It was announced earlier this year that Bajio was adding Reader options to their most popular fishing sunglasses. I for one was excited as I carry around several pairs of cheater glasses to help me see small things up close when I have my contacts in. Now the Bajio Readers option comes in all of their frames. So you can pick your favorite frames and have a little help with your eyesight on the water. For this review, I chose the Bajio Vega Reader Sunglasses to test.
While their are a lot of great frames in the Bajio lineup we picked the Vega based on a few factors we will discuss below.
ABOUT THE VEGA READERS FRAME
The Vega Readers frames feature many technologies from the lenses down to the lanyard Keeper Holes in the arms. But the beauty of these frames is in their concealment. The tall lenses, wide side arms, curved shape cause these sunglasses to wrap around your head and envelop your eyes in a shroud to keep all excess light out so you get a maximum ability to peer into the water and seek out fish. The tall sides and large coverage area was inspired by their namesake, Alejandro, Vega Cruz, also known as the “Sandflea.” He is widely regarded as the OG of fly fishing on the Yucatan’s Isla Holbox. When spotting fish at a distance while fishing expansive flats is paramount, you want frames like the Vega to block out the light.
ABOUT THE READERS LENSES IN BAJIO SUNGLASSES
Readers in sunglasses can be really good or not so great. It’s all about getting the reader size and placement right. If it’s too big you can get headaches from partial staring through blurry areas all day. If it’s too small you end up having to shift your frames or head around to try to peer through the lense. The Vega Readers are darn near perfect. I basically just put things low under my straight field of view, like a jighead that I’m trying to tie a knot on. It’s a quick conversion for me without having to take my sunglasses off, put them somewhere I won’t lose them or forget about them, them put my cheaters on and then tie my not. Then I have to reverse the whole process until next time I need to tie or mess with something small on the water.
You can order powers of 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 in these readers and they come in all the styles now. If you’re unfamiliar with how readers work on your eyes, you want to go with the lowest power you can see clearly with. Don’t go up to the max power right away or you make your eyes lazy and condition them and your vision can actually deteriorate faster. So go with the lowest powers. On my cheaters I started at 1.25 and right now I’m on a 1.75 or 2 power now. So I sampled the Vega Readers 2.0 Sunglasses and they were perfect. It is so nice not having to swap glasses all day.
OTHER BAJIO LENS TECHNOLOGY
The Bajio lenses offer the industry best in harmful blue light blocking as well as blocking all the harsh yellow light necessary their proprietary lens technology enhances color quality and distance you can see into the water. The LAPIS technology blocks out that harmful blue light will keep the other spectrum of colors flowing into your view so you get sharp contrasts and colors wherever your eyes take you.
MY ON THE WATER EXPERIENCE WITH VEGA READERS
I’ve worn my Vega Readers now for several months in a wide variety of fishing trips. I’ve used them on big lakes, small lakes, clear streams for smallmouths, trout streams, wooded timber lakes and more. The Vega Frames are very comfortable thanks to the padded nose section and the padded ear section of the arms. While the frames offer maximum coverage area, they do not feel heavy or pinch on your head. They are very light and fit extremely well.
The readers makes fishing a lot more enjoyable for me. Tying knots gets tougher with age. And when you’re fishing a lot of finesse lures, tiny knots on tiny lures gets really cumbersome. So these new reader options from Bajio are a much welcomed relief to angler with old eyes like me. The fact that they come in a pair of quality sunglasses is much appreciated.
OTHER VEGA FEATURES
The arms feature Keeper Holes for adding a lanyard or a piece of big monofilament to hold your sunglasses around your neck when you take them off. The two way hinges mean you can put these frames through the ringer without worrying an arm will break or they will get loose on you. The vented sides keep the fogging away so you can keep peering into the water without your sunglasses acting up on you. They come in a hard leather case with a microfiber cloth and mine came in a Bajio Bag as well to keep it all together on the go.
I’ve fished in some very hot conditions and the nose pad and arms never slipped with the all the water and sweat on them. The lenses have a coating that repels water so you can see really well out of these big frames in the rain and splashing while fishing.
You can find the Bajio Vega Readers on Bajio.com and other retailers carrying the new Reader versions. You can find the Vega frames without Readers at TackleWarehouse.com.
