Sun Protection for Anglers: Why Your Eyes Need More Than Just Sunglasses

Whether you are a seasoned angler or just dipping your toe into the sport, you know that time spent on the water is precious. It’s your chance to forget the day-to-day worries of landlubbers and focus on fishing. And while fishing is a fantastic mental escape as well as great physical activity (especially if you hook up), that time outside chasing your passion can also have you running for cover when it comes to overexposure to the sun. 

The Essential Shield 

Unlike folks on dry land, anglers get a double dose of UV light directly from the sun and the reflection off the water leading to higher instances of skin cancer. Because the skin is the most accessible organ to sunlight, it suffers directly. Each year in the U.S., more than one-third of adults experience sunburn and more than 1 million cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer and an estimated 53,600 cases of melanoma are diagnosed. But your skin isn’t the only thing that can be burned, your corneas can as well, especially when experiencing long-term exposure. 

Investing in a few important pieces of protective fishing gear and observing sun safety practices can go a long way toward staying healthy out there. Offering sun protection for anglers, Bajío Sunglasses is committed to providing superior UV protection eyewear that not only blocks 100% of cancer-causing Ultraviolet (UV) light but also blocks 95% of bad blue light that can damage the retina. And that’s just the tip of the fly rod. Before exploring sun-blocking gear and fishing sun safety tips, it’s important to understand the type of light that can cause damage to help protect yourself.  

Understanding the Risks of Sun Exposure to Anglers

It all comes down to Ultraviolet (UV) Rays, there are three types: UVA, UVB & UVC. UVA rays penetrate the skin more deeply than UVB, playing a major part in skin aging, wrinkling and contributing to the growth of skin cancer. UVB rays are the main cause of sunburn, damaging the skin's outer layers and also contributing to the growth of skin cancer. Thankfully, UVC rays don’t reach our skin as the Earth’s atmosphere absorbs UVC rays before they reach the surface.

UV rays are absorbed by a chemical in the skin called melanin. Some of us have more melanin than others (generally lighter skin has less melanin). But melanin can’t absorb all the UV rays and the excess rays lead to harmful health conditions such as sunburn, premature aging, skin cancer, cataracts and other eye problems. 

Beyond Sunglasses: Comprehensive Sun Safety 

While being fully exposed to the water provides little to no protection from the sun, the amount of effective sun protection gear available to combat harmful rays continues to grow and improve. Anglers can outfit themselves from head to toe starting with hats. Wide-brim fishing hats with UPF fabric cover your ears and provide shade for the neck and temple areas. 

When your hat doesn’t cover it all, consider a buff to shade your neck, ears and face. These are essential for fishing in the tropics. Moving on down, there are sun shirts, hoodies and quick dry pants made with lightweight, breathable fabric and built-in UV protection to cover the entire body, if you so desire. 

Gloves are another option. You may normally think of gloves as something to keep your hands warm, not something to wear in the hot sun, but sun gloves protect from painful back of the hand burns. 

And while you’re exploring sun gloves, why not check out sun socks? Made for anglers who stand on skiffs’ elevated decks all day, socks are a solid option versus going barefoot. Lightweight sock liners also work great, help you feel the fly line beneath your feet, and are considerably less slippery than sunscreen-slathered feet.

Though slippery indeed, and a dead giveaway to keen fish if it smears all over your flyline, sunscreen is still one of the best ways to protect your skin. Dermatologists advise applying a 50+ SPF cream or zinc oxide at the start of the day and then reapplying every couple of hours throughout the progression of your fishing adventure. Reef-safe sunscreens are recommended. 

Advanced Protection: The Role of Sunglasses 

With your skin protection in check, now it’s time to focus on your eyes. Sunglasses in general provide at least some angler eye protection, but to reach the highest standards of UV, bad blue light, and harsh yellow light protection, anglers reach for Bajío Sunglasses for sun safety. 

Not only are Bajíos the world’s clearest polarized shades, in comparison to the top five fishing sunglass manufacturers, Bajios go beyond standard sun protection to block significantly more bad blue light than anyone else, and the same or better as the other high-performance brands when it comes to harsh yellow and UV rays—all while allowing in good light and brilliant color. 

In the rainbow of light spectrum, harsh yellow light interferes with color definition, ultraviolet (UV) light contributes to cataract development and skin cancer, and bad blue light scatters when it enters the eye resulting in haze and visual blur. Bajío lenses are purpose-built to combat these negative effects from the sun’s rays.

Our eyes have specialized color receptors called cones that only process red, blue, and green light (RGB). The goal is to manage the light that stimulates the cones for optimum visual clarity. Using patent-pending LAPIS™ technology developed by optical experts, Bajío lenses block 95% of bad blue light (up to 445 nm), the majority of harsh yellow light (at its peak of 580 nm), and 100% of UV light. 

Bajío frames also offer extra sun protection with features like the built in Sun Ledge™—not visible from the outside, it blocks rays from the inside—found in the Eldora and Sigs styles from the Tight Lines collection, and in the Hopedale from the Surf collection. Another sun-blocking frame feature is the extra wide temples in Bajío’s Wide Body collection like the award-winning Piedra, Vega, Darien, and Nato. The result is no more hazy days, no more color interference and better protection of the eyes and the skin surrounding the eyes.

Bajío is paving the way to help anglers to prioritize their eye and skin health with better lens technology and frame design. Add a pair of Bajíos to your list of protective gear to take a multi-faceted approach to sun safety—keeping UV rays away and the derms at bay.