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Inside Angles: Night & Day Eye Protection in the Field

Vision safety for anglers, 24-7.

Inside Angles: Night & Day Eye Protection in the Field
3M Bifocal Safety Glasses with Clear Anti-Fog Lenses (left) and 3M Light Vision2 LED Bifocal Safety Glasses with Clear Anti-Fog Lenses (right).

Accidents are never planned; they just happen. In this case, the incident that befell longtime In-Fisherman friend Captain Bret Alexander (Green Bay-area, Wisconsin) could have happened to any of us, even though the point here is that with a take-action plan it never should have.

Sunday November 11, 2019, about 8, Bret is guiding clients on a night excursion for walleyes on the Fox River. They’re anchored in a key area, casting shallow-diving plugs to walleyes staged to feed on the shad that enter the river during late fall. His clients have been doing well the last several weeks, catching many walleyes surpassing 30 inches, with an occasional muskie thrown in, including a 55-incher a few days earlier.

“Fish on,” a client yells, line taut to the fish about 60 feet out. As the big fish nears the boat, net-commando Bret is ready to bag the bad boy and take pictures. Rod bent, the fish finally enters the net. Bret is bent over the commotion. As the fish shakes, the BX Rapala breaks free and snaps straight up at Bret.

There’s no chance to react and, given the darkness that surrounds them, Bret, who spends long hours on the water fishing during daylight most of the year almost always with the eye protection afforded by sunglasses, has no eye protection at all as the lure slaps him flush in the face, imbedding the tine of one treble hook in his left eye. The hook is well past the barb, piercing his iris, breaching the integrity of outer eye, imbedding into the vitreous humour, or the gel in the interior of the eye, which gives it shape.

Surprise and agony sets in as he realizes what has happened. Remarkably, he is calm enough to direct the client to help remove the lure from the line. At the hospital, soon enough he’s in emergency surgery. The next day he’s set for further surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The prognosis for restoration of vision in his eye is good, but at this point we don’t know the outcome. Fingers crossed, of course.

We chose not to run the graphic photos taken of the incident (look at Bret’s Facebook page if you wish), preferring to concentrate on a message about the need for eye protection—sunglasses during the day and safety glasses at night. That sunglasses serve as eye protection is well known and somewhat widely heeded—not so the need for safety glasses during low-light periods and after dark.

For low-light and nighttime use, when sunglasses with darker tinted lenses make things too dark, consider a pair of safety glasses with clear, anti-fog lenses and anti-glare finish, which helps reduce light reflections and flares off the lenses. In low-light of early morning and evenings, yellow lenses can help “brighten” your surroundings, but at nighttime, clear lenses are appropriate. If you need bifocals in your lenses, companies like 3M offer options with built-in bifocals in a range of power magnifications.

Lots of safety glasses to choose from at your local hardware or home-improvement store or online at sellers like safetyglassesusa.com, where among the large selection there we bought a couple nice and inexpensive pairs, including one with bright LED lights for night work, for around $30 or less. Many of the available styles are sporty, too. But no one can see your glasses at night, anyway. Be vision safe on the water, 24-7.




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