My understanding as well ...... so I don't understand why people who wade need to risk busted legs and etc because felt soles are not politically correct.
I wore felt soled wading boots for decades. I still own a pair of felts and use them mostly for fishing warmwater rivers when floating in my kayak; all other wading for the last 5 or 6 years has been with rubber/stud boots.
After both wading and walking many miles in and around all kinds of rivers and streams and terrain with both types of soles (invasives and regulations aside) I would choose rubber/studs every time......ymmv.
After talking to hundreds of anglers; my theory is most of the anglers that love felt soles have fished for a long time and remember slipin' and slidin' wearing old hard rubber boots from back in "the day." When felt soles were introduced, they were a quantum leap over the old rubber soles. Therefore, most of these anglers that wore both soles assume the rubber soled boots suck.
Rubber/stud boots work well in most conditions wading in the stream and, no contest, blow away felts when hiking or even just walking along the bank in mud or wet leaves as well as on snow and ice.
Sidenote: By mistake, I grabbed my felts and loaded them in my truck for the Newbie Jam on the LL yesterday. I hated wearing them! I had to be careful slippin' and sliding on the muddy bank.
Like I said, ymmv, but don't assume felts are always the best choice for wading boots.
As far as didymo; in Zealand, it has been determined through studies that anglers are most likely responsible for introducing it to that part of the world. The short version of the studies are didymo was not present there and it is now found in stream and rivers where anglers frequent and is not present in areas where angling.
Here is the long version of studies done in NZ.
Didymo is native to North America. What is the native range and how it is spread is up for discussion.
Finally, a question.......What is your guess as to how New Zealand mud snails got into Spring Creek near State College, Pa?
