If you go back to this blog post here from a month ago, you will see that I have some of the Palm kayaking gear here to test out and see if I can get it to work for me and how I go fishing when I either don’t really need to or don’t want to wear BCWs (breathable chest waders). So I’m a month into the experiment and I have a few thoughts about the stuff which I thought might be of interest to any of you here who might essentially live in BCWs as I do…………..but you are thinking there might be an alternative for at least some of your fishing.

I haven’t worn this Palm gear a whole heap yet, but I am far enough down the road to have a much better understanding of it than I did a month ago. We have had calm seas for weeks on end now so I haven’t yet worn the wetsuit based stuff in the surf, plus I haven’t quite plucked up the courage yet to go night fishing in anything other than a pair of BCWs! I have worn the gear a number of times though, and that includes yesterday afternoon when we got the first bit of bounce on the open coast for weeks. Storm and I were running down the cliffs to get at the fizzed up green water, but within about ten casts I knew it was going to be a waste of time because there was so much weed in the water. Even my topwater lures were coming back smothered, but I gave it a bloody good go because the sea conditions were so stunning. The decent bass I saw mooching around not far from me I could swear was giggling at my inept attempts to effectively present any kind of lure with all that bloody weed in the water (liking these Fortis polarised sunnies more and more the more I wear them, damn they are good).

First things first with not wearing BCWs and instead wearing this Palm kayaking based wetsuit stuff - you’re going to get wet (but not half as wet as I thought might be the case), and this was just about the main thing that was putting me off trying gear like this in the past. When BCWs are working properly I am very used to being dry when I am out fishing - waterproof top in the rain or lots of splashy water etc. - so about a month ago I grabbed myself by the scruff of the neck and went out fishing for the first time in some of this Palm gear. No I am not designed to wear figure-hugging clothing like this, but who really cares when you’re out fishing? If you saw me out and about in everyday life you would realise pretty quickly that Henry Gilbey and the word fashion have never been used in the same sentence!

So yes, the first time I went out fishing in the Palm Blaze pants/leggings and a pair of 2mm neoprene socks together with the very lightweight and comfortable Palm Gradient boots, I waded out and my feet obviously got wet because it’s not a sealed system. A moment of shock quickly turned into what’s the big deal and I got on with fishing. I also thought that if I waded out to say thigh deep to access a rock then a lot of water would creep up inside of the Blaze leggings and I’d end up feeling cold, but this didn’t happen either (see paragraph below). For sure a bit of water gets in there when you’re moving around in the water, and to be fair I haven’t yet worn the Palm gear for a session where I am actually standing say waist-deep in the water for any length of time, but one thing I am not getting is cold - and the whole getting a bit wet thing around my feet and calves isn’t remotely a bother because of how wetsuits are designed to work I guess.

One thing I did do pretty quickly was get a cheap pair of 4mm neoprene socks, firstly for better cushioning for my feet inside the Gradient boots, and secondly because in colder water I would suggest that 2mm neoprene socks aren’t quite warm enough if you are from the south like me. Hardier anglers above the M4 corridor may well be just fine with 2mm though! Make sure to get neoprene socks and not boots by the way, they are different things.

I haven’t walked for miles and miles in a pair of 3mm Palm Blaze leggings yet, but I have covered enough ground to know that they are incredibly comfortable to move around in. A number of anglers have suggested to me over the years that wearing wetsuits for fishing would be very uncomfortable due to chafing and so on, but it’s just not the case with this Palm gear. I guess that the claims which Palm makes about the stretch of the material and the comfort of the lining inside their wetsuit gear are true, because not one single time yet have I felt any discomfort or indeed overheating issues from walking back up a cliff. I also have the thinner 0.5mm Palm NeoFlex leggings for warmer weather, but I haven’t worn them yet.

If you are thinking about wearing stuff like this then you are going to have to work out when it might suit the fishing you are doing. I need a lot more time with this clothing to feel fully comfortable about when and where to go with it or don my BCWs, but so far so good for my bottom half especially. The lad here who I spent a day with in Wexford after the fishing show in Ireland is the lad who got me properly thinking about this Palm clothing, and at a couple of spots we fished together Cormac was at least thigh to waist deep in the water for a decent length of time and I asked him a few times whether he was remotely cold. Bearing in mind that he is somewhat more lithe than me, it was rather positive to note that Cormac definitely wasn’t shivering and he assured me that he never once felt remotely cold. He wears this gear for all his bass fishing now. I know how wetsuits are designed to work of course, but if you haven’t worn stuff like this for fishing when you are often moving through or standing at some depth in coldish seawater then it’s a bit of a jump to give it all a go.

I can now see the sort of fishing sessions where clothing like this can be really useful - moving around the rocks, wading a bit etc. - but as I said earlier, I haven’t yet tried it in the surf or at night, or indeed for lengthy deep-wades which I sometimes do over in Ireland especially. I know the night fishing thing requires me to man the hell up and give it a go, but I wonder about surf fishing in a good bit of sea when you are going to get a good soaking and be standing at least thigh to waist-deep in the water for longer periods of time. I will start off by wearing the longer Palm Blaze Longjohn and see what it feels like.

Again it’s a case of simply giving it a go which I will do and report back, but the one thing I haven’t quite sorted yet with wearing this very comfortable Palm wetsuit gear is my top half. You will notice from the photos of Cormac which I shot last week that he’s wearing a waterproof smock, and as far as I can tell this is the ideal way to go about your top half here. You can clinch the bottom of the smock up nice and tight which will stop any splashes or surges from getting in and underneath, but I would still imagine that standing in surging surf means you will get a wet upper body as well. Again, I won’t know until I try, and I would hazard a guess that the thought of it is far worse than the actual reality - especially with how efficient and warm and comfortable this Palm gear seems to be. I guess you are sensing that cold water and me aren’t great friends!

The problem I have is that I don’t really like wearing a smock that much. I can grin and bear it just fine for a surf fishing session when I will use the Guy Cotten Efficient C130 Smock, but I don’t like wearing a waterproof top when I don’t need to, and I far prefer a jacket than a smock for general use. When I am fishing away as per the photo above then you’re going to get a bit wet on your top half with splashes from the sea and so on, but yesterday was warmish and it wasn’t remotely a problem. Even in a few colder sessions it hasn’t been a problem like I thought it might be, but what this gear does mean for me is that a jacket needs to be a proper length, and not that shorter wading-jacket length that I tend to like a lot with my BCWs.

If it’s raining or you’re going to get splashed a lot in colder weather especially then I will wear a regular length waterproof jacket and make sure the neoprene belt which holds my lure bag around my waist is done up as tight as it would be when I am out surf fishing in BCWs. You need to stop the water surges from getting in and under your jacket or indeed smock which in turn drives the water up and over the top of the BCWs underneath and you get a bit of a cold shock! I don’t expect to keep all splashes and surges out when geared up like this and the Palm wetsuit leggings, but I can’t see it being a problem with how efficient the clothing is.

These are Cormac’s Palm Gradient boots, I think he said they were nine months old, they get a hammering!

What has really surprised me is how good these lightweight Palm Gradient boots are to wear. I haven’t put studs in the soles but the grip on them is extraordinary - which I know is the kiss of death and I’m going to take a proper tumble soon, but I know enough about different grounds to know when to really be careful and when to move around more freely. They are so comfortable and light to wear that I am very tempted to buy another pair to use with my BCWs if these Bestard SAR Pro Water Rescue Boots ever do end up falling apart (they are still going strong). I am a UK size 11 shoe and these Palm Gradient boots fit very well in a UK12 size with that 2mm or 4mm neoprene sock when wearing the Palm wetsuit style leggings. Enough anglers have contacted me though to say firstly how much they like the Palm Gradient boots for wearing with BCWs, secondly how well they last, and thirdly that to wear them with a pair of regular socks inside of the neoprene socks on the BCWs, you apparently need to go two sizes over your UK shoe size. So when I do end up buying another pair of the Palm Gradient boots to try with my BCWs, I will go for a UK13 (and yes, I have tried the UK12 ones I have here and they are too tight for me to wear with BCWs). One thing I did find out very quickly when not wearing BCWs (with inbuilt gravel guards) is that you are going to need to get a pair of gravel guards if you want to prevent lots of sand and grit and small stones from getting into your boots when wearing this Palm clothing. I am using the Vision neoprene gravel guards and they have sorted the problem completely.

Anyway, there you go. I didn’t mean for this blog post to be a frigging essay, but once I really got to thinking about this stuff I realised that there was more to get across to you than I initially thought. It’s not as if I tend to have a problem with Vision BCWs especially, but I want to better understand the alternatives, and I can’t be closing myself off to only BCWs forever. You know my feelings these days on wearing auto-inflate lifejackets in certain situations, but I still don’t want to end up in the drink in a pair of BCWs if at all possible, whatever safety equipment I am using. For sure a pair of waist waders is better than a pair of BCWs if this happens (but they are often not easy to find), but I’d far, far rather be wearing this Palm wetsuit gear if the dreaded does go and happen - so I am going to keep on with the experiment to see how much of my bass lure fishing I feel comfortable doing in this different kind of clothing. More to come………..

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Some initial thoughts on (sometimes) using this Palm kayaking wetsuit clothing instead of BCWs………

© Henry Gilbey 2023