You’ve worn cotton t-shirts all your life and they work perfectly, so you might as well wear them to your fishing trips right? Not quite; Your t-shirts work well for your everyday regular activities, but fishing is more demanding, not only are you dealing with a wet environment but most important, you are directly being affected by the sun’s ultraviolet rays that impact your skin during all the hours you spend fishing, and there is where sun protective uv fishing shirts come to play.

Are UV fishing shirts completely necessary?

Yes, with the sun rays hitting you directly when offshore, the correct piece of clothing is what shields you from the harmful UV radiation.

It’s not only about having any piece of clothing covering your body, since not all garments are the same, and for that you need to consider the UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) that each piece of clothing has. Here’s the short version of what you need to know about UV protection:

A typical white t-shirt has a UPF rating of 5 that drops to 3 when wet, decreasing its protection factor even more, so the UV protection offered from a regular t-shirt to a UPF 50+ on a performance fishing shirt that keeps its UPF rating even after wet is certainly clear, you can see the difference and trust us when we say, you can also feel it when you are out on the ocean with the almighty sun beating upon you.

Keys to select a sun protective shirt

• Start with checking the UPF, and make sure it is between 30 and 50+
• Long sleeve fishing shirts of course are better since they cover more of your body.
• For optimal sun protection, nothing beats a hooded fishing shirt, cover your body and keep your head clear as well  
• Polyester and nylon are both excellent blocking UV rays, wool and silk follow with moderate effectiveness and cotton, rayon and hemp offer very low protection.
• Consider the type of print. Heat transfers and screen printing can make areas of the shirt very hot and sticky. A quality performance fishing shirt should be dye sublimated. This type of print never cracks or fades and has no added texture. It feels just like the material of the shirt itself. Since dye sublimation is not a liquid process, but rather a gasified process, it does not clog the fabric weave of the garment which reduces airflow, instead it leaves the fabric unhindered and breathable.

If you’d like to know more about UPF clothing you can also check our preferred source of knowledge, the Skin Cancer Foundation

Benefits beyond UV protection

It’s all about performance, endurance, and quality, even beyond what a UV protective shirt can do for you, premium performance custom fishing jerseys are developed with fishing in mind, this are boat shirts from garment selection to manufacture, and this means that they are ready to endure your fishing battles, with athletic stitching, moisture wicking technology, antimicrobial properties and stain repellent features. So you can be sure that unlike a regular t-shirt that can be ready to retire after you carry one bloody tuna, your fishing jerseys will keep on going strong for much longer.

Check out our UV Protective Fishing Shirt Collection