The above title is a bold statement. Any quality polarized sunglass is an amazing advantage when out on the water, both for protecting your eyes from the elements and making it easier to observe mother nature and pick up on those beautiful nuances that are both stunning and key to fishing success.
There are a few things you might be missing out on if you are rocking your standard “around-town” sunglasses, even if they are a good quality polarized lens.
The way the human eye picks up on detail can be changed dramatically with different color lenses. Here are some solid guidelines for what we have seen out on the water in many different fisheries and how you can choose your lens colors to give you the advantage.
Saltwater Trolling
In optometry studies polling large sample sizes, gray or blue lenses are the “easiest” on your eyes. They do a great job at cutting out unnecessary light, reducing glare, and are best for allowing an angler to stay focused when staring at the horizon, looking for other boats, all the while keeping an eye on riggers and rod tips. They also provide good contrast with the mix of dark blues and greens of the ocean and a mix of direct sun and clouded shadows on an average day on the water.
Drawbacks: They are not great in classic West Coast rain or low-level heavy cloud cover. They are not the best for seeing details on the ocean bottom or penetrating the water column when we are in shallow water.
River Angling
Even if you are not trying to see fish, picking up on structure cues for wading and fishing is important. River anglers also tend to not care about rain, so we want a lens that can brighten up the shadows of boulder cover riverbeds while still being wearable on an overcast rainy day. For this and debatably the best all-around lens color, we turn to brown. Manufacturers have different names for this color like Copper or Polar Brown, but they can be lumped together as a great sight-fishing lens that will also keep eyes relaxed and focused over a wide variety of conditions. I will run these when river fishing, lake fishing and warm water fishing. They are solid when out on the ocean salmon fishing.
Brown lenses are probably the best all round option
Specialty Lenses
If we had to choose one pair for fishing, it would usually be one of the two above colors depending on your fisheries focus, but there are specific situations where other colors of lenses really shine.
Sight Fishing and Bad Weather
They are polar opposite conditions, but there is one lens that I really love for both. This is a yellow “Low Light Yellow” (Smith) or “High Transmission” (Maui) lens. As the two brand names imply, they are very light-colored lenses that brighten the world around us and provide exceptional contrast for seeing fish in the shadows of a river bottom or on a bonefish flat. For the warm water anglers, this might be surprising because the flats are one of the “brightest” fisheries we encounter. However, if you have ever been chasing a bonefish or a big permit when a small cloud moves across the sun, you will understand. The shadow of the cloud turns the flats dark, and the shadows become very hard to see into. With the light-yellow lens, you have hope to pick up the edges of that fish versus the irregular bottom. When you experience this for the first time you will also realize than even in clear skies the yellow lens brightens all the shadows cast by the structure of an irregular bottom and even if in full sun this is my go to for seeing fish.
The top lens in this photo is rose, the middle the the Smith Low light Yellow and we also have them with bifocal options from Maui Jim to make knot tying easier.
Since I learned this concept on the flats, I will not leave home without them in my pack whether I am lake fishing, river fishing, or flats fishing. I might not wear them all day long, but the second I want to see bottom or lots of clouds roll in, they are coming out of my pack.
Drawbacks: You look a little like Bono (The Rockstar) in these lenses and they probably won’t double as your around-town sunglasses. In extended periods of heavy direct light, your eyes do get tired.
Rose Lenses
The last color that I like to bring out fishing is a rose lens. If you are running a boat in lousy flat light conditions (fog, heavy snow), walking a snow-covered riverbank, or are on a flat when the sun is directly overhead, things become “flat”. The rose lens is best for these flat light situations. Paired with the yellow lens, you can use the yellow all morning and afternoon and then in the middle of the day with the sun right overhead, you can give your eyes a break and run the rose lens. Again, we learned this from fishing with some of the best flats guides in the world. There is about a 2-hour period every day when things get “flat”. If you switch to the rose lens for this period, you will see way more fish. I have taken this from the flats to both river angling and lake angling, plus they are great for poor driving light whether you are driving a boat or a truck.
This article is quite involved, and you do not need to go out and purchase all of these lenses. If I am taking only one lens, it will usually be brown as it is the jack of all trades and can work in almost all our fisheries. If you are an avid warm water angler, I highly recommend checking out a light-yellow lens, and if you know you are going to be spending lots of time saltwater salmon fishing, the darker lens is the way to go.
Everyone’s eyes are a little different and you need to see the differences, no pun intended. Come down to the shop, try the different lenses, and see for yourself. We have a bunch of models in stock right now and though some brands do not allow online sales; Smith and Suncloud are up on our online store so you can check out the Low Light Yellow lens that has been a game-changer for my eyes when out on the flats or in classic West Coast rainy scenarios.
Check them out here
