I started fly fishing over 25 years ago in my boyfriends old neoprene waders – huge, leaky, bit smelly and from the second I put them on I couldn’t wait until I could take them off.   Waders have certainly traveled an evolutionary path over the years – culminating in Simms  $700.00 “state of the art” man wader with accommodating fly zipper.   Now don’t get me wrong, but how about showing a little love toward the ladies wader?

Throughout my fly fishing years,  I have experimented with and owned many different types of waders – neoprene boot foots (warm, but almost always too big and incredibly difficult to walk any distance in), neoprene stocking foots (one “word” – blecht!) , chest waders – both neoprene and Gore-Tex (always too big in either the feet or length or both)….I even tried “hippers” once - I know…..Right?   Finally Simms produced waist waders  – I LOVED these…the feet fit perfect and since I never waded up to my chest (really, who does that???)  they were perfect.   What’s not to love about a wader that fit like almost like my comfy jeans while making much easier to pee outside too (that’s a whole other post)?  After a few years of wear,  my “waisties” finally started leaking and I think my “waist” also might have expanded a bit (shame they don’t make ‘em with that “room to grow” system that are in my kid’s pants).  I needed new ones, but Simms stopped making the damn things……Seriously?

In the approximately five years since the demise of my beloved waders I still haven’t really found a pair that I cherished like those.  I have a new pair of  Simms womens G-3 waders with only a few days on them so the jury is still out.   I must express my disapointment that Simms again builds a “waistie” (the G-3 Guide Pant), but they don’t have a woman’s taper and unfortunately their sizing continues to match the increasing size of the average American male’s waist line.  I just wait for the powers that be in the wader world to come up with a GREAT pair of women’s waders.  Real fishing women don’t want them pink, or lavender - no need for frilly bows or fancy webbing details – just a nice pair that fit properly and keep me dry….oh, and maybe make it easier for us to pee in the woods?   Just sayin…..