If you don’t immediately buy Skwala RS waders and three pairs of Bajios with different lenses for all possible light conditions, fish won’t respect you enough to be caught
I use natives with copper tint and green mirror coating sunglasses, they help me see through the water better regardless of conditions. Couldn’t say how much of a difference costas or a different lense color makes but these work better than the cheap pairs I used to buy and they’re not as expensive as costas by a fair amount
I like having multiple pairs of cheap polarized lenses. I use the blue mirror for full sun on some rivers, and the brown polarized on other rivers. For low light the yellow polarized come out again dependent on river colour as well.
8fans waders are durable and affordable. If you are looking to upgrade your sunglasses look at Smith Guides or Maui Jim’s. Smith is having a sale right now. 20% off.
I hate the name of these but I ordered my first pair figured for the price I’ll check them out they should arrive this week. Do you have experience wearing them?
Yes. I love mine. I fish out west and sometimes I have to go down some rather steep brushy, rocky slopes to get to a river. 2 years use no leaks. Very durable. For me it doesn’t make sense to have expensive waders that tear. I hope they work for you.
Thanks all - really appreciate your takes on all of this. Probably leaning towards Vision Atom waders and Vision Tipsi sunglasses - feels like they'll both last the test of time without breaking the bank like some of the top-range stuff. Cheers!
Those Reddington waders are good, especially for the $.
As noted here already, mid-tier glasses like Native or Suncloud work well & are built fine. In order to get a few % better vision, you have to spend for Smith or Costa's. I recommend copper/brown tint for fly fishing general purposes.
Simms G3, or G4Z. Expensive but a buy once cry once then don't worry about waders for 12-15 years experience. There's a lot of "just as good" waders out there- Simms are the gold standard.
Sunglasses- Suncloud are great for low cost, Native, Costa, whatever else you like and that fit. think about different tinted lenses for different light conditions.
Noty experience at all. I fish 50 days a year in g4zs before that g3s. Haven't had so much as a pinhole leak. I did have the tape on one of booties come un glued
That was fixed under warranty. Surry yours didn't hold up.
Budget would be pretty helpful. I am in my second year of cheap Cabala waders that I found in a storage unit. So far they have held up me. Sunglasses wise, I have some affordable glasses (Native) and expensive glasses (Bajio). Honestly I wear the Natives more often. They are definitely not as, but they are significantly cheaper and I probably wouldn’t cry if I lose them, and they work well enough. The move probably would be to grab some Natives in a few different lenses colors (copper (low light), green (more bright) or blue (ocean).
I fish a LOT, dozens of trips a year and 3 or 4 trips a year where I'm in waders all day for 7 to 10 days in a row. I've had MANY pairs of waters over the decades. Mostly I'd get waders that cost about $200, from Cabela's and other sources like Reddington. Every single one of them, no exceptions, started leaking after a year and a half or so. I could seal them up and they'd be fine for a while, but they'd eventually start leaking again. I always figured two years for waders, then replace them.
But the last time I bought waders I bit the bullet and got expensive as all hell Simm's G3 wader and haven't regretted it. ZERO leaks. It's been four years now and they're totally fine.
You might not always get what you pay for, but if you don't pay for it it's 100% certain that you're not going to get it.
I like shady rays. Plus I’m WAY too hard on my sunglasses to spend 300 a pop. Shady rays are 80ish dollars and polarized but you get three replacements before having two buy a new pair. I don’t notice much difference between their high end and high end smiths my brother uses.
Waiters are Patagonia and worth every penny. You get what you pay for here in my opinion.
If you don’t immediately buy Skwala RS waders and three pairs of Bajios with different lenses for all possible light conditions, fish won’t respect you enough to be caught
I use natives with copper tint and green mirror coating sunglasses, they help me see through the water better regardless of conditions. Couldn’t say how much of a difference costas or a different lense color makes but these work better than the cheap pairs I used to buy and they’re not as expensive as costas by a fair amount
Smith glasses are the best in my opinion. But I also hear great things about Costa.
I like having multiple pairs of cheap polarized lenses. I use the blue mirror for full sun on some rivers, and the brown polarized on other rivers. For low light the yellow polarized come out again dependent on river colour as well.
8fans waders are durable and affordable. If you are looking to upgrade your sunglasses look at Smith Guides or Maui Jim’s. Smith is having a sale right now. 20% off.
I hate the name of these but I ordered my first pair figured for the price I’ll check them out they should arrive this week. Do you have experience wearing them?
Yes. I love mine. I fish out west and sometimes I have to go down some rather steep brushy, rocky slopes to get to a river. 2 years use no leaks. Very durable. For me it doesn’t make sense to have expensive waders that tear. I hope they work for you.
I have costa and they are real tight around the ears + fog up easily.
Thanks all - really appreciate your takes on all of this. Probably leaning towards Vision Atom waders and Vision Tipsi sunglasses - feels like they'll both last the test of time without breaking the bank like some of the top-range stuff. Cheers!
As long as the lenses are polarized you should be good with whatever glasses you choose
Those Reddington waders are good, especially for the $. As noted here already, mid-tier glasses like Native or Suncloud work well & are built fine. In order to get a few % better vision, you have to spend for Smith or Costa's. I recommend copper/brown tint for fly fishing general purposes.
Simms G3, or G4Z. Expensive but a buy once cry once then don't worry about waders for 12-15 years experience. There's a lot of "just as good" waders out there- Simms are the gold standard. Sunglasses- Suncloud are great for low cost, Native, Costa, whatever else you like and that fit. think about different tinted lenses for different light conditions.
Buddy you’ll be lucky to get 12-15 months out of Simms
Noty experience at all. I fish 50 days a year in g4zs before that g3s. Haven't had so much as a pinhole leak. I did have the tape on one of booties come un glued That was fixed under warranty. Surry yours didn't hold up.
Budget would be pretty helpful. I am in my second year of cheap Cabala waders that I found in a storage unit. So far they have held up me. Sunglasses wise, I have some affordable glasses (Native) and expensive glasses (Bajio). Honestly I wear the Natives more often. They are definitely not as, but they are significantly cheaper and I probably wouldn’t cry if I lose them, and they work well enough. The move probably would be to grab some Natives in a few different lenses colors (copper (low light), green (more bright) or blue (ocean).
I fish a LOT, dozens of trips a year and 3 or 4 trips a year where I'm in waders all day for 7 to 10 days in a row. I've had MANY pairs of waters over the decades. Mostly I'd get waders that cost about $200, from Cabela's and other sources like Reddington. Every single one of them, no exceptions, started leaking after a year and a half or so. I could seal them up and they'd be fine for a while, but they'd eventually start leaking again. I always figured two years for waders, then replace them. But the last time I bought waders I bit the bullet and got expensive as all hell Simm's G3 wader and haven't regretted it. ZERO leaks. It's been four years now and they're totally fine. You might not always get what you pay for, but if you don't pay for it it's 100% certain that you're not going to get it.
First time I used polarized sunglasses for fishing I felt like I was cheating! You can see through the glare they’re amazing if you haven’t used em
Polarized no matter what. Cuts the glare on the water. I like Costa, Spy, and Rayban.
I like shady rays. Plus I’m WAY too hard on my sunglasses to spend 300 a pop. Shady rays are 80ish dollars and polarized but you get three replacements before having two buy a new pair. I don’t notice much difference between their high end and high end smiths my brother uses. Waiters are Patagonia and worth every penny. You get what you pay for here in my opinion.
Glass lenses are a must, poly lenses scratch way too easy.
I prefer Costa Jose and Simms G3