Sunglasses - recommendations

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

I seem to have misplaced my sunglasses.

When not fishing I use them while driving and put them in the center console - well I just noticed they’re gone.

I know there are all price ranges out there from cheap to ridiculously expensive. I think the pair I had cost about $30-40 but I don’t remember where I got them or the brand.

So I’m looking for 2 suggestions:

Decent glasses that won’t break the bank
What color lens would you suggest? Or maybe even better, why would I use a certain colored lens over another? Overcast vs bright day? Clear vs stained water?

Thanks.

2

the different lens tints provide basically 2 different benefits:

  1. varying degrees of contrast and depth perception

  2. varying degrees of true color representation

“hot tints” like amber, vermillion, rose, and orange give you the highest levels of #1.

“warm tints” like brown, copper, iridium, etc. give you the best of both worlds.

“cool tints” like blue, gray, and green give you the best color representation.

make sure you get glasses that give you 100% uva/b/c protection, provide excellent coverage of your eye socket to reduce unfiltered light from coming around the glasses to your eye, and are polarized well to knock out all glare. you should not squint at all when wearing them in the brightest of sunlight. i won’t wear anything but photochromatic sunglasses for my all purpose performance glasses ( get lighter/darker based on the amount of light). this way i don’t have to worry about bright vs. overcast…dust-dawn vs. midday. i don’t want to change lenses or glasses during the day. i’ve got enough other stuff to keep track of and mess with.

with all that said, i believe that for stream fishing and driving the three best choices (not in order) of lens tint are gray, brown, and copper. it entirely depends on your own preference among those three. for big open water, the best colors are gray, brown, and blue. so, if i had to pick ONE to cover it ALL, i’d go with a gray polarized wrap style photochromatic lens.

next you have to find something that fits well, is really comfortable, and won’t fall off even when sweaty, wearing sunscreen, and making sudden movements in unusual positions…like taking an unexpected fall.

well, there’s also the ansi protection level to consider if you worry about durability and eye protection from projectiles and debris.

3

Two years ago, fishing the Conejos, my guide Jon told me to get some glass lensed, polarized amber tint sun glasses.

One year ago at Cabela’s popped into the sunglass section to see what was new. Costa Del Mar had just released their 580 series. Got a pair of 580’s w/ glass lenes, in amber. WOW, double WOW!!!

You cannot believe what you can see. The change from even normal polarized is dramatic, they are worth every penny!:smiley:

4

I use H3O sports. Not the “coolest” style, but they come with a frame and 3 interchangeable lenses, so you can pick the color that you want. Dark grey, light grey and amber. Hard to beat for $50. I really like being able to switch lenses. It is a nice feature.

5

Since I use glasses to see normally, I am “stuck” with fit overs (vs. carrying prescription sunglasses that I probably won’t be carrying all the time :slight_smile: ). Anyway, I tried Solar Shields that I found at the local Gander Mountain and find they work great. I prefer the amber tint because they work very well in low light conditions, if I were to buy a second pair (which I did, but my wife stole them!) it would be the grey lenses for brighter conditions, I feel they are dark enough for bright days, which I find the ambers don’t quite cut it on.

Since I first bought my SS’s, I have seen them at Walmart. I find they work well and are about $20 (for the fit overs), so they won’t break the bank. They don’t just come in fit overs (don’t know the cost of the non-fit overs), but even then they are not the most stylish. If you’re OK with that, I recommend them.

Paul

6

Thanks for the replies. Luckily I found my glasses (in a pouch in my equipment bag no less). My current glasses are dark gray so I may decide to pick up another pair with amber or copper lenses.

7

COSTCO will sell you optical quality non-prescription polarized sun glasses for the price of the frame plus two cents for the lenses, unless the price of the lens has gone up. Then you won’t have to settle for a “one size fits all” frame