Fishing glasses play a vital role in both safety and performance when you’re on the water, but the best fishing eyewear takes it a step further. With all of those hooks flying around in the air, it's highly recommended that you always wear some kind of eyewear to protect your eyes. However, to make our list of the Best Fishing Eyewear, glasses needed to have advanced lenses with proper tints, polarization, and clarity, combined with lightweight frames that won’t slip, for truly high-performance fishing glasses.
We've looked at different styles of fishing in different scenarios (like water type and light conditions) to offer a wide range of glasses to meet various fishing needs. Without further ado, the Best Fishing Glasses of the Year are...
Costa sunglasses were designed by anglers for anglers, so it's no surprise that the Costa Blackfin Pro is this year's best pair of fishing sunglasses. Combining lightweight frames that provide peripheral sun coverage with high-performance polarized lenses in tints for every fishing situation, these Costas will protect your eyes from sun and hooks, help you spot inshore schools or rising trout, and will look great at the waterfront bar after lunch.
Maui Jim sunglasses were also originally created for life on the water, and few brands understand how to meet the needs of anglers like this Hawaii-rooted company. The Southern Cross from Maui Jim makes our list as the Best Polarized Fishing Sunglasses because they not only feature PolarizedPlus2 lenses which block light reflecting off the water like no other lens, but the lightweight, full-coverage, nylon frames are available with the three most popular lens tints for fishing—green, grey, and amber. If you need the best polarized lenses for fishing, look no further than Maui Jim's Southern Cross frames with PolarizedPlus2 lenses.
Of course, we have to head back to the iconic saltwater fishing brand, Costa, for our pick for the Best Saltwater Fishing Sunglasses—the Tuna Alley. Whether you're in the deeps fishing for marlin, looking for schools of bonefish in the flats, or surfcasting from your neighborhood beach, the Costa Tuna Alley delivers the full-coverage design and top-of-the-line polarized lenses that protect your eyes from the sun, while enhancing your vision on the water. No matter where you fish the sea, these performance saltwater fishing sunglasses are simply the best tool for the job.
While Oakley is known for its action sports eyewear designs, the Split Shot has earned its place atop our list as the Best Prescription Fishing Glasses. The sheer number of options available for these frames, allows you to choose prescription sunglasses that can work for any type of fishing with any light conditions. With about 50 lens color and treatment options for prescription sunglass lenses, with tints ranging from dark grey to light yellow and light rose (including Prizm lens designs), plus additional options for photochromic Transitions™ lenses, you can tailor these fishing glasses to meet your needs, not just your prescription.
Early mornings, late evenings, and constantly changing lights are the norm for most fly anglers. We chose the Zeal Optics Decoy as the Best Fly Fishing Sunglasses because they solve the challenge of changing light, while delivering everything you want in a pair of fishing glasses. The Decoy comes with Zeal’s Automatic Polarized Photochromic Lenses, which adapt to changing light, shading your eyes the closer you are to the midday sun, and lightning during the morning, evening, and overcast light. Plus, as the lens technology suggests, they're polarized. And if you're a saltwater angler, or just a "bank hours" angler, you'll appreciate the full coverage and dark-end tint of these Best Fly Fishing Sunglasses of the Year.
Whether you're ripping across a glassy lake at 50, or chucking big diving cranks by some structure, eye protection may not be a top priority, but it should be. Our Best Bass Fishing Sunglasses, Wiley X's WX Peak, deliver tactical performance and ballistic safety (meeting ANSI Z87.1 impact standards), meaning that if your new fishing buddy isn't so trustworthy with their backcast, or you take a bug to the face when you have your throttle pinned, your eyes will be protected. Now, that’s just what allows these sunglasses to edge out other competitors. They also deliver everything you want in a great pair of bass fishing glasses, including polarized lenses in a variety of tints for any light conditions you'll see on the water, a lightweight frame that you won't notice on your ears and nose, and an anti-slip design to keep them on your face or the back of your head when you’re at the bar after a tournament.
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