Understanding Polarized Sunglasses

Polarized sunglasses are vital to truly understanding what is going on underneath the surface you are fishing.  Without a good pair of sunglasses a fisherman misses out on seeing EVERYTHING that is within their immediate casting range.  Structures can be worked thoroughly, snags will not happen as frequently, questions about "Is that a fish or another fish-like rock?" will be answered.  Additionally, a good set of lenses will offer you eye protection (Depending on the quality of lense) from harmful UV rays. Not to mention freak hooks whizzing by/into your face when casting or setting the hook on a potential fish.

A fisherman doesn't realize until they buy a quality set of polarized sunglasses that they can be a complete game changer for every future fishing endeavor.  The true underlying factor is evaluating the type of fishing and coming up with a sensible/economical purchase to suit your fishing needs.  Ask yourself these questions before making the final purchase, remember it's a purchase that you will use to enhance every minute spent on the stream.

How much money am I willing to spend on a pair of polarized fishing sunglasses?

Let's be honest if you are logging a lot of hours on the stream you will want to spend the extra bucks to gain another set of eyes. That way you will know what is going on at the bottom of the waters you are fishing.

What color lenses do you need?

Take some time to think about what you need as a fisherman.  Do you fish a lot during the morning?  Daytime?  Dusk hours?  Based on your decisions, choose the correct lens color to fit your own personal needs.  

Yellow: Yellow lenses help enhance the available light, making them a good choice for dusk and dawn, and other low light level periods throughout the day.  When the conditions are bright the lenses will not be worth the purchase if you spend most of your time fishing during the daylight hours.

"Gray fishing sunglasses absorb light best without distorting colors. These fishing sunglasses go great for open water fishing on bright sunny days. Copper fishing sunglasses have a soothing impact on the eyes, they increase the visual abilities, working great for fishing that requires lots of sighting applications. Brown works great for all circumstances too because of the great contrast and the real color perception. For bright sunshine or clouded days, for lakes or streams, brown lenses will serve the fisherman well. Amber lenses are effective on cloudy days or when the light conditions are low at dawn and at dusk."

-Great write up on lens color from Clutches for Less blog.

Do you want glass/plastic lenses? 

Glass lenses offer a better optical quality, are more expensive and heavier then the cheaper more durable and less scratch resistant plastic lenses.

Below I've done research and reviewed personal purchases on companies that offer polarized fishing sunglasses.    

Smith Optics: These sunglasses range in price from $80.00 - $199.00 and have 46 frame styles.  You can mix and match what lens color you want with the style that fits your head or you can purchase interchangeable frames to use a variety of lenses.

Notable technology: Photochromatic technology is a tool that Smith has been utilizing where your lenses will self adapting to the amount of light present.  Plain and simple more sun, darker lenses, the less sunlight the lighter your lenses.

Costa del Mar: 51 frame styles, ranging in price from $128.00 -$249.00.  Costa del Mar's website is very interactive and has a myriad of informational pages on lens selection, lens color and frame descriptions.  

Take these informational tools on their website and figure out the specific color lens you want in the 400P or the 580P plastic lenses or the 400G or 580G glass lenses.

The glasses are a solid purchase and have a lot of customization available to create your perfect pair of sunglasses.

Oakley:  Sunglasses range in price from $160.00 - $230.00.  When you narrow your search filters down to sunglasses, polarized and fishing on their website 5 total frame styles pop up with minimal variety in frame style.  The lens selection is moderate based on what specific frame would fit you best.  For the money you are going to spend, you want to make sure that the sunglasses conform to your head and are not uncomfortable.

My personal take on these sunglasses is that unless you love the fit of Oakley sunglasses you should go with another brand.  

Sun Cloud: The least expensive of the four companies ranging in price from $49.99 - 89.99.  They have a 38 different frame styles but lack the ability to create-your-own glasses by combining any frame style with a specific type of lens color.

Sun Cloud technology offers a quality lens and functional frame styles but are not in the league of Costa del Mar and Smith Optics.  If you're going to try fishing with polarized lenses and you do not want to jump in to spending $100's of dollars on sunglasses then maybe you should go with Sun Cloud.

All in all, the decision of what frame style and lens color suits you best is something to research and take your time in making your final decision.  Think about the questions above and put some time into visiting a retailer to try on a variety of frame styles.  If it's not comfortable you will be sorry that you made the purchase.  Comfort, clarity, warranty options and good set of sunglasses straps (Most glasses are not made of floatable material so your optics will sink and most likely be gone forever) are the key to purchasing a successful pair of polarized sunglasses!