Aside from your actual basic tackle items the most essential piece of kit most anglers possess is a pair of Polarising glasses – totally essential not just for shade and eye protection but, equally as important (some would say more so) for fish spotting and feature finding.
When it comes to Polarising lenses there is a lot of truth in the old adage that you get what you pay for and the difference in contrast and definition between a corner shop pair and those from one of the noted manufacturers of eyewear really has to be seen (or indeed not seen…) to be believed.
The folks at Shade Station sent us a pair of the Oakley Fuel Cell glasses for review in a very on-trend Woodland camo finish, fitted with blue Polarising lenses – although other frame and lens colour variants are available.
Supplied in a matching camo, soft, drawstring pouch the styling is, as you would expect from Oakley, terrific, and the fit comfortable enough for all day use without noticing they are there. That said, given the fact that we anglers are often found hanging from trees, rocks and bridges – often well off the vertical plane – a lanyard is a good investment to make sure they don’t end up downstream…
We took the glasses out to a clear section of the River Itchen on both a dull, cloudy day and in bright sunshine (difficult last month…) to ensure we put them through their paces in all light conditions. As you should always do in a fishing situation we took them off every 20 minutes or so to stop our eyes from compensating for the lens colouration and found they offered excellent glare reduction and underwater enhancement in all intensities. They were faultless in bright light as a blue lens should be but we were particularly surprised with their effectiveness at the lower levels; indeed we were able to clearly pick out trout, grayling and roach over a variety of substrates well into dusk.
Comfortable, good to look at, very effective to look through and covered by the Oakley one year guarantee – what’s not to like?!
Tech. Spec.
Frame: Woodland Camo
Lens: Shallow Blue Polarised
Guarantee: Official Oakley Sunglasses 1 year guarantee
Lens size: 60mm
Arm size: 130mm
Bridge size: 19mm
Category: 3
Frame material: Plastic Composite (Plastic)
Lens material: Plutonite
The Oakley Fuel Cell Woodland Camo Sunglasses retail at £112 and are available to purchase HERE with a separate lanyard, costing £4.25, available HERE
If you want to enter our competition to win yourself a pair simply tell us what the manufacturer’s code for the Oakley Fuel Cell Woodland Camo Sunglasses is. You’ll find the answer HERE and you can enter the competition HERE.
The winner will be drawn from all correct entries received by midnight on 30 September 2014.
