I have a gift card for a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses. I don’t know squat about nice sunglasses, I’m a $14 polarized Walmart special kind of guy but I got a gift card from my job. I’d mainly use them fishing during the summer off the Oregon coast, and also while driving.

Looking for recommendations.




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Long as their polarized.

East Oregon or west?

Whether is costas or mj.

I prefer glass lens.

Their website should give a run down on what color lens serves what purpose.

I usually go with blue or green mirror.

MJ has some red mirror out now.

Does Eastern Oregon have a coastline?

I don't go fishing and haven't been to the ocean in two decades but about 1/2 hour ago I ordered a replacement version for my +10 year old Smith aviators.
(they about toast....)



Brown lens sassypants.

Maui Jim’s are free.

MJ's "Rose" is my favorite offering from them. IMO/IME it allows one to see deeper into the water than grey or brown. I've had all 3 from Maui and 3 sets of Glass from Costa.

Hard pass on glass lenses for me, not even close to worth the weight.

Hee hee! I don't know what 'model' I have, but the MJs I've worn the past couple years are polarized with the blue lens. Very comfortable, durable. Seem to be good in the scratch resistance category too. Like them a lot. Were about $200 retail.

Have 2 pairs, kipahulu in tortoise and Spartan reef in marlin, both with bronze lens. Absolutely love them. I’ve had/have Costa’s, native’s and Smith. Smith the only ones close.

Nice, well fitting sunglasses are one of life's greatest pleasures...IMHO


I wear contacts and the sunglasses are basically a must for dust.

Feel naked without them at work.

I wore the dark grey MJ Hanalei for two pairs worth. I bought the plastic lenses w great results.
Good luck. They’ll change the way you see things in the water.

Same here. Live outside and I’m never without mine. Had PRK surgery 4 years ago and my eyes are sensitive as hell to light now.

I like a copper or brown lense for fresh water fishing.

"Plastic" is a bit of a "catch-all" term. That said, all 3 of Maui's "plastic" lens offerings are excellent. In terms of optical performance their "least clear" material has an ABBE value of 43. The Human eye can detect an ABBE value up to about 45, after that, most won't see the difference. There are exceptions but consider "45" a good rule of thumb. For comparison's sake, most polycarbonate lenses have an ABBE value from 31-33 and it's the "least clear" lens material available, doesn't matter if it's sunglasses with no prescription or clear lenses in your everyday prescription glasses, polycarbonate is the least-clear piece of lens material you can put in front of your eyes.

Maui Jim Stingrays. Done.

Best sunglasses bar none.

I fish in Maui Jims and had them put readers in the lens. Now I don't have to take off my glasses tie a knot

I have kind of a big head (ha, sure) and some of the reviews suggested Southern Cross for fit. Anyone have these?

Spartan reef are for wider faces too. Fit my gourd good

Oregon?

Probably pink ones.

No insult to your most obvious expertise. It was a simple term to differentiate from the heavier glass.

Maui’s are great products.

I like pink. Who doesn’t like pink?



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For serious fishing here a single color will not cut it. We need different colors and densities to get the most out of the glass. Not uncommon to use five or more different glasses in a day.

Trying to get away with just one, I would avoid anything with red or pink. Deep green works best for my eyes.

7-8 glasses per day if you're really fishing hard?

Lol.
I like amber. Not trying to swap and keep track of multiple sunglasses. Keeping one set is hard enough.

You have only a vague notion of what I've spent chasing the Pink.

I love the Pink.

LMAO, How vain would you have to be to walk on a boat with 5 different pairs of sunglasses?

Delete that post before even more see it.

Fit of frame and color of lenses is completely subjective to the owner,

I like Grey for glare and glass if possible.

Fit likely comes first for me.

Mirrors are overrated.

Sitkadummy is hardcore!

I think the bronze/amber lense color would be best all around. Grey second best

Maui Jim Peahi Sunglasses H202-10

I was merely expounding upon your original statement and am in full agreement that any of the 3 plastics are excellent and for me at least, preferable to glass. I don't like the weight of glass and sans significant magnification (like binocs), human eyes can't detect the optical difference between glass and Maui's plastic.

I once shattered a Costa glass lens while the shades were in my coat pocket and I was loading my ice-house into the back of my pickup. Again, hard pass on glass lenses for me.

I’m calling bull💩. What a load of crap this post is.

Laughing

I fished the Kalama river, right over the Oregon/Washington border and the guys who fished the area said the best color lenses for the local eaters was amber/orange lenses. Went and got a pair and yes, it was much better than the normal shades I brought.

As the light changes... and low-angle light changes a lot... seeing fish is everything and those subtle changes make huge differences. Too many people here have seen exactly what I am saying. Believe whatever you want to believe.

you are welcome to your own beliefs. I have been doing this seriously for decades and even remember when we first heard about Polaroid glasses when I was very young. There are way too many posters here that have seen how much difference the exact right lens makes. From invisible fish to nearly neon. But please, do carry on.

Congratulations moron. Lots of folks have been shown the difference.

Often, the exact right color for a given situation might be a $10 Walmart lens... watch salmon coming in over glacial silt bottoms in a couple feet of water and all you see are shadows. Get back to me on that...

My belief is your full of 💩. Carry on sport.

Lighthouse Rimless with root beer lenses. They're so light, you'll forget you're wearing them.

How much of an idiot do you have to be to question something you have never seen spoken by someone with many decades of experience? I would say you have to be a pretty big idiot...

My facts and experiences say "your" belief is based on very little experience.

I’ve heard similar things about the rivers in Alaska. Different lenses for rivers during different times of the year due to the rivers being fed by glacial runoff.

Shhhhhhh! Let the idiots run with it!

Pharm i hear tuna require the amber color! Good score on free quality shades!

Sight fishing is not the same as other types of fishing.

When sight fishing with a flyrod, I do indeed use low-light lenses and switch out and back as light intensifies or wanes. On the salt flats, in MJ, that means HT green in low light. In Costas, Sunrise yellow (now mirrored) for low light, and something else later in the day. That’s in the salt. Two will usually do, for me, when sight fishing with a flyrod.

On the open ocean, as in non-sight fishing, I go with one pair of high UV protection, blue mirror or green mirror Costas, all day long. That’s when seeing what’s under water is much less an issue.

Sight fishing fresh water can indeed benefit from more lens colors. There are different water tints, lighting conditions, bottom colors ... copper base is a pretty good all-around, but there are places where a gray base is a huge advantage. Again, here we are talking about optimizing seeing fish to cast to, as opposed to simple UV protection. Those are two very different propositions.

I’ll leave that there ....


Another thing, and I do get crap about this (except from eye doctors), I won’t wear glass fishing, ANY kind of fishing, ever again. It’s shatterproof lenses, always, every time, from here on out, for me.

I took a tiny bead head going a gazillion miles an hour just off the corner of my right eye while flyfishing in Argentina. Totally my fault. Wind was quite strong, gusting, on-shoulder, I was using a two-handed rod, and I was just too lazy to do things like I should have.

Hurt like a mother. Turned into a shiner. And if that little bead head had hit 1 centimeter left on that killer Costa 230G glass lens, the lens would have exploded, with all those shards going into my eye.

I now fish with the most shatterproof, impact-resistant lens I can, ALWAYS. I never fish without shatterproof lenses. I also NEVER shoot without, or run power tools without such protection. I almost, al-most, had to learn the hard way.




To answer the OP: For a free, do everything pair of MJs I would get a general use gray or copper (bronze) base in an impact resistant lens.

A lot sure did happen on this thread while I was writing that post ...

Happens to me a lot, but I'm usually more long winded than most.

Thanks for the sage advice Rick.

I know you have seen fish materialize and dematerialize just by the wave of a lens... but don't tell anybody.

Unless you get glass lenses you might as well stick to $4 Walmart sunglasses. Because all the non glass lenses scratch and will look like crap unless you clean them under perfect conditions. Which isn’t always possible. I can clean glass of with pretty much whatever I have at the moment. And a shirt tail or paper towel, toilet paper whatever. My favorite is smith teclite lenses in polarchromic igniter.

Costas, MJs, Vuarnets, B&Ls? Whatever. I gots ma whiskey goggles and 8 'n' bait, and it's game time!

In typical fashion, You always seem to think you're the only one who's been fishing for decades,

Somehow water in Alaska is sooooooo much different than the rest of the world.

I still say you're full of it.

Rick, you're an amateur,

Only 2 pair?

Boss Dudes carry at least 5 pairs.

I’ll check those out. Got a big melon too.


Local MJ dealer is also a western store.

Bunch of Honies work there. Win win.

Doubling down on stupid... please, do carry on.

Careful, Rick may have clues you have never imagined.

I have seen many pridefully stick to garbage lenses and ruin what should have been spectacular days. Those same garbage lenses may very well have been perfection before and after. Aren't you ready to go all in?

What facts dumbass? Oh I forgot you’re the only one on the forum that fishes. I have owned dozens of different sunglasses so please spare anymore of your bull💩.

Great fishing shades. I’m not sure how much the color or tint matters, I guess my currents are a shade of tan or bronze. Most important element, I find, for fishing, is the fit. You want them to really cover/wrap around your eyes/face so you don’t have glare creeping in the ‘gaps’. Or as little as possible. So, go to a store that carries a full line of them and try a bunch on till you find the ones that fit best and really ‘seal’ off your eyes. I focus on pairs that ‘wrap-around’ more than others. Wish I knew what style or model mine are as I would recommend them specifically.

Vuarnets... all I have ever used.

The color is absolutely perfect for my needs.

I have Vuarnet extra dark glacier glasses from back when I used to spend time on glaciers and snowfields. They also work on the brightest of days fishing the keys and Caribbean. But they are too dark for most "normal" occasions.

IMHO the tint of Vuarnets is almost orgasmic... especially if you're hungover.

Have seen some Maui Jim sunglasses that I like. I've always hung up just a little on the fact that they are made in Peoria, Illinois.

And I get it, it's just a name

Still...

Peoria Pete's?

I wear MJ World Cups. I bought them for the boat, they have transitioned into my daily use sunglasses. Glass is the way to go in my opinion, the World cups are actually several layers of glass. They all may be idk. Mine are several years old and the frame show significant wear visually but are as tight as when they were new. The glass is perfect. Boat to chainsaw to lawnmower and everything casual. I use them.

A backside AR/anti-glare is important as well, especially if you end up with a "flatter" frame either due to preference or prescription. The flatter frame will allow more light in around the edges. A backside AR will minimize or eliminate seeing your eyes blink or your eyelashes in the backside of the lenses. Often folks catch these images in their periphery and/or when light is coming directly from the side or slightly behind them.

I wear These and buy them 12 pair for $25

Hahaha!

Those are the Tennessee Jims.

I am kind of a sunglasses junkie. My all-time fishing/on the water sunglasses are my MJ “Sports “ (I believe they are called) with titanium ribbon bows. They’re like nothing on your face, never slip down or slide around and deliver visual acuity better than anything I’ve used in the past (including glass.) They’re good enough that I’ve stayed with them for around 15 years.

If they were polarized I’d be tempted.

Sorry read fishing...
Forgot the coast part...

Was thinking sunny river fishing (east)

Overcast coast fishing (west)

The point being the amount of light matters...
Oakley has a good lens tint visualizer on their website...
You might try that to get a feel for color (grey, green, bronze, blue, red) and tint (percentage) level.

How to you organize them?

I see a new market here.

A $400 bandolier style Kuiu sun glasses organizer.

There is a vast difference between 50+ years of experience and one year of experience ten times.

Once again you show your ass.

I’m curious did you buy all those sunglasses or steal them from Splattermatic?

Showing again your willingness to post things you know nothing about. Time to go all-in!

The ones I used for years had a green lenses. Worked great off shore and in the rivers. Tried a few others over the years, but always came back to green.

As long as I can see that yellow/orange bobber in the creek or pond.

I probably spent thousands buying shooting glasses.

DG specials with the readers in the bottom work for my high tech fishing pursuits nowadays.

Sitka still trying to convince us that it's common to haul around 5 or 6 pairs of glasses daily to go fishing?

Oh I know you’re completely full of [bleep] as far as someone carrying around 5 to 6 pairs of sunglasses. As far as the splattemattic thing that’s well-documented here.

But hey by all means keep showing us your ass sport

LOL.

Where in the hell do you find this stuff?

Went to Cabelas and tried on various models. Nothing fit as well as the Southern Cross so I ordered a pair.

Thanks to all who responded with useful opinions.



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I said , Fit comes first.....

Glad you found what you were looking for.

Damn, at least tell us which frame and lens you picked!

I went in for an eye exam and the Factory rep from Costa was in the store wound up giving me about 30% off . I had my bifocal prescription sent to Costa and put in green lenses

Best thing I ever did and makes rating graphs much easier .

The internets.

Soft black with sea blue and grey. Glass lenses, neutral grey.

Should get them Friday.

Free is good.

I haven’t tried any of the MJ glasses, but Costa has SO many different frames that I just couldn’t pick one out of a catalog. Their web site is darn good with videos for picking the right lens color. Off shore ocean the blue seems to be preferred. I fish inland and the copper lenses have worked the best for me with the mirror copper a close second. I went to the biggest sunglass place I could find to pick my frame and color. They had a coy pond out front and let me try out a bunch to pick those copper lenses. The heads up display in the car does disappear wearing polarized glasses though.