Ilike2fly:
No, you don't always need a boat. As I said in previous posts, sometimes we use lots of other tricks to keep from having to load the gear in the boat. But a boat will always get to a plane that can be gotten to, even when we have to stand in the bow with a chainsaw. All the other stuff is much more limited.

Your floating waders are another tool to have handy.

To summarize my philosophy: Be sure you have a boat. Then you can supplement it with all sorts of clever alternates.