The Fighting Chair
This is a common statement/question we hear when people first step foot on Flyer after booking their fishing charter on Oahu and see the big shiny teak fighting chair mounted in the middle of the cockpit. No, no it’s not a barbers chair we explain, we don’t do haircuts at sea. We use that to fight really big fish like Blue Marlin and Ahi or Yellowfin Tuna with really big reels! It’s a $25,000.00 tool to help you have the best experience possible while angling your fish of a lifetime. It’s an integral part of our program that we love to share with our customers when fishing in Hawai’i. If we were fishing for world records, it’s necessary to fight a fish out of a non-fixed rod-holding device, such as a gimbal which our chair offers. Otherwise, the fish will not count as a World record. Most big billfish tournaments require the use of a gimbaled chair as well. But for us, it’s more than that it’s a place where a customer can sit securely and safely and battle their trophy fish of a lifetime instead of fighting the seas.
We’re a fishing charter on the North Shore that encourages using a fighting chair!
Our Fighting Chair allows the angler to properly fight and feel the fish using the rod as he would normally or is accustomed to as say when catching bass in a lake when holding a stand-up rod. Normally you are pulling the fish with the rod and then you wind on the way down. The chair allows you to use the heavier tackle with the same concept. The rods and reels we use are too big and heavy to hold as you would say with a bass rod. But with this chair, you can put the rod butt into the gimbal, attach the harness that’s around your butt and lower back to use your legs to pull the rod up and pull the fish towards you, then as you slide forward, the rod tip drops and you can gain line as you reel. It’s a very effective way of fighting a fish and we are the only fishing boat on the North Shore that encourages the use of or even has a chair to fight fish.
Others don’t encourage the use Fighting Chairs
Most charter operations do it “commercial style “and just have their customers fight the fish out of the fixed rod holder bolted in the gunwale at the side of the boat. This doesn’t allow you to feel the fish, pump, or pull the rod up and reel as you go down like our fighting chair. So, a lot of times the angler will get tired and then the deckhand will have to hand line the fish for you as you reel up the slack. To us, this is pretty lame and not how sportfishing charters should be. The chair allows even small and light anglers to catch giant fish. For instance, my wife soaking wet at 115 pounds caught her biggest fish, a Pacific Blue Marlin at 543 pounds, in 45 minutes, all by herself. Which is a really cool lifetime accomplishment to achieve as an angler! Here on the Flyer, we like the idea of our clients having the best opportunity to reel in their own fish by themselves. And that is why we have this big, expensive, and beautiful chair on the back deck.
The Best Way to Fight Fish
Every morning after we get the lures out, which is after we catch live bait, we give a whole rundown and explain how to use the chair and set the length of the footrest, and length of the harness clips, making sure everything is adjusted and feels comfortable with each angler so that you’re ready for your opportunity of a lifetime! It’s a really exhilarating feeling to be directly connected to a 500-plus pound fish and feel it rip line off the reel, head shake, and know exactly when it stops taking line so that you are ready to start pulling up and reeling down again. It really gives the angler the most of the opportunity that they paid for. The chair we have on board Flyer in particular is a Blue Waters fighting chair, which is one of the best manufacturers of fighting chairs in the world. It gets redone every year with new coats of varnish and is polished regularly. Everything is serviced on it and works perfectly! It’s a great tool that we take pride in sharing with our customers. It’s a really fun way to fight big fish! A lot of the people that go charter fishing on Oahu with us, it’s their first time on a boat or maybe haven’t been on a boat in years and it’s hard for people to stand. It takes a while to get your sea legs. Even in small seas the motion of the boat going every which way is hard for people who aren’t used to it. Having the chair is really nice so that we can get people to the chair where they feel safe and secure while they’re fighting their fish. Now they are not worried about whether they’re gonna fall this way or that way. Why pay all that money and have to worry about that when you don’t have to? Now you can just focus on enjoying the fight of the fish! Being able to look up and see the Mahi Mahi jump and feeling Ono or Wahoo run! It’s a huge asset and a huge advantage that we have over most of the deep-sea fishing charters on Oahu and it’s there for you to enjoy!
Book Directly With Us