I am considering buying some nice sunglasses. I was looking at a pair of action optics that where in the 70-80 dollar range. I know these arent the top of the line 150 dollar sunglasses, but what are your opinions on these. Are they good lenses? What color lense should I get? Thanks for all of the help.

Mike

What kind of fishing will you be doing while wearing the glasses? I mostly wade fish the TX coast, and I use a $90 pair of Costa del Mar's with amber lenses. The amber lenses allow you to see subsurface features really well in shallow water. If you'll be fishing deeper water, darker lenses work well.

I've never tried Action Optics sunglasses, but I have friends that wear them, and they have no complaints.

If you are planning on flats fishing of any sort, just remember that you need to see the fish to cast to it. Why spend 500 to a 1000 bucks on you rod and reel and then try to save a buck on sunglasses. I consider my glasses the most important part of my outfit and carry a spare pair everywhere I go. I think the amber lenses are alright for early and late in the day and lower light conditions, but for most of the time a brown or bronze color lens is more useful. For offshore and deep water a grey or green tint is better, but they are about useless for shallow water sightfishing. If you chose to spend the money for good glasses, I would reccomend going with glass lenses over any kind of polycarbonates since the glass is more scratch resistant. Personally, I have been wearing Ocean Waves for the last fifteen years.

I have a pair of Persol glasses with brown/amber polorized (whatever) with glass lens and have had them for probably 10 years. If I don't lose them, I'll probably have them another 10 years. They were $200 and I had a hard time pulling that out of my wallet, but I love them. So far that's only $20/yr, and I know if I had poly lens, my yearly cost would be much more.

Btw, if I recall, there was a post a year or so ago about sunglasses, and one of the responders must have worked in the optical business cause his reply went way into detail. You may try to search and find it.

Yes, this is a happy well protected smillie !!!

Like Jake stated here, I consider a good pair of sunglasses to be more than important. They will protect your eyes from harmful radiation, reflections, and may be some loose fly who knows wrongfully casted. More than that, they are a piece of the equipment of a good flyfisherman, that can make a difference between flyfishing, just fishing, and enjoying all the wonders of fishing in almost any situation.
I´d suggest you get a well-known brand of "these" with certified 100% UV protection...for example...Ocean Waves, and many others.

I have a pair of glass Action Optics (Cayman $150 set) that I got just over a year ago. The rationale was;
1. Polarized (obvious reason)
2. Glass (scratch resistant lenses)
3. Flexible frame (less prone to bending, mangling or breaking)
4. Have a leash (no drop in water off the head when bending over which I bought seperate for $5)

For a LONG time I did the cheapie plastic lense route and found that I was spending as much on the cheapies due to a combination of loosing them, breaking frames and scratching lenses. The good quality AO glass lensed glasses are life time warranty for damage except scratched lenses ($20 for that). One gent I work with has had the frames replaced a couple times and the lenses reground once over a 10 yr period so their service isnt to bad by that example.

For color yer preference, I have an eye problem using amber and yellow lenses hence my choice of grey/green.

D.

I have a pair of action optics and am very happy with them. Orvis also has some very good ($100-$120 range and less expensive) glasses in an amber lens that I fish with and are great.

I think amber is the best all around color for rivers and streams. I've always heard that dark gray is optimal for ocean fishing (I'll let you know after next week), but I have not done a lot of that. I would stay away from anything too dark, because you want something usefull even if the sun goes in.

A good tip that someone gave me that works well - get some "Rain-x", the stuff used on auto windshields, and put that on the lenses every once in a while. It makes rian and river water just sheet off the lens. It's inexpensive and you may even have some in the garage already.

Good Luck.

MagicMike,


I'm in the same boat... new to FF and am looking for a good pair of glasses to use on the flats and just all around in saltwater. Have you looked at Habervision? I've heard a lot of people suggest those to me. Unfortunately, I haven't used them, but maybe someone here has and can let both of us in on how they perform.

Hello,

Avoid the $20 models. I picked up a pair of cheap polarized sunglasses.... sometimes I would see purple rays radiating from the water.... kinda of a 70's psychadelic experience. It was so bad that I couldn't even hand them down and they ended up in the trash.

I debated for a long time about polycarb or glass lenses. Poly for lighter weigth and comfort, and glass for scratch resistance.

Went with a pair of AO/Smith with glass lenses. WOW... great clarity (i had only owned cheap sunglasses until then... and won't go back).

I purchased from the local fly shop: 1) to support them, 2) to get an opportunity to cast a few rods even though I knew I wasn't in the market.

Ended out breaking the frames... called the fly shop to inquire about warranty and cost to repair... they said bring them in and we will send them to AO. About a week and a half later I had a brand new replacement pair in my hand and it didn't cost me a single penny. A big A+++ for customer service from both the flyshop and AO/Smith.

My .02,

CG

Native eyewear sunglasses! I have a pair, with interchangable lenses. Go for Rose polarized lenses, great in all light conditions.

For those who like the warrantee on rods, Native also warrantees their glasses, even scratches on the lenses!

I had a pair of prescription AO glasses that were copper and also transitional that I like very much! Until I lost them in the surf on North Shore a couple of years back!

Rose polarized ... what special purpose?
Where can I see them on-line?
Do they have a website?
Thanks.

Adolfito, sorry, I didn't mean to capitalize the "R" in rose. I meant just rose tinted/colored lenses. They let enough light in to see into deep water when it's overcast or twilight. I wear them for everything, even at night, they're better than prozac!

Check out Native's site:

http://www.nativeyewear.com/

That´s OK ... especially being better than prozac!
Just checked their website: great models, and better if they sell or can have available the extra pair of INTERCHANGEABLE LENSES !!!
I read the specifications of the rose tinted lenses. They state they offer the sharpest contrast. Cool!!!
I have never heard of this brand, and it seems to be my next choice when needed a new pair, since I love the styles.
Like I said before, a 100% UV protection is extremely important.

Thanks!

Well I bought the bullet and picked up a pair of action optics Riptide glasses, with the silver creek brown lenses. You guys are right I can tell a drastic difference in the AO and the cheapo glasses I am used too. Thanks for all of the help.

Mike

I sell sunglasses among other products for a living. So I know a little about them. The vast majority of quality brands (companies that produce products with original retails around 75+) source their lenses from 3 major lens companies. The lenses these maufacturers produce vary in quality, but in gerneral are what most people would consider a "good" product. In my humble opinion, the brand isn't as important as the features of the sunglass. There are lots of variables that go into a lens; shape, amount of curve, what type of curve, polarized, non-polarized, gradients, etc. What is clear for fishing is you will want polarized lenses. The lens color is, in part, a personal choice. Each color has benefits/drawbacks. Bronze is a good all around choice. Your lenses should provide a fair amount of coverage with some wrap to the lens or have large arms to block any light from coming in the sides for best fishing performance. In past years, there was a large difference between the optical quality of polycarbonate and glass lenses. That is no longer true when comparing "good" products. Yes, you can still find horrible poly lenses at your local gas station for $9.99, but I'm not talking about those products. There will be those that "swear" their $250.00 glass lens sunglasses have the best ever optics. Hell, they might even have them as much as Oakley and a fist full of patents would disagree. But the difference will only matter to highly technical lab equipment and the super geeks that use this crap, not the end users. Glass lens are a little more scratch resistant than poly, but they can shatter. How much are your eyes worth? Poly on the other hand, sratches easier, but will not shatter. You might have to buy a few more pairs of poly glasses in the long run. If you are involved in active sports I personally would not recommend real glass next to your eye. On the river, a not so dangerous place, the choice is entirely yours.


Goodluck! FSF

If the glasses chosen are made by reputable organisations to the opthalmic and FDA test specifications for glasses, shattering of glass lenses isn't an issue as both poly carb and glass have to pass the same FED impact tests to at least the same minimum impact resistance level.

D.