Living in My Costa Grand Catalinas

I wasn’t cool in the 1980s.

That meant I didn’t have the Tom Cruise Risky Business Wayfarers. Nor did I rock the Vuarnets that all the cool skiers had.

As far as I can recall, the first sunglasses I owned were the $10 Roland Martin specials from Bass Pro Shops that were far too wide for my long face and pencil neck.

Four decades later, I’m still far from cool, but at least I have the budget to get the sunglasses that I need for different purposes. Costa Del Mar has been a leader in the angling space for my entire career on the water, and I’ve worn multiple different pairs of Costas – different frames and different lens colors. They were all solid, but the ones I liked the best were the King Tides that I got last year. Not only did they fit my older face perfectly, but the side shields were a godsend.

Other polarized sunglasses I’ve tried with side shields either got stuffy, or trapped humidity, undermining their attempted purpose. Somehow the venting system they’ve developed ended that, and the shields didn’t get in my way at all – in fact they blocked out more light than any other eyewear I own. I used them for everything from sight fishing for bass to offshore tuna popping to sunny day bike rides. I found that I grabbed them more than just about any other sunglasses I owned, and I hoped that same connection would exist with the new Grand Catalinas.

Well, I say “new” but they’re actually the introduction of an older, retro style that I would’ve craved (but couldn’t have afforded) in the 1980s. It’s an aviator-style shape, but the frames aren’t made out of metal. I figured that all of those King Tide characteristics – particularly the sweat management channels and the vented nose pads, would carry over here, too.

An All-Around Lens

So – with the King Tides ready to go -- why did I need them?

I wanted to try Costa’s gold mirror lenses. While I have a LOT of sunglasses, with a pair in every vehicle, plus in the boat, and more in a bin in my office ready to go, I’m always looking for that “do it all” lens – the one that’s not just for inshore or offshore or low light conditions. I don’t want to have to change sunglasses mid-activity. Indeed, even if the conditions warrant such a change, it’s hard to remember to do it, or to bring the appropriate second pair of eyewear. They advertised the gold mirror 580G lenses as working well in a wide range of scenarios – not just a “jack of all trades, master of none,” but rather something where there’d be no dropoff in performance in wildly different endeavors.

The Grand Catalina Use Case

When I got the Grand Catalinas a couple of months ago, I was mostly fishing close to home for bass; not sight fishing, but chasing them shallow on a mix of both cloudy and bluebird days. Since then, I put them through the wringer on a week long trip to Guatemala where I really tried diligently to work on spotting the sailfish in the spread before the captain or the mates could see them. I rarely beat the captain (in my defense, it’s easier from his overhead perch, and he has decades of experience looking for them) but I felt like I saw a higher percentage of sailfish more quickly than I ever did on our previous trips.

On that trip, we also dealt with highly variable weather, going from pouring rain to tropical sunshine often in a matter of moments as we weaved in and out of the feeding grounds. While I wore other glasses one of the three days on the water, I found that the Grand Catalinas excelled across the board. I expected them to stumble a bit in brutal in-your-face rays, but I was surprised at the clarity of their viewpoint and their ability to knock out the harshest sun. During one sunny period I switched back to blue mirror glasses, generally considered the best for offshore fishing – maybe I was just used to them at that point, but I felt that I had more target clarity and separation with the gold mirror. Once we left Casa Vieja Lodge for some R&R at Lake Atitlan, I still rocked the Grand Catalinas. The retro vibe just seemed to fit the laid back environs.

Notes and Thoughts

Costa advertises the Grand Catalina as fitting an XL head size. Historically, I’ve found some of their frames to be too wide for my narrow head, and tended toward their L or even M frames. I felt like these frames were right for me – not only did they seem to fit my head, but the side shields cupped perfectly. They didn’t shift or fall or leave gaps when I moved.

The one love/hate factor with the King Tides was their massive case. It was ultra-protective of their glasses, but not necessarily easy to fit into a glove box or carry-on bag. I ended up putting the sunglasses in a more normal-sized case. With the Grand Catalinas, Costa has gone back to the regular case. It’s not the most protective on the market, but I still threw it into my day bag and the sunglasses suffered no ill effects.

The retro stylings are a matter of personal taste. If they’re going to be your only shades, you had better really like them, and they need to fit your face well. While I’m not a glutton for attention, I did find that a lot of people commented favorably upon them, and asked if they were new – and, if gold mirror is not your jam, they also come with green mirror, copper silver mirror, sunrise silver mirror and gray lenses, several of them in different frame colors as well.

I may never be cool, but I’ve got glasses that help me fish more effectively, and that’s a trade I’ll make every day of the week.