20 Best Shoes For Surf Fishing (2023 Updated)

I have a short very wide foot with a high instep and finding boots that fit is an issue. I tried XTRATuff, but they were just too narrow to work for me without having to buy a larger boot my foot would swim in.

But Ketcham tackle did me a solid and recommended that I try the Pelagic factory store right down the street in Costa Mesa, CA. So I did and my feet are thankful for it! Was able to drop down a 1/2 size and find the perfect fit.

Took them out for an all day trip the next day and couldn’t be happier!.

I want to start off by saying I was worried before I purchased these because I have wide feet. I normally wear size 3E (Sketchers) wide shoes and so buying anything online I am hesitant because I worry they won’t fit.

After reading reviews about other brands running narrow I looked at the picture and felt these might as well. I was completely wrong. I wear a size 11. 5 in sketchers running shoes and the size 11 deck boots fit my foot well and are comfortable to wear.

The only thing I can’t comment on right now is the durability but my Pelagic shirts have stood the test of time so I have confidence these boots will last on my fishing trips the next few years.

The shoe looks like quality built. I supposedly wear a size 7 but when I ordered a 7. 5, it felt too snug. The entire shoe was tight front and back and size of the foot too. This was without wearing socks, so I felt this was going to be too tight normal daily wear.

I ordered a size 8 and suddenly the entire shoe was loose. Front and rear was loose enough for my heels to drop out of the back of the shoe when walking. Wearing a pair of socks helped, but I really wanted to wear this shoe without socks.

It’s acceptable so I kept it and will just wear it as a casual daily walking shoe.

I like the shoes the grip the look. Only problem is i thought they would be a little more airy. My feet were a little sweaty and when removing shoe the inner sole of inside shoe was coming out. And when i washed them after the day of fishing.

They took longer then expected to fully dryout. I will say they dont keep stains came out very well. When putting on shoe the side of shoe where the tongue is kept wanting to slide down in shoe. Its minor but you need to sit down to put on.

Not a slip on type of shoe. Other then them dislikes it is a good shoe.

I bought this exact style of shoes four years ago prior to going on a cruise. I wore them 90% during the 17 days – including while walking all around Europe. I have worn them countless times since. I decided to buy a new pair – but not because the first pair had worn out.

In fact, they still look great. But I wanted another color. These are just as great. They are stylish, comfortable, have great traction, and fit perfectly. They are very true to what your normal size is.

I have a lot of shoes, but most just sit on a shoe rack – because these are the ones I prefer.

I bought these a year ago — they get daily use cycling, walking and park puddle dipping during the rainy season in Vancouver. Entering my second fall/winter/spring (ie. the Vancouver rainy season. ) now and they are holding up great.

No leakage whatsoever. Upper and sole intact. Small amount of wear inside through one layer of lining at the heel (I have bony/protuberant heels). They are so comfortable and for me, fit true to size.

I’ve seen various comments about sizing — because of the style, they are not firmly fitted around the ankle, which I actually like-easy to slip on and off and really comfortable. The fit around the actual foot is snug enough to walk easily for me.

Everyone’s feet are different so best to try them on! As a daily commuter cyclist who works in different places, I used to hate either carrying around a second pair of shoes, or having damp feet all day.

I wore through blundstones and shoe covers. But these boots are the answer! Caveat: if you wear them around inside they are fairly warm and your feet may sweat. I wear a thin sock which is a happy balance for indoor/outdoor temps.

Enjoy!.

They are the most comfortable rain boots I purchased. I currently own some muck boots (that I still like in the snow or mud but they are way more bulky), owned some hunter boots and other cheaper ankle rain boots and they did not compare to the Xtratuf rain boots.

I bought these last spring and I am so happy with them. The size 6 fit perfectly! I typically wear size 6 or 6. 5. The boots aren’t too narrow or too loose. For the price, comfort and versatility this item gets two thumbs up! On the plus side they are lightweight, easy to put on and off to go in the garden, and they are great for any fishing trip (white/neutral sole).

Small downsides; not made to go on a big walk/hiking adventure, they are flat, and don’t have grip. The Xtratuf sticker on the front peeled off after a week of use, but it doesn’t affect the quality of the boot, so I don’t care.

If you choose the black color it may get hot in the sun (in summer) and rain boots aren’t breathable so you can expect sweaty feet in that case. Still one of my best purchase!.

Fine, little shooter! I was looking for a plain Jane 21A and ordered one from another rural store. they backordered it after letting me wait a month. I wasn’t that fond of the silver, but was about to buy one from Academy when I stumbled on the Covert threaded barrel model.

More expensive but being able to suppress it is a worthwhile bonus. As mentioned in other reviews, it is quite stiff and hard to manipulate the safety and slide until getting several rounds down range.

Overall, a very fun little plinker. I recommend purchasing extra magazines as 7 rounds go quick. Having a few extra mags keeps the fun factor higher. Amazon had a finely crafted, USA-made ambidextrous belt clip holster that fits the Bobcat perfectly.

The Beretta Bobcat 21A is a well made, straight shooting little pistol.

I love my Xtra tuff sharkbyte canvas deck shoes. They are so cute and comfortable. I wear them barefoot and with socks. They are a bit hot on days when the temperature is over 90, but I just wear them barefoot and it gives some relief to the heat.

They fit great, true to size for me. I usually wear a 6 1/2 to 7 and I purchased the 7. They are perfect, not too big or any movement when I walk. Just enough room in them to be worn with socks and not too big to be worn barefoot.

I live in Eastern Kentucky and it’s so muddy here because of all the rain we get, these are great for that. They are easy to wipe clean and just easy to wear with anything. Definitely recommend. I definitely want the other colors as well, maybe they’ll do a lavender purple camo for us outdoor kind of girls in the future.

After placing these shoes in my cart & paying, without any notation of ‘low inventory’ or such, they NEVER arrived. No contact from Xtratuf whatsoever. After I contacted them that I was missing these shoes, I was told, ‘Oh yea, we ran out of them, do you want a refund?’ Uh, yes a refund would be nice, an email explaining why my kid was missing shoes he needed would have been nice too.

Of course, since Xtratuf can’t produce the shoes or an email, I would like a refund. Thanks for giving my money back, I love that you sent me a survey for me to review the product I never received – top notch service you’re providing Xtratuf, really fabulou!-(not really).

I have a pair of the same style I purchased a couple years ago. They’re becoming worn so I wanted to get another pair. The style has been slightly modified in appearance, but I still like the look of this shoe, and they were comfortable the first few times I wore them briefly to break them in.

But when I wore them for a full day at work, I realized they don’t have the support the style previously had. After a few hours of wear it felt like I was barefoot on concrete. I still like the shoe but will order my next pair a size larger so I can use a supportive insole.

This is a great looking shoe and well made. Unfortunately, the front edge is very stiff and cut into my instep. I wore them around the house for a few minutes to test drive them and when I took them off, had red marks on my skin.

Very uncomfortable. Possibly some moleskin would solve it but the right shoe heel slipped off my foot and also gapped on both sides of my foot. I’ve always heard that the dominant foot is bigger which is my right foot so I think the sizing may be off on the right shoe.

All in all, not a good fit and I’m sending them back. Because of the above I’m only giving two stars. FYI, the size is 7N.

I have purchased Grasshopper brand shoes from Boscov’s for a number of years. These are good quality, comfortable true to size and description. The Windsor Knot Braid Loafers or Boat shoes are really smart looking and stylish & so cushiony comfortable -I have received inquiries & compliments when I wear them.

Luckily, they come in Wide which I need, and fit perfectly. I was so happy with the beige (stone) color, I bought another pair knowing summer was near and also a third pair in navy blue. Not a fan of lacing, closed in sneakers-these shoes are so easy slip-ons, yet offer support better than sandals.

I would definitely recommend buying these Grasshoppers!.

Shimano used to make an Evair shoe similar to this but without the back. It fit perfectly and was totally waterproof. I’ve been wearing them for years. Of course they stopped making them and these shoes are the closest thing they make.

These new shoes are terrible! The back of the foot enclosure doesn’t ride right and the only adjustment is the little stretch strap on the side. If you tighten the strap, the shoe folds so it has to be left alone.

The inside of the shoe used to be formed to fit your foot and were great. These shoes were changed to be just flat and hard. They include a liner that doesn’t quite fit the shoe so your toes can feel the ends of the liner and develop blisters there.

The liner is so cheap it won’t last a season. But that won’t matter because the whole shoe doesn’t fit right. I recommend that you don’t buy these shoes. I used to wear Crocs but switched to the shimano years ago.

Now I tried on a pair of Crocs again and they were so much better than these shoes I returned them and bought a new pair of Crocs! The company returned them with no problem so I was glad about that.

Go to sandals for fishing, boating or just hanging around the sandbar/beach. No marring sole work perfect on your boat non skid. They last me about two years of heavy use. Love them!

Sizing – I wear a size 10. 5 or 11 shoe, and based on other reviews I expected to need a size 12 in this boot. However, I tried size 12 in the store, and the boots were too tight. I purchased size 13 which fits perfectly.

I do wear both a liner sock and heavy wool sock when wading, which likely makes a difference. Laces – I would rate these boots a 5 if not for the laces being too short. Similar to other reviews, I would highly recommend Orvis make the laces 6″ to 12″ longer.

That’s an easy product enhancement that would improve the functionality of the boot. Overall – I would recommend these boots. I have worn felt boots for many years, and I was hesitant to purchase rubber soled boots, but I’m happy with them after wearing them on a recent trip.

They were comfortable, and I did not slip on any rocks while wading.

Overall, I think the shoes are very close to being perfect, but they have a pretty significant comfort and usability issue that make these shoes very difficult to use, especially without socks. For me, wet wading is about warm summers and I prefer to not wear socks to avoid hot feet.

These are also designed for wet wading, but require two hands to put on and take off. This is unfortunate, because if you need to remove your shoe while fishing, which generally means you will be in the middle of a river or flat, one hand is typicaly used to hold your fly rod.

First, I’d like to share my thoughts on the good features of these shoes. They are definitely of a higher quality than the previous wet wading shoes by Simms. I purchased the Vibram sole version (felt is banned in some places where I fish), and, once they are fitted with the Simms Hardbite Star Cleats, these shoes are crazy gripy.

Without the cleats the shoes are pretty slick (it would be nice if shoe manufacturers included the cleats with their shoes, especially given the price). These make these shoes more than $200 (including tax) to use safely.

So, good materials, and good traction (when upgraded), are among the most important things for a wet wading shoe, but the other necessary features, which is where these shoes fall short, is ease of use to put on, and comfort.

The Simms Flyweight Wet Wading Shoes fail in this area due to two design features. The first issue is Simms designed these shoes to have a tight upper/collar. This is significant, because when small gravel and sand gets into the shoe, which is near impossible to stop, the tight upper keeps the stones pressed tightly against the skin.

This is very uncomfortable over time. Granted, most wet wading shoes can get uncomfortable after a while because of sand and gravel intrusion, and the fix is to simply remove and flush the shoe. However, because of the tightness of the upper, it is very difficult to remove this shoe, especially with one hand.

Unfortunately, because of the second issue, it is actually impossible to remove this shoe one handed. The second issue is Simms put regular boot laces on these shoes. It is strange that Simms did not choose a quick release lace system, especially since these were present on their previous shoes.

This means you need two hands to untie and retie the shoes. Granted, this is typically not an issue for most shoes, or even wading boots, but these are wet wading shoes, and it should be expected these will occasionally need to be removed and flushed while using.

The issue here is typically you will want to do this while in the river or flat, and one hand is typically needed to hold your fly rod. Designing a premium wet wading shoe that requires two hands to take on and off is, in my opinion, a pretty significant issue.

I have removed one star for the comfort issues, and one star for the laces (they are that bad). If you are going to use these with very thick socks or with neoprene booties, they might be just fine, but that is not the type of wet wading I like to do.

Overall, I don’t think I can recommend these shoes for use in warm environments with small gravel and sand for wet wading. With that said, I recognize this is just my opinion, and others may have no issue with these shoes.

So after one fishing trip here is my 1st thoughts on the G4 boot. Having worn Simms Guide boots since 2010, when my 2016 pair were ready for replacement the G4’s were a natural replacement. I fish on average 3 times per month throughout the season on rained streams and rivers – a mixture of low land streams and upland (headwaters) rivers.

Although mixed landscapes, they both involve reasonable treks to get onto the water and covering lots of water from pool to pool. This means that my boots cover significant miles each season. My previous Guides stood up to this reasonably well but the felt soles suffered, studs were regularly replaced and as a penalty to their robustness, they were quite heavy (especially by the end of the day).

These new G4’s are quite lightweight in comparison and are much more like a good pair of walking boots (the missus has compared them to a pair of Salomon’s). Support for the sole, heal and ankle is good to excellent (comparable to the 2016 Guides which have a slightly higher ankle to the G4’s).

Walking down to the river was easy. As other reviewers have noted, they are just like a good pair of hiking boots in the levels comfort and support. On the river, I found that water drained rapidly from the boots once out on the bank and the technical materials used in their construction, shed any excess rapidly – again helping to save weight.

Turning to grip and stability and this is where I am conflicted. As stated previously, I have always used felt soles and studs for maximum grip on the rocky and cobbled river bottoms I fish. However, one of clubs I am has announced it may ban them from its water and I have a general concern about invasive species so this time I went for Vibram soles with cleats and studs.

And this is one of the areas where the boots have lost points. The G4 studs are £50 per 10! Come on Simms, what price safety? I chose a 10 pack cleats (5 per boot) and 20 pack of studs (the ideal space for 6 per boot) for a total of £80! Stability from the wide soles is excellent and although the stream I fished isn’t large or powerful I did feel comfortable once in position and the grip from the Vibram Idrogrip soles was adequate (the river bottom this trip was quite slimy).

I would say it is almost as good as my last pair of felt soled Guides when they were brand new – but not quite! I am concerned about how they will perform up on my favourite upland rivers which are much more powerful and have some areas of river bottom that are like polished glass.

Because of this I will probably buy another pack of cleats – taking the total for additional metal work past £130! In addition to the cost of the cleats and based on some older reviews, I have cleats anxiety about them coming loose and dropping out – although this may have been sorted by Simms now as I can’t see any newt posts referencing this issue.

Overall from my 1st use, the G4’s are very comfortable, lightweight and easy wearing on long trips (I was on the water for 8 hours straight) and I came away from the river feeling like I had been on a stroll through the hills.

They cleaned up easily when I got back and seem reasonably quick drying after a good hose down to remove any potential nasties. Obviously I can’t comment on durability yet, although they do seem to have the usual Simms levels of robustness so I can’t give points for that yet.

However I have taken of points for the cost of the special and unique cleats required for this sole – as I said what price safety!.

I purchased these about a year and a half back from a local fly shop. My primary motivator in the purchase was the potential usefulness of the screw ports for the cleats allowing easy replacement once they wear down.

My primary fisheries are the Great Lakes Steelhead rivers and Pennsylvania trout streams. On the shale riverbeds of the former, the boots performed fine. The fit was comfortable enough, and the boot had good ankle support.

However, once I took them to the more challenging wading conditions of Penns Creek, the quality of the boot construction was exposed. Over a 4 day trip, I sheared off one of the cleats for the boot laces, and tore one of the ports for the studs clean out of the sole of the boot.

The synthetics on the boot also discolor after about a year and glued seams (of which the boot has more than I feel necessary) have begun to separate. Stitched leather would have been a better option.

Simms, to their credit, replaced the boots. However, less than a year from having the new pair, I have again torn a stud port out of the bottom of the boot. Having had this happen twice now personally, and heard stories of other people having the same issue, I have lost faith in the product and have moved on to Patagonia’s boots.

I spend a lot of time on the water, and admittedly, I wade hard. But this is supposedly the premium product out of Simms lineup. At nearly $400 a pair once you purchase the cleats for them, I was expecting a more durable product.

I hike/wade lakes and rivers in Patagonia (well over 100 miles) during the last Summer. The boots provided excellent support and grip (with alumibite cleats). Not a single slip despite algae and granite rocks/boulder in many rivers (Malleo, Chimehuin, Collon Cura, Paimun).

The boots are a little heavy but they protect your toes and ankles and give you a solid base even in strong currents. They took a loot of abuse but the only issue, noted by other users, were the laces: they don’t last, so get back up laces before going fishing ( Simms sell replacements that seems better that the ones that came with the boots).

Finally, the alumibite cleats are excellent for the type of rocks (mostly granite) you find in the majority of Patagonia rivers and lakes but they will last no more than 2 months of almost every day use, which is not a surprise.

Overall, these are great boots.

These boots are great! I fish the surf a lot along the pacific coast. I dont like booted waders because they’re heavy and uncomfortable for allday hiking vs stocking foot waders. Because of sand, i typically have to modify all my boots (seal all the drainage holes), cinch them pretty tight and wear an additional gravel guard ontop of the ones with the waders.

most of the time, sand still gets in but i’m usually dumping it out once or twice per session. My recent pair of wader boots were the Simms flyweight. they’re great lightweight boots, awesome for hiking and super comfortable, but because of the lowered ankle supports, i had a harder time cinching and getting a tighter seal above my ankles.

i end up dumping sand out every hour or so. In comes the freesalts. First off, I dont have to modify these boots because no drainage holes, unlike some pictures that show the freesalt with drainage holes.

Secondly, really tall ankle supports; i can comfortably tighten down above my ankles. The boots themselves performed great. i was pretty impressed; i had little to no sand for a whole 8 hour fishing session (see attached photo)! they are durable enough to hike over rough terrain and comfortable enough to walk up and down the beach all day.

supposedly cuz of the synthetic materials, i also have less to worry about with salt weathering issues. they are noticeably heavier than my flyweights, but lighter than some of my other wader boots. i wear a size 11 shoe and stocking foot waders that supports that.

the wader boots are size 12 and fit great. both the flyweight and freesalts are size 12 and feel exactly the same in terms of sizing so its safe to say simms boot sizing between models are consistent.

Overall, very happy i got these! Not having to dump out sand is awesome. they fit great, good traction hiking over rocks, dont have to modify for sand, comfortable for hiking up and down the beach all day.

Not having to deal with rust on some hardware is an additional benefit. next time i buy wader boots, definitely gonna keep to salt/beach specific boots.

I purchased a size 9 as recommended by the size chart and as I use them mainly for wet wading in the summer months I needed to use them with a pair of neoprene socks – the neoprene socks are a nice snug fit and they keep out the sand and small stones.

I did purchase some Simms Hardbite studs but unfortunately the center of the sole seems to be softer than the outer sections and the studs didn’t get a good grip into the rubber, they just ripped out the rubber and wouldn’t stay in there much.

I replaced the center ones with studs with an auger style thread and they held firm. Overall excellent boots for saltwater.

So much sturdier than the sneakers I had been wearing to surf fish, especially since one of my favorite things is to be right in the wave zone. I did size up to a 12; I’m a 10. 5 and it was a good move.

They are not quite as wide as I expected but sizing up helped. No leakage in the surf and they seem pretty bulletproof to salt so far.