Greetings!

On June 5th, my friend and I finalized our acquisition of Struble Manufacturing from Jeff Pentecost and have moved it to my home of the last 35 years, Bozeman, MT. Here, Struble will soon operate under the same roof as Shopkeeper Fly Rods.

I still find this hard to believe; I’m very humbled to be part of the next chapter of Struble.

If you’re like me, you remember Struble as the world’s premier manufacturer of reel seats. When I was in college and for some years after, I poured over the Struble catalog looking for the perfect seat for practically every rod I built. Struble Manufacturing has a formidable presence in the contemporary history of rod building in this country, and as I’ve sorted through the inventory we purchased, seeing once again the various models and the attention to detail and innovation Struble applied to its products, I’ve become even more aware of the hole left in the craft of rod building by its absence from the reel seat market.

Of course, there are some fine reel seats and hardware available today; I’ve used them on Shopkeeper rods and will continue to do so. Still, our ultimate vision is to reintroduce select Struble models for today’s rod makers. We know this won’t happen overnight and we are only in the very beginning stages of this journey, but we’re looking forward to the process.

For the past 8 years or so, Struble has largely been a website selling premium agate guides, grips, and winding checks, with some larger accounts for the guides. Our goal is to continue Jeff's exceptionally high quality agate guide production while exploring ways to manufacture classic, American-made Struble fly reel seats to builders once again.

We plan to spend time with Jeff this summer learning the art of agate guide production; he has set us up well. We’re looking forward to crafting them and continuing Struble’s legacy of agates that enhance any rod. Our goal is to be producing these again by September 1, 2020. In the mean time, we're exploring options for manufacturing several models of Struble seats with an eye to fusing the best of the classics with some new designs and ideas for the future. Pivotal to our vision is the non-negotiable of having all elements of those seats made right here in America and hopefully in Montana, if not Bozeman itself. Again, we hope this process will be worked out by 9/1.

We’re also working on getting the Struble website back up and being able to take orders for inventory we recently moved from Portland to Bozeman; as soon as that is ready to go, we’ll let everyone know. Since we can’t get inventory on the dedicated Struble site just yet, we’re going to be placing some for sale in different venues; however, we first wanted to offer the genuine Struble products we have to builders on a couple of sites I frequent at a discount from our public offerings (and FFR is the first of these). This is my way of saying “thanks” to everyone I’ve benefitted from on these sites and our way of celebrating our acquisition of one of rod building's most storied companies.

I’ll list specifics on the “For Sale” portion of the site soon, but we have cork grips (finest available), genuine Struble winding checks of all sizes and variations, and genuine Struble wood inserts that will fit both Bellinger and Lemke hardware. We also have some classic reel seats that haven’t been available for at least eight years that we’ll be listing soon.

Thanks for reading through this; we'll keep you posted on our progress as we commence this new enterprise…We’re excited about Struble and hope you will soon be as well.


Steve

Shopkeeper Fly Rods
Struble Manufacturing
Bozeman, MT.

Please return the Struble Line Winder to the market - it's the best ever offered.

Great news I wish you all the best in your new venture. Yes, Struble was some of the finest rod building components on the market. I do miss their seats and grips.

Best of luck to you!

A Heartfelt “Thank You” for continuing a Classic and Legendary product , Godspeed with your Endeavor !!!

Great news! Looking forward, congrats and best of luck. You will be rewarded with great response here, I am sure.

Hey Guys...

Thanks very much for the well-wishes, appreciate it very much.

Bulldog: One of the last things Jeff said to me before we left for Bozeman was that he thought there was a market for the Line Winder.

HellMT: We're in Valley Grove...You're welcome to come over, but for now, everything is in my garage

In addition to producing the agate guides, our initial vision is to reintroduce three Struble seats to market. We have an example of nearly every seat Struble manufactured (and, holy cow, there were a lot of them), so we have a job cutting down to three. We're thinking of an all-around (5-7 wt) threaded seat, a small trout (1-4 wt) seat and an all-metal seat. We're not machinists, we just love the Struble products and legacy so we're in the process of talking to shops to get an idea of cost.

However we go forward, we will stick with these objectives:

1) It will be American made.
2) It will be of the same quality expected from Struble
3) It will be as affordable as possible.

I still haven't sifted through all the inventory, but we're about ready to list some things for sale until we get the website up and running. We'll be listing cork grips, winding checks, wood inserts that fit both LC1 and Bellinger 640N hardware, and a limited number (meaning less than 50) of complete D2s seats. All these items are genuine Struble; except for the grips everything was turned and machined by Struble Manufacturing in Portland.

If you have any questions or need any of the above, DM me. They'll be listed for sale soon at substantially reduced prices.

Thanks again, guys...This site has been a consistently encouraging forum.

Congrats! Looking forward to seeing how you proceed.

Awesome news! Good luck!

Thats great news, I wish you all the best and will order from you in the future.

Bob

I'm very happy with Struble line winder and several of my rods were fitted with their reel seats.
I think small operations can't be discontinued and old brands can't vanish in the name of big numers and global market.
Such an heritage won't disappear if wise men will keep on running.
I wish all the best to new owners and thank them to preserve tradition.
Antonio

Good news Steve,i would also like to stop by when you get set up.

I'm just always humbled by the generosity of spirit on this board...

Right now, Struble is just a few shelves in my less-than-professional garage, but we're making our way through the stuff. For anyone who wants to come see what we have of Struble, you're more than welcome; we have examples of every seat Struble made and some little bits of history that are only interesting to people who are intrigued with such things (like Spey hardware originally designed for Scottsman, Harry Jamieson, who made rods for Prince Charles or prototypes for old Scott rods, or beautiful hardware made for Tom Morgan)...But, again, it'll be a little underwhelming for people who remember what Struble once was- No CNC, no machining, no shop.

But, you're more than welcome to come to the garage.

And, 2wtt, You're right: I do like agatine...Jeff is coming to train us to make agate guides in mid-July and our goal is to be up and producing by 9/1...Once we are, I think we'll have both of us covered: