Panic! Drama! Paul, my client for the day, catches a fine fish and in excitement places his wader boot on a muddied incline.

It’s like putting his foot on a banana skin and in an instant, he is arced in the air and lands with a thud on a protruding willow root. I help him gingerly to a more comfortable position but he is pale, sweating, obviously in excruciating pain. For an hour we try to fish on, but his back has undeniably been damaged and we get to A&E.

Fortunately, the prognosis is severe bruising and after a night’s rest, the brave little soldier is back on the river bank.., but he was lucky. And now to the point! I examined his boot soles. As I guessed - felt! Felt, the worst material ever used on the underneath of outdoor footwear.

How is it that wader boots are still sold with felt soles at all I wonder because on anything like wet mud, they are lethal, offering no grip at all? The answer, I guess, goes back deep in the annals of fishing, salmon fishing most notably. Someone, sometime, somewhere decided that the wading salmon angler must have felt on his soles and so it is to this day.

Felt works fine on sand and fine gravel once you are in the river, but on anything else it offers no grip whatsoever and on a wet bank, mud or grass, it is a death trap.

Today, cleated rubber soles offer 10 times the grip and even more than that if you take the time to bang in studs as an extra precaution. It baffles me why felt-clad boots are still made and sold but I suspect the 'felt habit' goes back generations - even to October 1922 when Georgina Ballantine caught the Tay salmon that holds the record to this day.

Salmon fishing is riddled tradition and outdated shibboleths. A gentleman must tread on felt, a gentleman should wear a tie on the water and most baffling of all, a gentleman should reel in with his right hand, whichever hand he favours. It was Richard Walker in the 1950s who explained that holding your rod in your stronger hand makes absolute sense because it is the rod that does the work and the difficult stuff whilst reeling in is a mechanical task that your weak hand can easily master.

My own salmon heyday was in the 1980s when I was teaching and writing simultaneously and could afford it! But even just 40 years ago, I was bemused by the amount of antiquated ideas, tactics and beliefs that held sway.

Whilst the world of fishing had moved on in leaps and bounds, much of salmon lore remained in a backwater. Much of the tackle and clothing I saw in use would have seemed quaint even in Georgina’s day, perhaps because it was all handed down through family generations that went back to Victorian times.

Mind you, coarse anglers are not without their own blind spots. How many times have I heard that a rising river is pretty useless and it is better to sit it out until it falls again? I’ve disapproved that one every autumn since the 1970s, but it leads us inevitably to the knowledge that winter is approaching and that the riverbank takes on perils not as menacing in the summer.

The days of wet, wind and winter are on their way and safety becomes an issue. Keeping safe is in part a mindset. If you remember that danger never goes on holiday, you tend to be more cautious and to look out for potential hazards that won’t catch you unawares.

Keep your wits about you then, but there are simple precautions that we should all be taking. A buoyancy device really is a great purchase. Modern ones are small, comfortable, discreet, self inflating and cheap. For an outlay of a hundred quid or less, you could save your life. Ensure your torch is charged and your mobile too. Let family know when you plan to be home and checking your vehicle has roadside assistance cover could be a good move. A rope tied to a stout tree can be invaluable on steep swims. Keep a set of spare clothing in the car - I swear I use mine at least once every winter.

When the cold really bites , check out your thermal layering system and have good warm hats, you’ll need two for sure. A high quality, waterproof shell is essential and try not to skimp on cost, but get the best you can afford. Chest waders beneath all this keep you so snug, warm and dry that you don’t really need umbrellas much of the time. Breathable or neoprene, your choice. Just don’t get them with soles of felt!