Springfield Pedestal Stand - Buying Beware

Im not a small guy, but not by any means am I a big guy. So when I purchase items meant to hold me up while on the water I kind of expect them to last.. more then one season that is

But thats not the case for this one year old Springfield pedestal. It started to fail mid last year, and after two outings this season its pretty much unusable. I purchased it from Cabela's so I  reached out to them to see what kind of warranty they offered on it. They let me know that the product has a 5yr warranty but its through the manufacturer and they were nice enough to provided contact their contact info.

So I reach out to Springfield and I got a fairly quick  reply stating that it is under warranty and all I need to do is box it up and pay to ship it back to them.. oh yeah, I also need to enclose a cheque for the return shipping $52.36USD!. Once received they will repair it for me, or might (if I'm lucky) replace it. I found this hard to swallow because  after paying to ship it to them, and the outrageous return shipping fee, I could simply jump on the Cabela's site and get a brand new one! cheaper and quicker..That's right these stands retail for $49.99!

I'm tired of companies hiding behind flimsy warranties, why would anyone pay the price asked when you could simply replace the stand, and I believe Springfield is banking on this. I bet they don't do too many warranty repairs

All in all I'm pretty disappointed, mostly in Springfield but also a bit in Cabela's who are known for backing products. If you go to their site now you will see that over the past year this product repeatedly gets bad reviews due to this pin bending and in many cases breaking. Let me tell you, if mine broke and sent me falling, this short post is not the last they would have heard from me. but in this case its easier to write off Springfield and second guess myself the next time i choose to order from Cabelas 

End of Rant

Chautauqua Lake 2016 - Photo Journal

This past weekend was the 5th annual Pre-Season trip to Lake Chautauqua and Lake Erie, and by pre-season I mean pre-Ontario Bass season. The 3 old guys (sorry Brian) and I loaded up two vehicles and made our annual trip over the Memorial day weekend.

Unlike the past few years the weather co-operated, and very unlike the past few years the fish.. not so much. The bite was tough and I'm not really sure why? yes our trip was later in the season, meaning slightly warmer water temps, but the areas we slayed fish on previous trip not only didn't product this year but often left us scratching our heads. We went deep into our bag of tricks to salvage the weekend and make sure some fish made it into the boats. 

Obviously as you can see from the above image, the trip wasn't a total bust, a day one smallmouth topping 6lbs left us all smiling for days. Rick as usual finished the weekend with this, the trips biggest fish.

I personally lost a nice smallie at the boat (should have taken the net help offered) and broke off a jumbo bedded largemouth that Brian and I had put in some serious work on. Short line and a long hook set makes this my fault and I'm still kicking myself today.

enough rambling, onto the pics...

The early morning commute Day1 ... the 6 hour drive is worth it each and every time

Kenny with the first fish of the trip, its small but a bend in the rod is always a good thing

My First fish of the trip, 4 hours into our dock fishing, we finally moved out to find some fish. I love a good spinnerbait bite.

When fishing the docks didn't work, Kenny and I moved to throwing smaller swimsbaits on the outer edges and quickly found some active fish.. not big ones, but fish.

My favourite spot on the lake, didn't help us this year but I was happy to say hello

With the hot weather in full effect it was time to break out the Salt Armour gear. I couldn't believe how comfortable it was, and how quickly it cooled down my neck and ears.

Just another bucket mouth falling victim to the Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper. 

Sunrise on day 2... not a bad sight

Yep, us Kawartha boys just can't pull ourselves away from the shallow water and docks. This might have hurt us this weekend, but it was still a blast.

Surprise spinnerbait smallie

This is about the cookie cutter size of largemouth we found this year. This is common but usually we run into a few kicker fish.. not the case in 2016

I think this might be my first tube fish in 2+ seasons, I just don't throw them enough and when I do, its  usually a drag (no pun intended) 

 Another gorgeous sunrise. I'm never happy to see 5am, unless I'm fishing

Kenny and I working a large rock/gravel shoal ran into a couple back to back smallies nearly identical in size, although he tells me his was larger. 

I could make this journey every morning. The long walk to work.

The return of the Senko, another bait that has seen limited to no action in my boat the last couple seasons was one of the most productive lures on Chautauqua. Almost every boat we pulled up on has at least one guy throwing them... you know my thoughts... can't beat'em join'em

The Last trip across the lake... time to go home.

 And the Lake Chautauqau curse strikes again. 1 hour into our drive home and we blow a tire. After a quick run to a local auto parts store to grab some tools, and back again when our jack wouldn't work.. 2 hours later back on the road and head home. 

Weapons of Choice:

As mentioned it was not one of our more successful trips, but in case you're wondering, here are the weapons of choice

1) Spinnerbait - Dobyns DX744, Daiwa Zillion, War Eagle Spinnerbait

2) Flipping Jig - Dobyns DX743, Daiwa Tatula HD,  BassTek Jig

3) Senko - Dobyns DX742SF, Daiwa Procyon EX, Yammamoto Senko

4) Tube - Dobyns SSM704C, Daiwa Tatula CT,  Bass Pro Shop Teaser Tubes