The ‘Whole Hog Chair’ from Cyprinus is a full-featured accessory chair, aimed primarily at carp and ‘commercial’ anglers who want a complete base station to fish from whilst keeping everything close to hand. The chair comes as a complete set-up with many accessories included such as a pair of adjustable two-rod buzz bars, a telescopic feeder arm with bipod support, a rear rest arm and an adjustable bait and accessories table.
It’s a lot of chair for the money and it’s perfect for day-session carping with two rods on the bomb but also for feeder or float fishing for pretty much any species. I even gave my chair its first trial on a pike session!
The large, well-padded chair is obviously the key element here and I’m pleased to say that it’s a very rigid platform with some thoughtful design features. Firstly the oversize padding and elasticated base make this chair comfortable to sit on all day. Then for additional comfort there’s the double bonus of arm rests and a reclining back which features the same easy-on-the-hands, rubberised adjustment wheels as the Stalk-Lite Chair.
The infinitely-adjustable legs have an easy-to-operate spring-loaded locking mechanism and come complete with hinged mud feet. The legs slide out easily and once they’re in the desired position they stay put. A stable base on this type of fishing chair is an absolute must, because otherwise the fitted accessories can cause the whole thing to topple over when you stand up!
The rod support and bait table accessories fit onto a pair of square bars which stand off either side of the chair at adjustable distances, so you can customise the setup to suit your fishing style. Each accessory features an adjustable plastic angle clamp bracket and a thoughtful touch on these is that each metal clamping screw has a plastic tip, which prevents the screw from damaging the finish on the bar it’s clamping onto.
Both buzz bars have a central screw which allows both the angle and the distance the rods sit from the chair to be adjusted. This means you can have your rods setup in a horizontal manner like a standard rod pod, or angled upwards in a ‘sky pod’ style. It also accommodates the rods being set up on either side of the chair. The pod legs and the crossbar are each adjustable in length thanks to quick-release locks. I would recommend that you use the legs whenever the feeder arm is in use as it not only provides stability and prevents the rod tips from bouncing around but it also prevents the feeder arm from rotating, thus keeping the front buzz bar horizontal.
Although this chair comes complete with a set of four rod rest heads, which may be okay for a start, they’re far from the key feature of this kit. I would imagine most anglers, like me, would look to replace them with their own preference of butt grips and either front rest heads or alarms anyway.
The whole package comes in a handy twin-zipped carry bag with a padded shoulder strap and separate carry handles. This is not a chair designed for roving anglers or for carrying to set up on remote pegs but the carry bag makes it easy to transport to pegs on commercials and on more accessible river stretches.
The chair itself weighs 7.1kg or 15lb 10oz and would make an excellent stand-alone chair for sessions when the attachments aren’t necessary and when the whole kit is in the carry bag it weighs 27lb 4oz or 12.4kg.
The one issue I had with the chair was figuring out how all the bits went together when I first got it out of the bag! I’m generally pretty handy with assembling things, but this had me stumped for a fair while. I’ve since found out there’s an instruction leaflet available, which makes it simple and which is attached here as a PDF (see the ‘attachments’ section to the top right of this page).
The retail price of the Whole Hog is £159.99 but Tackle Discounts are currently selling them HERE for just £64.99
