The Hunt For Big Fish with Larry Dahlberg

I ended up ordering Columbia Tamiami synthetic long-sleeve shirts and Columbia brimmed fishing hats for our upcoming Florida fishing trip.

Now I'd like to ask your opinion about whether wearing light weight long pants is better than wearing shorts+sunscreen. Which is more comfortable while maintaining the sun protection us northern pale-faces need?

Definitely long pants. Its all I wear now, kayak or shore. Both for sun and most importantly mosquitos. The mosquitos are exceptionally bad this year and the say they will only get worse for the next few years. Local and county governments, who are responsible for mosquito control, are facing huge mandatory budget cuts and layoffs per the new govenor. All in attempt to stop the huge recession we are in. We have had no spraying yet this year.

Thanks Henry. I really appreciate the thoughtful advice.

By the way, we'll be fishing at Cedar Key, the Homosassa area, and near Titusville for the first week of August. My son has never experienced truly hot and humid weather and I want to give him advantages so he doesn't become a crispy critter.

Here's what we ended up with:

In summary, we have discovered tropical fishing clothes. We each got a Columbia Tamiami synthetic long-sleeved fishing shirt in light colors. Columbia light weight fishing pants with zip-off legs. And Columbia one-size-fits-all brimmed hats with dark underbrims. We already own boat shoes. These all have a "UPF" rating of about 30. The Columbia branding is just because that's what my local stores sell. It's good stuff.

I've been fishing with these in the recent hot Minnesota weather we've had (92 to 95 degrees F). This stuff is great. Even the slightest breeze has a cooling effect. I was out all day Saturday in the bright sun with no sunscreen under the shirt and my ultra pale shoulders didn't show any sign of sunburn.

This type of clothing is much, much better than the old shorts and t-shirts I had been wearing.

I expect to get more of it. Mr. Schmidt's comment about the bugs is a very important one. I got no bug bites at all when wearing these clothes. Normally I'd be bitten up by horse flies and deer flies.


Thanks for the help in selecting this excellent stuff.