For these of you that don’t know this, fishermen by nature are a frugal great deal.

Becoming penny wise and pound foolish is regular fare, and I am no different.

I recently noticed that the felt soles on my wading boots had turn out to be worn out on the bottom. I found this out the tough way,of program, finding this whilst fishing on the river, heading into my rendition of the “slick rock disco”, and falling into “the consume”.You would believe I would have noticed that my felt soles had worn out and that I was now wearing hockey skates in the water, but with my wading boots becoming much like my car, I just get in them and go.

I headed on down to “The Blackbird”, which is my favorite outdoor shop–(not simply because of support or cost but simply because they have this giant fifty foot,black and yellow blackbird statue in the parking great deal)–and proceeded to reaquaint myself with wading boot prices. Having final purchased wading boots circa 1990, fifteen years inflation definitely brought on my jaw to drop.

Outside of standing there and searching like 1 of the “appalachian” characters from the movie Deliverance, I was quickly convinced that my boots still had plenty of life in them, and that a “re-sole-ing” was the answer. I found that my great friend Hodgeman made felt sole replacements for my boots, and that the fifteen dollar cost was really affordable.

I also believed this would permit me to “turn out to be 1″ with my boots and give me that nice “do it your self” project, that gives 1 that warm fulfilling second when 1 feels self-suffecient.

You see it coming, don’t you?

The instructions appeared pretty simple,Step one: initial remove the old felt soles.

Because. there was not much felt sole left, this didn’t seem like a extremely demanding initial step. But, what was left was secured to the bottom of the boot like a barnicle to a pier. I pulled and peeled and reduce, (and at 1 stage critically consideredusing my Dremel device) until finally getting enough old sole eliminated.

Step two: Spread a thin layer of provided “felt sole cement” on the felt, wait 30 minutes.

This went rather nicely. No problemo.

While I waited, I “scuffed” up the bottom of the boots to assist with the adhereing of the felt soles. This appeared rather redundant, because I had gouged up the bottoms fairly nicely during the felt removal process.

Step three: Repeat spreading of “felt sole cement”, wait thirty minutes and safe felt to bottom of boots. Notice:You might want to use a generous quantity of tape to assist hold the felt in place and assist safe the heel and toe region.

Boy, was that an understatement.

Following about a roll of duct tape and the use of some big c-clamps that had been laying about, I believe I finally acquired the felt to adhere to the boot. I say “believe”, simply because there is so much duct tape about the boot that I can no lengthier even see the felt sole and can only believe in that the tape has secured the two surfaces collectively. Not to mention that the boots now appear like a pair of freakish silver Michael Jackson dancing spats or a pair of “punked out” Air FrankenJordans.

Step 4: Allow 8 hrs drying time.

This is where I am at now.Past history tells me that nothing great can arrive of this.

I am afraid to remove the tape, sensation the same anxiousness a plastic surgery patient feels when they remove the bandages. Maybe I am becoming a touch negative right here, but I have the sensation when I remove the duct tape– that of program assuming I can get the sticky duct tape off– the felt sole will merely drop to the floor, be stuck to the duct tape, or that the shoes will scream”I am alive, I am ALIVE HA ha ha ha….”

At this stage I really feel compelled to show you an actual “un-retouched” photo of my boot repair operation. If you are unable to see this wherever you are studying this you might want to visit www.twoguyswithflys.com in purchase to get a full understanding.

Yes, these are my wading boots. This is what they have turn out to be!

Perhaps, the boots will remain formed in this contorted figure that the duct tape-clamping combination has transformed them into. With my luck, I will be walking about with the toes pointed skyward like some “pixie shoed- fishing gnome”, with leaves all stuck to the outer surface simply because of the tape “residue” left on the outside of the boot!!

Maybe, the soles will initially be fine and as quickly as I hit the cold clear water of the Rogue river they will just merely shrink up and drop off.We all know about shrinkage and cold water-now don’t we fellas?!

I just have a Poor Feeling about this!!

At any rate, I will be back again down at the “Blackbird” this afternoon repricing wading boots.

As usual, I will have invested fifteen bucks more than the actual cost of the boots, and wasted two hrs “turning into 1″ with my boots.

I don’t know what it is that makes us fishermen so frugal and why I continually get sucked into thinking I can “do-it-myself”, but I know this won’t be the final time…

…In reality, there is this pin hole in my breathable waders someplace that I cannot discover, anyone know how much a patch kit is?

A.J. is a writer of fishing humor and the characters that are in and about the globe of fishing. He also is a peddler of fly tacks?!~? You can see his fly tacks and get some laughs at http://www.twoguyswithflys.com His initial guide is due out in December of 2005.