I’ve been trying out some considerably cheaper polarised sunglasses and I am amazed at how good some of them are

You need to know that I am a bit of a polarised sunglasses snob - let’s please call them sunnies for ease of use here - and that this has come about primarily from wearing a number of very good and mostly pretty expensive sunnies over many years now in some of the most extreme fishing environments there are when it comes to intensity of light and sun and the need to see as much of what’s going on underneath the surface as possible (Seychelles, Mauritius, Bolivia, Florida etc.). I also wear sunnies a huge amount here in the UK and Ireland so I have obviously been using the same ones I already have, and whilst sight-fishing is not really top of my list of what’s required from a pair of sunnies in the UK or Ireland, I still very much want polarised lenses for my fishing and walking and driving and so on…………...

For a fair few years now my go-to sunnies have been Costas, or Costa del Mar to be more precise. My favourite lens is the 580G Green Mirror, followed closely by the 580G Copper and then the 580G Silver Sunrise Mirror for lower light and/or more overcast days which we get a lot of here in the UK. For all the different Costa frames I have tried, by a long way my favourite are still the Permit ones because they work so well with a big head! Costas as many of you know are not remotely cheap at all, and whilst I have nothing of note to complain about with these awesome polarised sunnies, my understanding is that there is now no UK distributor and everything has to go through the US - including any warranty issues, and to be honest I am not sure how these things would be dealt with. I have had a couple of occasions with Costas when the grey rubber strip thing has come away from the glasses and Costa UK kindly sorted it, but if that happened now I believe it could be a real pain trying to get Costa in the US to try and sort it. So I took it upon myself to explore the world of much, much cheaper sunnies to see if they were any good and if my sunnies snobbery could be breached.

Sorry!!!

So I did what I tend to do in a situation like this - I went and asked a few questions on my Facebook page. Bearing in mind that I have had to block a number of people on there over the years, I am lucky to be able to call upon a lot of kind and informative people on Facebook, and in no time at all I received a number of sunnies related suggestions which I then went exploring. I will admit to a degree of scepticism because of my love for expensive sunnies with premium glass lenses which tend to scratch less easily than plastic polarised lenses, but I was determined to keep a very open mind. I know what I like from sunnies which is of course a polarised lens, a fairly large wraparound style frame to suit my big head and cut out any light getting into the sides of my eyes, and mostly I do like the lens to have a bit of a warm-up feel to the world. Some people prefer a far more neutral shade on a polarised lens and after a bit of time I can easily live with lenses like these, but give me a choice and I’m going for a warmer shade to the lens which I guess must come from my love of the (warmer) Green Mirror and Copper Costa lenses.

Leech Moonstone Orange, about £30, outstanding sunnies

I was very kindly sent a couple of different pairs of sunnies from a company called Leech - one not remotely cheap pair, and one pair which are almost ridiculously cheap and I still can’t quite believe how good they are. Bearing in mind that I was almost dead set on preferring their premium Tarpoon G2X with what Leech call a Copper lens (€189.50), in fact I am completely blown away by how good their dirt cheap, €29.90 Moonstone Orange sunnies are. The Moonstone frame is perfect for my big bonce, the colour of the lens reminds me so much of my favourite Costas, and whilst I accept that a roughly £30 pair of polarised sunnies will most likely scratch and/or break somewhat easier than a high-end pair, with how good I think these cheap as chips Leech lenses are as polarised sunnies I couldn’t really care less because it’s not going to hurt very much to replace them. I really want to see how good the Moonstone Yellow sunnies are for lower light and/or overcast conditions, and for those of you who prefer a more neutral shade of lens then I wonder how good the Moonstone Gray ones are. Put me on one of the remote atolls of the Seychelles when it’s all about sight-fishing and perhaps I’m going to see a noticeable difference when wearing my Costas, but a part of me doubts that the difference is actually that much with how good these cheap as chips Moonstone Orange things are at cutting out glare and so on. It may be because I was sent these sunnies to try that I didn’t get a case with them, but you need to know that for roughly £30 I don’t think you get a hard case with the Moonstone Orange sunnies.

Fortis Vistas with the Grey Blue lens

A number of people also suggested I take a look at the UK based Fortis brand of sunnies. My understanding is that Fortis is a pretty big deal in the carp world, but enough anglers with saltwater experience told me how good these things are. I have been trying a pair of the Fortis Vistas which retail for £74.99 and before we get to how they work as polarised sunnies, the actual Vistas frames are essentially a perfect wraparound style for my big head, and they are supremely comfortable to wear. I like the fact that you get a really good quality case with these Vistas sunnies, plus a cleaning cloth AND a lanyard which I happen to think is really useful.

On the Vistas box it says the lens colour is Grey Blue which I believe the company recommends for saltwater use especially. It’s a fairly neutral lens colour and as I said I tend to prefer a slightly warmer shade, but give me ten minutes in bright conditions with their Grey Blue lens and with how comfortable their Vistas sunnies are to wear and I’m just fine. These feel like proper, proper sunnies all the way when you wear them, and because of how comfortable and lightweight and easy to wear they are, I’d be really interested to see the other lens colours in the Vistas range from Fortis. Go looking around online and you can find these sunnies easily enough, and for the money and when compared to much more expensive sunnies, I can’t help but seriously like these Fortis Vistas.

Savage2 Polarized Sunglasses with the Brown lens

And now we come to a new range of sunnies from Savage Gear which I was nothing to do with but I was sent a few different pairs out of the blue a while back, and which to be perfectly honest didn’t exactly start very well with the first pair I picked up to try (it got better though!). I wanted to see what the Yellow lenses were like for lower light situations but I was pretty sure they weren’t actually polarised lenses from the off. I wasn’t very impressed but I did some research and found out that whilst there are four different lens colours in this sub-£30 Savage2 Polarized Sunglasses range, the Blue, Black and Brown lenses ARE polarised but the Yellow ones are not, and they are not meant to be either - they are for enhancing lower light and I guess they work okay for this but of course they don’t cut through any surface glare at all. I want polarised lenses so I got on with trying out the three other versions.

Now these Savage2 sunnies do float as is claimed which I do think is pretty handy with how some anglers are rather prone to pushing sunnies up when required and then forgetting they are there. I like the very lightweight protective case that comes with the Savage2 sunnies and you also get a cleaning cloth. I like the wraparound style of these sunnies, and if you don’t mind me talking at you from your screen then I’m wearing them in the video above if that is any help - but I have a big head and to be honest I do wish these Savage2 sunnies were say 25% larger overall. They fit me okay and they are not remotely tight to wear, but I’d rather have them around the (perfect) size of the Fortis Vistas. For the money they are a bit of a steal, but if these Savage2 wraparounds were of similar dimensions to the Vistas then for me they’d be a no-brainer.

So if we forget about the Yellow lens colour then let’s look at the Blue, Black and Brown lens colours which I happen to think are not particularly useful names with how the lenses actually are. My favourite by a mile is the Brown lens which to me is the closest to more of a warm-up, copper style polarised lens I prefer, and they are really rather nice to use. The Blue lenses are not remotely blue or more neutral as the name suggests, rather they are a very garish and hugely warmed up shade which is far too much for me. If you like a neutral or indeed slightly “cooler than reality” lens colour then go for the Black lens which again is not exactly the most useful name for a polarised lens.

Bearing in mind the state of the world and the fact that I won’t be going to somewhere like the Seychelles in the foreseeable future, when it comes to behaving like really good polarised sunnies then to be honest I am amazed at how well these considerably cheaper than something like Costas work. Wear any of them for your fishing - save for the Yellow Savage2 ones as I described - and I am happy to admit that my high-end sunnies snobbery is well on the way to being dismantled. If I was going on a really expensive sight-fishing based fishing trip abroad where a risk of gear failure could impact on the experience - bear in mind that all those trips I went on I was working as a photographer - then I’d still be very much inclined towards the high-end sunnies with how they are made and how the lenses stand up to a good bit of hard use, but for day to day fishing and walking and driving and so on I am happy to say that my opinions on far cheaper sunnies have completely changed with how good the ones here today are. Give me a lot more time with them and I will report back with how they are holding up, but if a £30 pair of sunnies does end up lasting a good length of time then I for one am sold, and then you’ve got those seriously premium-feeling Fortis Vistas for more money but they are still well under £100. I love trying stuff out as you know, and as much as I love the high-end gear, nothing satisfies me more than finding much cheaper gear that works really well and which I actually want to use for my own fishing.

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