I use one. The riffle behind the house runs pretty fast across a knee deep cobble bar and the current pushes hard into deep water beyond. We're only a couple miles below the dam and the water runs really cold year around, wet wading isn't much of an option. A fall in waders looks fatal. I fished it once without a staff, gave me the "willies" the whole time, so I went down to Sportsman's and picked up a wading staff. I got one by "Fish Pond" ... it is basically like a pretty heavy, pretty stiff trekking pole.
Tom
