Wade/Hike Boots/Shoes

[AlphaZed]

Friends:

I need advice on footwear. I mostly fish small streams (without waders) and in a day, I can easily hike ten or more miles. I'm in an out of the water, rock hopping and then hiking a mile or two downstream to work my way back up.

I've tried purpose-built fly fishing and hiking shoes/boots, but being wading one minute, then walking a mile the next, EVERYTHING I've tried -- other than running shoes -- badly blisters my feet.

Running shoes, however, have exposed me to a few ankle injuries and near-miss rattlesnake bites. I need some new ideas. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
-Paul

[juro]

That's a tough one - although my new Simms boots are pretty good on both counts depending on the distance hiked. You could remove the boots and swap them out with a sneaker that is 1.5 sizes over and fit on stocking foots (?)

Another possibility is to find high-performance hiking boots that fit over stocking foots and install aluminum cleats which will keep you safe while wading. They make screw-in triangle grips for this purpose (as long as the sole can take screws).

[9wt]

What do you wear under the boots?
I wet wade and hike quite a bit in the course of a day and I wear a light wool sock under a neoprene sock, which I find quite comfortable with wading boots.