Whether you’re fishing in Western Alaska, South Andros, or anywhere in-between, the right sunglasses can make a big difference in your fishing experience.
Sunglasses not only protect your eyes and part of your face from wayward shanks, but the right lens color for the right conditions can enhance your fishing experience by reducing glare, sharpen clarity, help you “see fish” in the water, and block a plethora of the sun’s harmful rays.
With that, there are a variety of colors that we can choose from. We need to match the best color, for the conditions; weather, bodies of water, and other environmental factors. Regardless of color, it is very important that whatever lens you choose it is polarized. Polarized lens reduces glare by limiting the reflecting light that enters the eyes. Polarized lenses will also help reduce eye strain. Another thing to consider is mirrored or anti-reflective qualities. Mirrored or anti-reflective lens helps reduce glare by eliminating additional levels of back glare.
A variety of sunglasses manufacturers have different labels for similar colors. Therefore we generalized the colors for perspective. Like a lot of other products, there is a difference between high-end sunglasses and the other guys; lens quality frame structure and warranties.
Blue – Best for offshore open reflective water on sunny bright days. Great for fishing in the open tropical waters of South Andros.
Green – Best for inshore, flats, rivers and streams and provide high contrast clarity. Along with the Gray/ Sliver color, it is another great all-around color for a variety of fishing environments.
Gray/ Silver – The best all-around color for a variety of activities. Best in medium to bright sunny conditions.
Amber/ Brown/ Copper – Another excellent all-around lens color that delivers a fantastic field of vision by providing high contrast views. They work well in a variety of environments for fishing in Alaska.
One other thing to consider is frame color. Clear and transparent tortoise color frames can emit light reducing the effectiveness of your sunglasses no matter the quality and color of the lens. Like all good things, you need to take care of your high-quality sunglasses. Practicing periodic good cleaning after use will clean help protect your investment and your eyes. Sweat, saltwater, and other external elements can deteriorate lens coatings and material. All in all, a good pair of sunglasses to match your most frequent fishing environment is a good investment regardless of color and will make any fishing a better experience but also a safer one.
All lens images are courtesy of costadelmar.com. Content contributions from costadelmar.com, smithoptics.com, and best-fishing-sunglasses.com
Do any companies off high quality and interchangeable lenses? Many who sell shooting glasses do this.
Hi Neil. Yes. I know Smith Optics, Oakley, and Maui Jim have replacement lens frame options that are good fits for fishing. If Costa Del Mar has a lens swapping system frame, I’m not aware of it. That being said, My personal favorite is the Caravan MAG by Smith Optics. It has a full-frame, that leverages the MAG system to keep the removable parts in place, so switching out lenses to match the environment is super easy and unlike some sunglasses, they are great for casual wear or out on the water fishing.
what are your recommendations for “low light” glasses?
Hi Michael, any quality, polarized yellow-tinted lenses will work. The yellow lenses allow for the highest amount of light transmission. If you want a lens tint that covers a broader range of situations, copper or rose tinted lenses do exactly that. Whichever lens you choose, just make sure they are polarized. I Know Oakley and Smith have yellow and other lighter tint lenses that work well. You should look into a frame lens system where you can have multiple lenses so you can switch them out to fit changing light situations. Hope this helps and let us know what you end up getting.
Can you recommend a pair of sun glasses and lense color for fishing the flats in key west for bonefish?
Thxs
Hi Ronald, If you’re looking for one pair of solid sunglasses, the best overall lens is a brown polarized lens. It covers a wide variety of fishing situations. If you’re looking specifically for flats fishing, green polarized lenses work really well. Hope this helps.