Heres what happened to me when I went cheap and bought a "copy" of the one Andrew makes.. they both looked the same.. My first BIG MISTAKE!
The first two times I went out in mild seas and all went well. The third time I went out (it wasn't even that rough) I went to move location and after a few minutes glanced over my shoulder, and couldn't believe my eyes.. where the heck was my rod holder? Gone. Completely. Heart racing, I spun the ski around and about 500 metres back toward where I had come from, there it was, bobbing in the water! My fish had all gone but thank heavens I had clipped in my two rods and fishing net and they were all there, attached. Total value if I had lost it all? $1200!!!
I scooped it up and resting it on my knee, limped to a nearby island to re-attach it. It turns out the vastly inferior front mounting mechanism had allowed it to come off the ski, then the drag in the water snapped the two rear bungees. I had some spare bungees and re-fitted it as tightly as I could, and carried on. The front mount came off my jetski two more times that day, though because I was being cautious I managed to stop before it pulled off completely.
But it doesn't end there.
When I had cooled down I emailed the manufacturer and to be fair he was very apologetic, and he created a different clip fitting and sent it up to me immediately. So off I went fishing again.
This time the rod holder definitely stayed on, no problem there. But because the front clip fitting has not been tested and we are the guinea pigs, the whole assembly was able to move around and in doing so it ripped the matting and took several chunks out of the fibreglass on the back of my ski. Again the manufacturer was very apologetic and asked me to send photos etc. But after sleeping on it I decided enough is enough, I am sick of being the guinea pig and getting my ski wrecked, I just wanted my money back and to move on. (I have since heard of another competitors rod holder kit came off the back of another jetski during the recent local jetskifishing competition)
I am now the proud owner of the ULTIMATE ROD HOLDER and all I can say is if you go cheap and buy anyone elses copy, it may look the same but there are subtle differences which will cause you grief and cost you money.
As my mate Neil said as he proudly pointed to his Genuine ULTIMATE ROD HOLDER, "Long after price is forgotten, quality remains."
Good luck with whatever you chose to do. And don't forget, fish sustainably and practice fillet and release :O)
Captn Phil wrote:
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