Mixed bag: On the water review of Korkers Devils Canyon Wading Boots

The ‘Triple Threat’ Sole Sucks Beyond Compare, but the boots are awesome

I really love small stream/creek fly fishing with my tenkara rods. If you are a first time reader, I also love fly fishing with rod and reel as well. In fact, next week I am going on a float trip for smallmouth bass for the first time!

Anyways, I had a day to spend on my favorite freestone stream that has a population of native brook trout and some wild rainbows. These are small fish with a monster being 10 inches. The day was nice except for a little haze from the forest fires in Canada. Btw, that is wild to me. I don’t recall another time in my life where I was aware of this kind of pollution from forest fires here in the western mountains of VA.

I had bought a pair of Korkers Devils Canyon during a Trout Unlimited promotion to stop the pebble mining and had yet to use them. I normally wade with a pair of Orvis Pro Wading boots and love them. Lightweight and comfortable.

However, I had seen a review of the Korkers from the guys at Red’s Fly Shop out in Yakima, WA and decided to try them out since I hadn’t worn them yet. Knowing the treacherous rocks of my favorite creek I ordered their ‘Triple Threat’ soles with the big hexagonal aluminum bolts on the bottom.

It comes with an Allen wrench (this is where I should have seen it coming) and an admonition to tighten them before wearing. I did so, to the point of almost stripping out the bolts and skinning one of my knuckles. Off to the stream I went.

It was beautiful, the air was 50 degrees when I started fishing around 715am and the water was bracingly cold as I wet waded into position. Shortly I was into a 5 inch wild rainbow and I was in it. I didn’t fish really well yesterday. I think it was because I was really tired, but I was missing fish and having a hard time concentrating.

At any rate, I was really enjoying the boots, felt like the traction was really good and the comfort was amazing from the boot itself. I started to, in the back of my mind, have a harder time with my traction that seemed to increase. This continued until I took a really hard fall on my left side because my boot lost grip on a rock that it shouldn’t have.

After righting myself and holding my left elbow until I could breathe normally again (swollen and hurting), I took a look at the bottom of my Korkers soles and this is what I found:

12 of the 15 bolts were gone on each boot. I tightened each and every one of those suckers to the point of failure and in three hours I lost that many. Shitty design and shitty product. I cannot recommend the Triple Threat soles to anyone. Buyer beware.

On the other hand, the boots were super comfortable. The Boa system worked, imho, better than that on the Orvis Pro’s and I am going to use the boots more. The removable sole system was easy to switch out and I had no problems with the soles staying on.

I decided to order another pair of Korkers soles, felt with integral studs, to see if that works better for me. I do a lot of wading in slippery conditions, including tailwaters, and I want to make sure I maximize my chances to keep from breaking bones.

Have any of you used the Korkers products in the past or currently and had similar issues? Next week I am going fishing twice so there will be two posts then. One back on my creek with better soles and that smallmouth float trip. The post float experience promises to be just as inspiring.

All the best and tight lines,

Mike