chota hippies vs wading pants

[kbobb]

Hi All,
on days when i do more hiking than fishing i don't like to wear chest waders. my old rubber hip boots have been hurting my feet and i want to wear my wading boots cause they are more like hiking boots.
I am considering stocking foot hipper (chota hippies) and wading pants. For those of you that use these what do you like/dislike about them and if you had to buy over again what would you choose?

thanks

 

[Bamboozle]

I prefer hippers to waist-highs (which I assume is what you mean by wading pants) when the water is not too deep. Even though I wet wade 95% of the time, I prefer them anytime it’s too cold and anytime I can get away with hippers, just because they are way more comfortable and when nature calls, more convenient.

The problem is there aren't many decent breathable/stocking-foot options out there. First off, Chota Hippies are very tight in the lower leg area so keep that in mind in you want to wear layers or have beefy calves. So are the Dan Bailey stocking-foot hippers.

I am extremely fortunate to have a newer pair of the old, discontinued Hodgman Wadelite green stocking-foot hippers that fit great and I love. Had I knew they were discontinuing them I would have bought 10 pair!!

If the Chota Hippies work for you (try to try them on first if you can), I would hike in without them and put them on at the creek. There is a lot going on in the lower leg area with the way they attach and I would imagine you would work up quite a sweat on a decent hike that may make you think they are leaking.

Good luck in your search!

 

[RLeep2]

I don't know from bupkis about the Chotas, but I've done the majority of my trout fishing over the past 25 years in waist highs, aka wading pants. I guess the main concern I'd have with these doing as you suggest would be durability. Waist highs in the low to medium price range (say up to $150 or so) are not really made for all the abrasion that comes with small water fishing, not unless you are being careful to the point where it is cutting into your fishing time.
I know I could figure on about a season or season and a half out of a pair of Cabelas waist highs before I had to start putting a lot of aquaseal into them.

If I were going to do this, I'd consider looking at the Cabelas/Bass Pro stocking foot hippers if they still offer them. You're perspire some, but they are 400 denier and can take a lot of multiflora rose and jabs from pointy sticks, etc.

 

[kbobb]

thanks for the replies folks.
i have to apologize - i asked a similar question last summer and just found it researching old threads. had many other things on my plate in the interim.

 

[just_jon]

I have both, but use the waist highs more frequently because I return home looking less like something the cat drug in. I have a bad knee and tend to sit when taking breaks on stream. Waist highs mean that the mud from the bank I sat on for lunch doesn’t end up on my truck seats or bought in the house.