Glare ? take 2

[Wildfisher]

Was down on the Don the other night, got the usual wheen o? bandies ? ? lb max. but the issue of glare came up again. Because it flows east,  upstream evening fishing is hard work. Even in dull weather the angle of the light turns the entire surface into a mirror. My amber Polaroid?s did not help much. Even big flies were very hard to spot and I missed more than one rise due to this. Do different coloured lenses help in different light conditions or should I stick to fishing in the morning with light source behind me? What else can be done about this?

[haresear]

I don?t think the lens colour will help at all here other than to reduce the glare reaching your eyes, so that you don?t have to screw your eyes too tightly.

I have a similar problem on a stretch of the Clyde in the late afternoon (or evening, at this time of year). The only solution I have found is to avoid fishing that particular area at that time of day if the sun is out as the glare makes seeing anything just about impossible when working upstream. Not only is seeing my fly impossible, but I can?t see rising fish to cast to and in all probability, the fish will be having the same problem and will be keeping their heads down.

As it happens, I fished that stretch on Sunday and thankfully the sun wasn?t much in evidence, but I made sure I fished that particular length of river first, so that I wasn?t left with an impossible situation later in the day. It really does get impossible. It helps that it is close to the parking point for the car too.   Mind you, the Clyde turns a couple of corners around that area, so I can fish the straight I am thinking of and then head south around the bend in the river.

If your stretch of river runs relentlessly west to east, you are pretty much stuck with fishing on dull evenings and making the best of it or as you suggest, earlier in the day before the sun comes round.

Alex

[Wildfisher]

It's a real problem that makes evening fishing at Alford a  chore.  The other night I ended up casting across as this was the  only way to see the line let alone the flies!  Any ripple  just makes light scattering even worse, amplifying   the problem. Oddly enough it was not even that bright, quite cloudy in fact but  with  a diffused  light source in front of you as it has to be in the  evening on an east flowing river, the scattering effect (angle of incidence etc) can be about as bad as bright sun. Think I'll try a very early morning session on Friday / Saturday depending on the  weather  (which is forecast to be utter shite). Still, it's all a great learning experince. 

[burnie]

Aren't polorised lenses supposed to stop this?

[haresear]

Aren't polorised lenses supposed to stop this?

The effectiveness of even the best polarised glasses has a limit. I have several pairs including really ones with dark grey lenses, but even these fail to cope sometimes, when looking into the reflection of a bright sun low in the sky.

Alex

[Fishtales]

Aren't polarised lenses supposed to stop this?

Only if the plane of the reflected light is on the same plane as the polarisation in the lens, or is it the opposite plane?

Fred.

Try rocking your head from one shoulder to the other and see if the reflection changes, or try turning your glasses in front of your eyes. If the reflection gets better as you turn the glasses then you will need a pair with revolving lenses to cope with it, or fish with your head cocked to the side on your shoulder

[Fishtales]

Some reading material.

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/polarization/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_(photography)