Troutbitten 100 Day Gear Review - Tajima Polarized Lenses
Originally Published On Troubitten.
The 100 Day Gear Review Series on Troutbitten takes a look at how gear is performing after the century benchmark. Should our fly fishing gear last longer than 100 days? You bet. And after many months of heavy use, we can have an excellent understanding of what we bought.
The gear reviews on Troutbitten feature products I’ve used extensively and believe in. These reviews are an honest account and reflection of my time spent fishing with these products. I fish hard, and I tell you no lies. That’s the way it is here.
Every Day, All Day
Everything we do on a river improves with good visibility. Reading water currents, gauging depth and mapping the contours of the riverbed are fundamental to success, and spotting a trout once in a while is a nice bonus too. So for the dedicated angler, excellent polarized lenses are a critical piece of gear — every day, all day.
Sunglasses aren’t just for the sun. The polarization in front of our eyes, along with the right tint in great lenses opens up the river in remarkable ways. I’m more comfortable and effective when I see and know what’s happening underneath. Even in dirty water conditions, when good polarization may provide only a marginal improvement, I’ll take it, because any small advantage makes fishing more efficient and more enjoyable.
Every day, all day, we wear sunglasses for fly fishing.
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But in truth, some glasses restrict vision more than aid it. So the right lenses at the right times make all the difference. And after decades of fishing, I found the answer . . .
I’ve been working with Tajima Direct for about a year now, and I’m happy to recommend their services. Tajima’s lenses provide the clearest vision I’ve experienced. With no eye strain, they’re comfortable enough to wear all day, from dawn to dusk. (More on low-light lenses below.)
Tajima offers the best lens replacement technology and service in the industry. Send them your sunglasses and they’ll mail them back to you in about a week, with your choice of lens tints, specifically designed for a variety of fly fishing situations. They offer prescription and non-prescription lenses — the best vision at great prices.
Tajima provides exactly what we need at just the right time. Here’s what I mean . . .
Those Old Sunglasses
If you’ve fished for a few seasons, then you surely have a couple pairs of sunglasses laying around that you no longer use. Maybe the lenses are scratched, or maybe they were never the right tint in the first place.
Tajima offers a logical solution. Turn your extra sunglasses into your favorite sunglasses by replacing the lenses.
Choose your lens color, and dial in comfortable vision.
Service
Any time you’re dealing with a company through emails and messaging, rather than face to face, customer service has to be perfect.
I’ve gotten two pairs of lenses from Tajima, and the processing was exceptional, with great communication, on time delivery and high quality that delivered on their promise.
Tajima is a California based company owned and operated by a father-and-son team, with deep roots in the sunglasses industry. They’ve been around for a long time. They hold technological patents, and they know the game.
Tajima offers great customer service, with a personal touch.
Prescription
A few years ago my vision changed, and I needed correction. I started with contact lenses, in large part because I’m on the water every day, wearing sunglasses.
As my prescription became more complicated, my contact lens options became limited, until last winter, it only made sense to move to prescription lenses. Fortunately, an email from Jacob at Tajima came around at just the right time.
I had briefly tried other solutions. Fit-over sunglasses were a disaster, and clip-ons were not much better. Because I’ve spent so many years behind a good pair of sunglasses, no other solution would make me content.
Even the pair of prescription lenses that I ordered from my eye doctor were nothing like what I got from Tajima — comfort, clarity and better vision in all light levels.
Tints
I fished for a couple decades with standard polarized sunglasses — some cheap, some expensive, but all were the normal tints or grey or amber.
However, I fish for brown trout which are notorious for avoiding sun and preferring shade. And to accommodate those trout, I fish dawn, dusk, the low light of cloudy days and even the shady, protected canyon pieces on sunny days. And for all those years with grey or amber lenses, I spent a lot of time lifting my glasses to tie a knot or removing them for the darkest situations, only to put them back on at the next open river bend with more light.
I bought a pair of Costa Fantails with yellow lenses, and they helped greatly. When Tajima got in touch, I sent those sunglasses in, even though the lenses were still in decent shape. Because I was eager to try their special low-light Yellow Green 40 with the highest light transmission on the market.
The Tajima Yellow Green 40 are impressive. They’re exactly what I hoped for. I wear them on all but the brightest days and never take them off. I tie knots and fish until the sun goes down, without thinking about my sunglasses.
When the sun is harsh on summer days, or snowy banks of winter reflect light onto a washed out white canvas, I wear the Tajima Brown 15 Green Mirror in a pair of Costa Whitetip frames.
Both lens tints are extremely comfortable for me, with excellent polarization, meaning I see clearly, with no eye strain.
Tajima offers a wide variety of mirrored and non-mirrored lenses that are dialed in for fishing in different situations: brown, green, copper/rose, yellow and blue. Check out the description of each color to find what suits your waters best.
Get 'Em
In a short time, Tajima has become part of the Troutbitten family, and I’m proud to recommend their services.
Find them at Tajima-Direct.com. Navigate their website, and drop them a line if you need help. This is a great company.
Fish hard, friends.
Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com