind of protective footwear to fit between waders and fins. Then, take your whole ensemble with you to buy the fins. Get fins that can hold a foot all covered with the different layers you will be wearing on the coldest day of the year. If not, you will suffer foot constriction, and that leads to some very uncomfortable cold weather fishing. However, it will give you the opportunity to practice your float tubers stomp dance...to get circulation back into your numb feet.
If you know how to use the hard rubber material they use for the soles on booties, and have a cement that will work to affix some to the bottom of your neoprene foot pockets, I suppose you could try to cut out the middle man and make your own soles. I did that to repair an old pair of neoprene booties that had worn through. I bought a tube of "barge cement'...a commercial glue that will fix anything to anything else. Then I got some heavy backed indoor/outdoor carpet and stuck some soles in place. They lasted a couple of seasons, but they did not have any traction. I busted my butt a couple of times, slipping an wet or icy ground...and I got a "sleigh ride" all the way down the bank on Yuba one year just before ice up.
Sometime during the next few days, I will dig out my "archives and remnants" of some of the various and sundry booties I have used over the years. I will take some pics and post them. I am amazed when I look at some of the things I used to "get by" in the early days. Oh yeah...on one trip to Willard, from Salt Lake, I was getting suited up for launching my tube and discovered I had forgotten to put my booties in my bag after drying them on the last trip. So, I improvised. I used the old house slippers I had used for driving up there...over my waders and under my fins. It ruined my favorite pair of slippers, but I still got in a good day of fishing, without having to go back home for the booties.
By the way, I only just started playing with the inexpensive "reef walkers". I believe that they might be a good solution for a lot of folks. I got a pair of size 13 that are actually larger than true 13s. I am going to try them over my neoprene foot pockets when the water gets cool enough in ARizona to need waders again. Right now the water temps are about 90. I need cooling coils...not neoprene.
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