I’m going to use the word sunnies instead of having to type out “a pair of polarised sunglasses” every single time I need to refer to a pair of polarised sunglasses, and at the end of the day the only sunglasses I wear are going to always have polarised lenses anyway. To be perfectly honest I can’t see much point in not having polarised lenses in a pair of sunglasses, not with how good they can make the world look, and not with how useful they are for fishing and driving and so on………….

Sorry! But this is me wearing the Fortis Vistas for my fishing.

So we’ve got a £75 pair of sunnies here which I have tried in three different lens colours, but which I had never heard of until a good number of anglers suggested I take a look at the Fortis sunnies a while back. I am pretty sure that Fortis started out doing clothing for carp anglers and then quickly moved into making sunnies for these anglers, so whilst they do a whole range of sunnies here, it was their Vista frames I was drawn to the most because I always like wrap-around sunnies, plus the anglers who initially drew my attention to the Fortis brand told me to look at the Vista ones first. So I did, and wow am I glad I did as well, because these things are simply outstanding. They may well have been designed for the carp/freshwater market, but the Blue XBlok (mirror), Amber and Brown lenses work just as well in the saltwater world.

If money was no object and the Costa del Mar brand of high-end sunnies was still here in the UK then I would most likely not be writing a blog post like this, but the simple fact is that price is actually a consideration for most of us, plus Costa no longer has a distributor in the UK. Rightly or wrongly this makes me somewhat nervous of spending north of £200 on a pair of 580G Costa sunnies and then potentially having no comeback if something goes wrong with them. This Costa related issue got me looking around a while back, and I stumbled across the rather good Leech brand of sunnies - check out my review here.

If you want a ridiculously cheap but really rather good pair of sunnies then try tracking down the Leech Moonstone which I refer to in that Leech review, but over time the nose pads fell off. They are still comfortable enough to wear and I guess I can’t really complain when these Moonstone sunnies are so cheap. The Dusk lens on the more expensive Leech X2 sunnies are bloody brilliant, but for me and the shape of my head it’s the actual X2 frames which cause me a few problems. Try as I might they fog up that bit too much and over time it’s become something I can’t ignore. It’s frustrating because the lenses are so good for here in the UK and Ireland, but if I was to persist with Leech sunnies then I would need to try some of their other frames out. If I get the chance to do so I will because I like the Dusk lens so much, and please note that it’s my bonce not working quite right with these X2 frames - you will most likely be just fine.

It’s the lens colours which I think is a good way to bring us back to the review of these outstanding Vista sunnies from Fortis. I have a big head which I like to think is full of brains (but if it was I would probably be doing something far more lucrative with my life than working in fishing), and these Vista frames are perfect for me. They are so comfortable I simply forget I’ve got sunnies on, and that is when I know I’ve got the right frame for the shape of my head. I really like the fact that you also get a good quality glasses case, cleaning cloth and retainers included with these Vistas, but I don’t actually like this style of retainers very much and I use these things on any sunnies I own instead.

I have worn the Blue XBlok lens the most, and whilst I personally prefer a slightly warm up/copper base to my sunnies (for which I blame my love affair with the Costa 580G Green Mirror lenses), this Blue XBlok lens colour is very neutral and clear and as far as I can tell from fishing here in the UK and Ireland with all our up and down weather, we are also talking about some really good quality polarised lenses. The page on the Fortis website which explains there different lens colours - here - takes a bit of delving into to find out exactly what is going on, but my understanding is that these Blue XBlok lenses utilise their Grey lens (very neutral, no colour cast) and then a “Blue XBlok” mirrored coating is put on to help reduce even more glare from the water. Whatever wizardry is actually going on, take it from me that the Fortis Vistas with the Blue XBlok lenses is a mighty fine pair of sunnies. Five minutes with these things covering my eyes and I have forgotten all about thinking that I prefer a bit of a warm up look to the world.

Before anybody asks me what the Fortis lenses are made from, I copied this from their website: “Fortis Eyewear polarised lenses are made from a material called Tri-Acetate Cellulose or TAC. Polarised TAC lenses have many advantages including high abrasion resistance, in fact one of the highest abrasion/scratch resistance of any optical plastic. Our TAC lenses provides very little distortion in fact less than any polycarbonate lenses. TAC is more lightweight and thinner than glass making it comfortable to wear all day. Other high performance features of our lenses include being more impact resistant than glass and more scratch resistant than polycarbonate”.

Fortis Vistas with the Brown lenses, front on

I have also worn these Vista frames with their Brown lens a fair bit, but I happen to think that the word “Brown” is doing these fantastic lenses a bit of a disservice. On the Fortis website it says that their Brown lens is best suited to low light and cloudy/overcast conditions, but in the saltwater world I am inclined to disagree. These Brown lenses are absolutely stunning on those big blue sky days, indeed they remind me a lot of my beloved Green Mirror lens from Costa with how they have a lovely warm up/copper base and really make everything “pop” when that sun is shining. For obvious reasons any global travel we might have wanted to do has been seriously curtailed, but I would really like to use these Vista frames with the Brown lenses on tropical saltwater flats because I reckon they would be great.

But overall it’s the Amber lenses which I know would end up spending the most time in my rucksack and then over my eyes when you consider the sort of fishing and walking and around and driving which so many of us might do in a country such as the UK or Ireland. Just as those very bright and contrasty and excellent Dusk lenses on the Leech sunnies suit our ever-changing light conditions, these yellowish based Amber lenses on the Fortis Vista frames are very similar whilst being a touch more subtle/less yellow. Even in more overcast conditions I am getting something from the polarisation, but there is also enough light getting through (38%, medium to high contrast) to allow me to wear these sunnies even when there is lots of cloud around and/or the light levels are lower. Then if the sun does suddenly come out and life gets really bright, these Amber lenses aren’t remotely too contrasty or bright to annoy me.

And this in turn references my question in the blog post title - what do we need from our sunnies? It very much depends on what kind of fishing you do and where, and I would suggest that most of us who love our bass fishing aren’t generally trying to see into the water as much as possible to sight-fish to bass (I wish!). Bonefishing on remote Indian Ocean atolls it is not, but I will personally wear sunnies as much as possible when I am fishing - I want to protect my eyes whenever possible from glare and hooks and so on, I want to be able to spot any fish which might be moving around, but perhaps more importantly for bass fishing in the UK and Ireland, I want to get the best possible idea of the ground. The more I can cut glare off the surface of the water the better for doing this, and if I happen to see a great big bass mooching around then that would be nice as well!

So on those big blue sky days I do love a pair of sunnies with lenses more akin to the Fortis Blue XBlok and Brown colours, but in reality our light levels go up and down like a yo-yo when we are out fishing during daylight hours. I love how good the world looks when the sun is bright and the more regular lenses make everything “pop” so beautifully, but at the end of the day I am also a realist - and I can’t get away from how versatile the Amber lenses are on the excellent Fortis Vista frames. Coming from somebody who over the years has worn a lot of different sunnies all around the world but who actually does the bulk of his own fishing here in the UK and over in Ireland, well I haven’t yet come across any sub-£100 sunnies which I like more than these Fortis Vistas. For £75 they are an absolute bargain in my opinion, so while I can tell you how much I like the actual frames and how good the actual lenses are, I can only hope that what has turned out to be a rather lengthy and rambling blog post might help you a bit with deciding on lens colours whether you end up with these Vistas or not.

More fishing tackle reviews

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

Fortis Vistas polarised sunglasses review - £75 here in the UK (what do we need from our sunnies?)

© Henry Gilbey 2023