The text of a very recent email corrspondence that I had with an old both British domestic South American trout and sea-trout fishing pal whose colleague had invited me to a day’s British grayling fishing with him on his own bit of river yesterday, Monday 28th.
Email 1, Fri 25th
“Re: Boote’s Boots.
My old, leaky pair – £13.99 Aldi Outdoor Clothing Special Spring Offer Dark Grey, Blue and Black Waterproof Nylon Fabric and Suede lightweight walking boots from several years ago – have just had the last of their cleated tread on their soles and heels sliced off, down to the heavy-duty foam beneath them, then had some old wading boot felt sole replacements that I have had kicking about for c. 20 years glued onto them. Even poker-burned two 3.16in. holes in the lower, fabric, upper-body of each for water drainage. Hey presto! Lightweight wading boots, and none too shabby ones at that! Might even screw in some aluminium wading boot studs that I have in a packet here. .
Eat my dust, Simms and Patagonia!
P
Emails 2 & 3 – my pal’s next day reply to me and mine back to him:
“When I first met you in Chile, Paul, you were using a pair of fake cheapo Converse All Star baseball bootsbought from a London streetmarket stall. Quick drying cotton fabric, rubber soles and lightweight to carry in your backpack. Without the star, as you’d ripped the thing off before you’d wear them. I have a couple of slides of you sat on the banks of the Rio X wearing them. ATB…..”
Self back to him:
I’d not forgotten, XYZ. The same boots, an earlier pair, survived a whole 6 month-plus fishing season on my first SA trip, for both me and my identically very cheaply wadered and booted female companion. They got us looks on one very “smart” Argentine trout river, the Malleo: one of “Great American Flyfisher” (the model for Henning Hale Orviston, Gus’s tweedy father in “The River Why?”) Ernest Schwiebert’s fishing party’s wealthy elderly American fishers quite turned his nose up at them (but not at the girl).
I went and found a pic of the real ones a few mins ago (with star) – here it is. [pic from the Converse website posted in the email]
Pretty bad when it xomes to wading boots, too.
The text of a very recent email corrspondence that I had with an old both British domestic South American trout and sea-trout fishing pal whose colleague had invited me to a day’s British grayling fishing with him on his own bit of river yesterday, Monday 28th.
Email 1, Fri 25th
“Re: Boote’s Boots.
My old, leaky pair – £13.99 Aldi Outdoor Clothing Special Spring Offer Dark Grey, Blue and Black Waterproof Nylon Fabric and Suede lightweight walking boots from several years ago – have just had the last of their cleated tread on their soles and heels sliced off, down to the heavy-duty foam beneath them, then had some old wading boot felt sole replacements that I have had kicking about for c. 20 years glued onto them. Even poker-burned two 3.16in. holes in the lower, fabric, upper-body of each for water drainage. Hey presto! Lightweight wading boots, and none too shabby ones at that! Might even screw in some aluminium wading boot studs that I have in a packet here. .
Eat my dust, Simms and Patagonia!
P
Emails 2 & 3 – my pal’s next day reply to me and mine back to him:
“When I first met you in Chile, Paul, you were using a pair of fake cheapo Converse All Star baseball bootsbought from a London streetmarket stall. Quick drying cotton fabric, rubber soles and lightweight to carry in your backpack. Without the star, as you’d ripped the thing off before you’d wear them. I have a couple of slides of you sat on the banks of the Rio X wearing them. ATB…..”
Self back to him:
I’d not forgotten, XYZ. The same boots, an earlier pair, survived a whole 6 month-plus fishing season on my first SA trip, for both me and my identically very cheaply wadered and booted female companion. They got us looks on one very “smart” Argentine trout river, the Malleo: one of “Great American Flyfisher” (the model for Henning Hale Orviston, Gus’s tweedy father in “The River Why?”) Ernest Schwiebert’s fishing party’s wealthy elderly American fishers quite turned his nose up at them (but not at the girl).
I went and found a pic of the real ones a few mins ago (with star) – here it is. [pic from the Converse website posted in the email]
So, megabucks waders and boots … Boote says Bah!
Out.