Wearing Waders In A Kayak ?

Is It Safe To Wear Waders When Kayak Fishing ?

There is a long running debate in the kayak fishing world about the safety of wearing waders in/on a kayak. I have done a little research on this and hopefully this page will be useful to anyone thinking of wearing waders when afloat, either when boat or kayak fishing. Hopefully this page will act as an objective resource and I am in no way trying to persuade anyone one way or the other in regards to the safety issue of waders in a kayak. Also please remember to always wear your PFD when kayak fishing.

Primarily I posed the question on some of the UK kayak Fishing Forums. As expected I got the usual mixed response. Many anglers insisted it was deadly to wear waders when afloat. Conversely their was roughly an equal amount of replies from kayak anglers stating that waders coupled with a wading belt and a personal flotation device was as safe as houses. Many of those in favour of wearing waders at sea pointed out that over in America many of the kayak anglers their wear nothing but neoprene breathable chest waders.

So my next point of call was an American Kayak Fishing Forum to check out these claims. On the kayak fishing stuff website I posted my question about wearing chest waders at sea. Please click here to check out this topic. As you can see, another mixed response. With roughly a 50/50 split on the safety issues of wearing waders for kayak/boat fishing.

You will see from this topic that there is a link to a you tube video on kayak fishing where a rather portly American chap tests out the waders theory in his neighbours swimming pool (I was going to replicate the research myself and post my own video but my neighbour was very displeased with the idea stating his goldfish were currently spawning). Anyway here is that video. Have a watch it makes for interesting viewing.

Wearing Waders In Water - Kayak Fishing Experiment On You Tube

If you would like to debate the topic of wearing waders in a Kayak or would like to discuss any topics related to kayak fishing then please visit the Whitby Kayak Fishing Forum. Click here for topic on waders and kayak fishing