Surely these “sacrificial neoprene socks” from Vision are a no-brainer to increase the life of your waders? (especially if you don’t wash your wading boots out)

This isn’t really a problem I face myself, but it’s thanks completely to an Irish lad I know and who I saw at the inaugural Irish Spring Angling Fair the other day. It was him who alerted me to these rather innocuous looking neoprene Vision Neo Cover Socks and how they could be used with BCWs (Breathable Chest Waders) to help improve how long they might last………………

If you fish in saltwater and you use BCWs then I am sure by now you have learnt that they are all going to fail eventually. Some fail faster than others when they bloody well shouldn’t, some fail because of user error - barbed wire fences, slipping on rocks, never washing them down etc. - a select few last longer than others (Vision Koski BCWs for example), but at the end of the day they are a perishable item and it’s up to you how much you want to spend and/or if you even need them (there is an alternative, check a couple of recent blog posts here and here).

I have had BCWs fail on me for a number of different reasons for 25 years+ now, so I reckon I have a pretty good understanding of their use in salt and freshwater and how they will tend to fail over whatever length of time it ends up being. Aside from crappy neoprene socks on certain BCWs which are occasionally far too thin, the one part of a pair of BCWs which do actually tend to last the longest for me are the neoprene socks which we find at the bottom of BCWs. But I am aware of a number of anglers who do get issues with wet feet when using BCWs, and I also happen to know a few anglers very well who suffer from this exact problem after a while. I also happen to know that they basically never wash their wading boots out.

I hope these anglers I know don’t mind me referencing them here, but it’s a perfect example of how to damage a pair of BCWs but it’s not actually the fault of the BCWs. It’s angler error. I know the majority of us here are blokes and we don’t exactly like to admit when we are wrong, but if you don’t wash your wading boots out when they have sand and grit and small pebbles inside them (very much depends on where you fish of course), now think about what walking potentially many miles does with all that debris rubbing against the outside of neoprene socks at the bottom of your BCWs for yours and hours on end. Yep, you’ve got it, it’s wearing them down, and over time it will put little holes in them which in turn means you end up with wet feet. I am not trying to defend BCWs here by the way, but it’s rare for a pair of BCWs to fail on me because of wet feet. For sure I am trying to prolong the life of my wading boots by washing them out in freshwater (wet wading boots are much easier to put on than dry wading boots, but I guess you know that), but in reality I am getting rid of the debris inside them which I know will trash a pair of neoprene socks. Gravel guards do as much as they can, but debris is getting into your wading boots when you fish in bouncier conditions especially.

Anyway, so this Irish lad alerted me to these rather clever Vision Neo Cover Socks. You can of course use them as a simple pair of neoprene socks for wet wading, or for using in these rather impressive Palm Gradient boots (see a blog post here), but what Jason made reference to was using them as a pair of “sacrificial” socks to prolong the life of the neoprene socks which are attached to your BCWs. This is the description of these socks on the Vision website here: “These socks have the same double-seamed design as on our stockingfoot waders making them fit well without a bulky feel. They are designed to be worn wet wading or over stocking foot waders for extra support and protection. The advanced cut makes them easy to pull on and off.”

Somebody I know has kindly sent me a pair to have a look at, and he told me to go for the same size of Neo Cover Socks as I would go for with a pair of BCWs, because the socks have been designed to fit over the neoprene socks on the BCWs and their sizing allows for this. I always use size XL Vision waders so I went for an XL pair of the Neo Cover Socks, and they are so easy to put on over the neoprene socks attached to the BCWs. If you are going to go down this route and basically use these Neo Cover Socks to help prolong the life of your (often pretty expensive) BCWs, then you might well need to go one size up when you come to buy a new pair of wading boots (go Dunlop!) to allow for the extra pair of socks. Whether you are prepared to make this allowance for a pair of sacrificial neoprene socks is up to you and how you look after or indeed don’t look after your gear.

This Irish lad showed me his Neo Cover Socks and you could see a few areas on them where they are wearing a bit from a lot of use, but that’s the whole point of this. All he does is replace the Neo Cover Socks when they are looking particularly knackered, and of course the neoprene socks on the bottom of the BCWs have remained as good as brand new because the Neo Cover Socks have been used in a sacrificial way to protect the BCWs. Does that make sense? I can find them for around £25 if I search for “Vision Neo Cover Socks” on Google, and when you consider the price for a decent pair of BCWs and how you could prolong the life of them for a whole lot longer if you are prone to leaky feet, surely it’s a no-brainer. You all have a good weekend………….