KONA, HAWAII — ACTIVE YEARS 1949–1965

Henry Chee is the root of the entire Hawaiian-style trolling lure tradition. Born in Honolulu in 1910, he moved to Kona in 1931 and entered the charter business around 1935, running the legendary Malia — nicknamed the "Grey Ghost of the Kona Coast" for his uncanny habit of leaving the fleet and finding fish alone. He's widely credited as the man who pioneered marlin fishing on the Kona coast, mentoring nearly every skipper who came after him.

The famous "Chee lure" was born in 1949, when plastic resin was brand new. As the story goes, Chee came across a screwdriver set in a jar of hardened resin and immediately saw the possibility: pour resin into a mold, set a metal leader tube down the center, and add pearl shell and color for flash. Borrowing bar glasses from the Ocean View Inn as molds, he created the first beveled resin-head trolling lures.

Chee kept his shapes simple and deadly — slant-faced "straight runner" tube lures. His method was entirely by hand: he'd boil the glass mold on the stove to free the hardened blank, turn it on a lathe, and cut the attack angle by eye, so no two were ever exactly alike. These straight runners took over the Kona scene and became the template every later maker built from.

Chee dominated his era, and his influence is permanent. He fished the first six Hawaiian International Billfish Tournaments and guided a who's-who of mainland celebrities — Henry Fonda, Errol Flynn, Lucille Ball, Arthur Godfrey, and Roy Rogers among them — while quietly working to get a proper marina built for Kona's captains. His most storied fish was a 1,095-pound Pacific blue in 1964, an all-tackle record at the time. He died the following year, in 1965, at just 55 — felled by a stroke after hauling a 335-pound marlin aboard his beloved Malia. The HIBT created the Henry Chee Memorial Award that same year in his honor, and authentic Chee lures are now among the most valuable Hawaiian collectibles in existence.

As a museum and archive, we're honored to document and help preserve the work of Henry Chee for the anglers, collectors, and historians who carry on Hawaii's lure-making heritage.

Notable shapes: Slant-faced "straight runner" resin tube (with pearl shell and doll eyes)

Identification tips:

• Hand-turned, slant/beveled-faced tube shape — small and simple by modern standards
• Resin heads with pearl shell strips and, on many early examples, doll eyes
• No two identical; faces cut by eye, so slight asymmetry is authentic
• Genuine Chee lures are rare and heavily imitated — authenticate high-value examples through known collectors

Below, you’ll find our ever-growing digital archive showcasing every lure that has come through our shop. This collection is constantly evolving as new lures arrive, making it a living record of rare, limited-production lures. We will continue updating this database regularly, building what we aim to be the largest digital archive of offshore trolling lures in the world.

If you have any further information or any lures you believe deserve to be showcased, please reach out to us at ren@luremonger.com