Summer Wading

[WVU-SCPA]

This will sound counter productive, but in summer I wear a leaky pair of stocking foot breathable waders.

 

Gives the comfort of protection when bush wacking through poison and briers while also keeping you cooler in the water.

 

Also adds a sense of security when you are standing chest deep in the middle of the Susquehanna river.

[scaleface]

I wear a vest to hold my gear and take one rod and reel . All the lures have to be suitable with my rod n reel . No sense taking something that cant be cast . Shorts and tennis shoes . I dont bog myself down with gear so I can stay mobile . I often wade this river for up to a mile . The biggest  problem is carrying water .

[Mobasser]

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

I wear a vest to hold my gear and take one rod and reel . All the lures have to be suitable with my rod n reel . No sense taking something that cant be cast . Shorts and tennis shoes . I dont bog myself down with gear so I can stay mobile . I often wade this river for up to a mile . The biggest  problem is carrying water .

I've just recently picked up a mesh back vest. It's similar to yours. Also just use one rod/reel and a few baits. Plastic worms, one or two topwaters, beetle spins etc. I'll try to stick a water bottle in one of the vest pockets. 

[Bassun]

Mobasser - Why AC shiner?  For me, it was because it was more reflective / shiny than any of the floating Rapalas I had.  I wanted to get really good flash in faster moving water.  Stumbled into a great little pattern, which has sustained my entire life thus far.  Cast at the top of a riffle, and try to swim it down, or cast high and drag it diagonally.  I try to target any bigger rocks in the riffles, especially fully submerged ones.  Not saying they don't work anywhere else, but I catch more on broken back Rapala's in most other water in the creek.  Also, not saying AC shiners are the only thing that works in riffles, just happened to be what I had and used and locked into it as a winning combo.

 

Honestly, I probably catch more on the jointed Rapala's using it like a topwater lure than even swimming it, lol.  I love to cast out and let it set a few seconds, then just give it a tiny twitch or a few twitches.  Often that is followed by a hit.  If that doesn't work, I'll often "quiver" it a bit if I really think there should be something there.  If I've got nothing yet, I will usually pull it under a few feet and then dead stick it.  May twitch or quiver afterwards depending, but usually just dead stick.  I'll do that until I feel like I should have gotten a bite, then move to a swimming retrieve.  Some of those just bringing it in fish surprise the heck out of me lol.

To be fair, though, if they are just destroying things quick on topwater - I will often flip over to a tiny torpedo and run those.  

[Tennessee Boy]

5 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Hahah! Ticks an leeches are just part of the fun...... mosquitos are always the worst, at least in the moment. And then there’s chiggers........

Cottonmouths are the most fun.  It's amazing how fast you can run in waist deep water when you're strongly motivated to do so.

[Mobasser]

13 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Cottonmouths are the most fun.  It's amazing how fast you can run in waist deep water when you're strongly motivated to do so.

Luckily, we don't have cottonmouths around here. We do have copperheads, which I believe is the only poisonous snake in our area. Otherwise just water snakes

[TnRiver46]

19 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Cottonmouths are the most fun.  It's amazing how fast you can run in waist deep water when you're strongly motivated to do so.

^like he said, Luckily they haven’t breached the Cumberland plateau and smoky mountains, we are cottonmouth free in East Tennessee! 

[Fallser]

My wading days are done.  Two knee replacements and a hip replacement, with another knee replacement coming up.  Time to replace one of the replacements.  I've always worn hip boots or waders when I was wading.  I live in an urban area and have always had my doubts about the water quality, not to mention the poison ivy and ticks  Plus I'm a fly fisherman and it's lot easier casting from the middle of the creek that it is the shore.The creek has gravel and sand bars along the bank that I can fish from.  The creek has smallmouth and largemouth in it most aren't very big.  My best is a 16 3/4" smallmouth.  There are bigger fish in it but I can't get to them anymore.  Here's a picture of the creek and what's an average size smallmouth.  The largemouth seem to be about the same size.

 

[RoLo]

On 6/24/2020 at 9:33 PM, OkobojiEagle said:

Guess you guys that wade in shorts must not have tiny leeches in your water or ticks on your shorelines.  Those buggers can get in places you'll have to be double jointed at the waist to eradicate

 

That's funny.

In some northern waters, leeches are not only plentiful but large.

The owner of a lodge in Manitoba, routinely wades in shorts to assist his guests with rental boats. 

He should really wear pants though, if for no other reason, to cover up his unsightly leech scars  

 

Roger

[OkobojiEagle]

48 minutes ago, RoLo said:

In some northern waters, leeches are large and they're plentiful.

Before they are large, they are very little... and thousands of them in the shallow weeds!  It might take a week of careful checking in the shower and you're still finding them!  My wife of 43 years told me "In sickness and health" doesn't cover THAT!

 

Long legged twill pants get removed in the garage, hung up to dry in the yard and brushed off the next day before they're allowed in the house to wash!   Light weight waders work in the ponds as well, but they're warmer and they need to be dried and brushed off also.

 

oe

[RoLo]

3 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

Before they are large, they are very little... and thousands of them in the shallow weeds!  It might take a week of careful checking in the shower and you're still finding them!  My wife of 43 years told me "In sickness and health" doesn't cover THAT!

 

Long legged twill pants get removed in the garage, hung up to dry in the yard and brushed off the next day before they're allowed in the house to wash!   Light weight waders work in the ponds as well, but they're warmer and they need to be dried and brushed off also.

 

oe

 

Reminds me of the days when I hunted woodchucks with a 270 in New Jersey. 

Lyme disease was all the rage back then, nevertheless, I'd put an elastic band

around the bottom of each pant leg, and hit the clover fields. 

 

When I arrived home, there were always a dozen or more ticks bunched beneath each elastic band. 

There were also others ticks that broke through my elastic defenses.

After showering, I'd invariably place my clothes in the shower stall,

and any ticks I missed would be seen climbing the walls.   Ah, the good old days.  

 

Roger

 

[Mobasser]

We don't have leeches on my lakes, but do have ticks. The worst ones are what we always called seed ticks, about the size of a pinhead. Sometimes, you might not know you've got one for two or three days. Then they'll itch and reveal themselves. The trick is to.pull out the entire tick, otherwise the head can still stay attatched. Usually a Bic lighter held close will cause them to back out. Then roast em! One of the hazards of wading anywhere near tall grass, overhanging branches or brush.

Of course, it's probably not a good idea to hold a lighter too close to certain areas.

[scaleface]

18 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

Guess you guys that wade in shorts must not have tiny leeches in your water or ticks on your shorelines.  Those buggers can get in places you'll have to be double jointed at the waist to eradicate them from...

 

oe

Theres a nice deep  sand bar on the river I wade in  . I go for a swim whenever I'm there .

[PhishLI]

22 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

Guess you guys that wade in shorts must not have tiny leeches in your water

Last night I waded through swampy, bubbling, stinky, slicks of algae. Leeches are unappealing enough, but I don't need some weird paramecium swimming up into my goesouttas either. To avoid that possibility I'll deal with sweating in chest waders. Sweating's made worse by fierce mosquitoes that force me to wear heavy sweatshirts in the summer as a barrier to avoid being eaten alive. I tune it out.

[Smells like fish]

A lil but of show to go with my tale from earlier. Looks to be 6 of the Rebel Craws and a Firetiger Cordell Big O. Do you see the torn pieces of cloth in the hooks of the Craws? It is common to see clothes in this stream filled with sand and silt on the bottom of the streams. So our mystery wading angler had hung into these and either torn loose or was able to get to the cloth abd cut it. 

[Mobasser]

7 hours ago, Smells like fish said:

A lil but of show to go with my tale from earlier. Looks to be 6 of the Rebel Craws and a Firetiger Cordell Big O. Do you see the torn pieces of cloth in the hooks of the Craws? It is common to see clothes in this stream filled with sand and silt on the bottom of the streams. So our mystery wading angler had hung into these and either torn loose or was able to get to the cloth abd cut it. 

Still a nice find! I have found a few single baits, but never a boxful.

[M Bruns]

I wade creeks all the time for a variety of species. I usually only take one pole and it's either a light spinning setup or my 5wt fly rod depending on what I'm targeting. I've got a waist pack that works really well to hold enough options for an outing. I actually went this afternoon and packed a handful of ned rigs, zman crawz, a fluke, beetle spin, small jerkbait, small hair jig and extra hooks. For clothing in the summer, it's a long sleeve fishing shirt, pants that zip off into shorts, wide brimmed hat, wading socks, and cushioned flip flips. In the winter it's insulated waders and enough other clothes to keep me warm.

[Robsky]

I use chest waders, a sling pack, and a 3rd hand rod holder for a second rod. 

https://oprosgear.com/products/3rd-hand-rod-holder