I agree with you 100 percent that the sound of boot studs makes no difference in moderate to fast flowing water. If it matters at all in still or slow moving water it pales in comparison to the effect of wave generation or casting shadows. Bottom line: to avoid spooking trout keep a low profile and approach as slow as possible, preferably out of the water if possible. Even fallfish will spook if approached carelessly.

Very cool.

HI Joel. I use rubber soles all the time, almost always with studs. I fish, walk and wade so much that felt doesn’t last long for me — just a few months. Felt is also really bad in the winter, where I am. And I don’t like hiking much in felt.

Cheers.
Dom

Competition angler or otherwise means nothing to me, because the best anglers I know are not competition anglers. They all wear studs.

Cheers.
Dom

I’m all in on that comment. Ha.

I always have studs or bars on my boots. I can not count the number of times I have taken a step in moving water and seen a fish dart off from no more than a foot or two from my foot. I frequently spot water at night after fishing it. At least 100 times I have waded half way up a run, stopped and spotted the water. There is usually at least 1 trout with in a few feet of me. Sometimes alarmingly close.

They might be able to hear with their otolith, or detect the vibrations in their lateral line but not until you are almost directly on top of them. at which point it doesn’t matter because you have already drifted your fly past that fish. It’s much more likely that they spot your movement or shadow before you are anywhere near close enough to them for the grips studs to created enough disturbance in the water to signal danger to the fish.

If they had the ability to discern signals created by foot steps that acutely, no one would ever catch a fish with or with out grip studs.