Another Christmas Stocking

My wife told me today that I wasn't yet sufficiently full of Christmas spirit, so she led me to the veg garden and and told me to to get rid of some of the weeds. "What's Christmassy about that?" I asked, and she took a garden tool out of the shed and gave it to me, and said "Hoe, Hoe, Hoe".

Anyway, now that that's out of my system, I wanted to mention a few top tips for your Xmas stocking: specifically, your Xmas stockingfoot waders. You might recall my suggestion last Xmas of cutting the feet off an old pair of stockingfoot waders, then wearing them over the feet of your new waders to protect the seams from abrasion. I've been doing that all year, and I'm delighted to say that the feet of the 1-year-old waders still look as good as new, but you can see how the old ones have deteriorated really badly while protecting the new ones.

You can work out which pair is which. I realise that not everyone has an old pair of waders to destroy, but at the top of the picture you can see some cheap neoprene diving socks which I managed to find in a very large size. These will take over when my very old ones finally collapse. You may need to think carefully about your wading boot size, but I've found no trouble fitting in 2 pairs of neoprene stockings so far, and they do provide an extra bit of insulation too.

Another 'gadget' I've found very useful this year is the trusty old Stormsure adhesive. Not only is it great for small pinprick holes in waders, or for attaching patches for larger tears. It also works on wading boots if the soles start to part, and I've just used it to great effect on a pair of leather walking boots. This was a pair of Berghaus boots that was parting from their soles, and Berghaus' repair and recycling policy took one look at them and decided they were beyond repair. A liberal application of Stormsure, worked in with a cocktail stick, has made them waterproof once again. You do have to wait at least 24 hours for it to cure for a heavy job like that, but I've now found an accelerator fluid which can reduce that waiting drastically. Don't forget to put any part-used tubes into the freezer, and they'll still work, otherwise they'll set solid, but they don't take long to thaw out.

You'll all know about the nylon hair curler trick no doubt, for collecting up spare bits of tippet, and don't forget to donate all that waste line to the collector in the car-park at Harpers.

My only other recent innovation was to use some heavy duty self-adhesive Velcro pads to attach to my new wading jacket. These are applied to hold the folded-up hood against the collar, instead of it getting in the way of the net-ring on the back of the jacket.

Let me know if you have any tried and tested smart tips or gadgets to share with your fellow anglers, and I'll include them in the blog.

In the meantime, enjoy the Christmas break, whether enforced by the weather or otherwise, and stay tuned for some innovations next season.

Cheers

PeterB