Sponsorships are transactional. Partnerships are long-term. Genuine, authentic partnerships are collaborative, born out of mutual respect and trust.
Swing The Fly is proud and grateful for the support from our small, close-knit family of partners, so starting in 2026, we’re bringing back the Partner Highlight Series.
In this installment, somewhere in Northern California, driving back after Spey O Rama 2026, we talk with Rob Beckius (RB) of Two Hand Hardware, to discuss the History, Culture, Community, Pursuits, and Place, central to this southern Oregon-based partner.
STF: What is Two Hand Hardware? How long has it been around? Let’s hear the origin story.
RB: I started, Two Hand Hardware I’d say … 5 years ago. Two Hand Hardware was a backburner project as long as 8-10 years ago. I’ve been working on it since long before COVID. Long story short, it started because I’m a fly tyer, and I wanted flies displayed in a way that was easy to use, but makes your flies look nice. We work hard to tie beautiful flies, we all do, and I wanted to show them off.
Metal clips tear up hooks, and they rust, and when you get them wet, they never dry out.
So, I had a bunch of magnets lying around from a previous project, and I built a few prototypes for myself. People started to see it and liked it. But I was working as an engineering consultant and had a lot of other work, so nothing happened at the time. That tends to happen. I like to have an idea and sit on it for a while, usually. Let it simmer.
When I realized this was a real thing, after enough people had told me they liked the idea, I put some ideas out on SpeyPages, which, is a great community I am very grateful for,and it seemed to me, to make more sense than instead of being just another fly box brand, we could focus on the steelhead community, specifically.
A little bit of casual polling and surveying told me the Wheatley Boxes were by far the most popular, and we also learned that a lot of people liked the C & F Boxes, the system boxes because they’re waterproof. We started by making some inserts for Wheatley Boxes, for a few friends and members of SpeyPages, just to see how many we could get in the hands of the core steelhead community.
STF: Two Hand Hardware is a one-man show, tell us a bit about yourself? The 30,000’
RB: I grew up in Colorado, I was a trout fisherman. I still jokingly say I can’t COMPLETELY stamp it out , because, it’s true, the first fish to roll on a skated fly every season, actually, every trip, I’ll farm the s*** out of that fish, before I remember it’s not a trout (laughs.)
My dad taught me to fish beaver dams for trout. Later, I wound up at Montana State, to go to college, in Bozeman, and worked there as a fly fishing guide for a few summers. I learned a lot, including how much I enjoyed being around people. I think it was then it really became more about the people, the community, than just catching fish.
I have to give a lot of credit to people like Brian and Jenny Grossenbacher, a great couple who really showed me how to work through school, make a little bit of money and really helped me start down my path.
From there I moved to Washington, and I was fishing the Yakima River while I was there, living in Tri-Cities. I don’t have a lot of regrets in life, but I was there when the Clearwater, the Klickitat, the Deschutes, all the Columbia tribs were having a hey-day. People would ask me to go fish for steelhead, but it was hard to turn away from the canyon!
It all came full circle when in 2007-2008 I moved to southwest Oregon, to Grants Pass. I, like a lot of people, tried to approach the Rogue like a trout river. It’s not a trout river.
Sure, there are places for great trout fishing, cutthroat up high and they come out during the salmonfly. I actually like salmonfly season because usually, not always but sometimes, that’s when you might start to run into early summer steelhead.
A bit later, on our first steelhead focused trip, my friend Joe lent me a crude Orvis 13’ or 14’ spey rod.
I realized it was a LOT more fun than fishing with indicators and things, so I crudely taught myself to cast. Or, started to. Always learning.
STF: How do you see the brand, Two Hand Hardware? Not “What Do You Make?”, but, what IS Two Hand Hardware? What is its ethos?
RB: It’s a company that caters to steelhead fisherman. Focuses on community, on conservation, on authenticity. The flies are the commonality, something we all share, we love the fish, the rivers, the steelhead campfires, distance casting, the history.
We don’t want to make everything, but everything we make, we want to be genuine and useful, for the people that care about it.
STF: What does the Rogue River mean to you? What does the character of the Rogue, played a role in your development of Two Hand Hardware.
RB: I had to learn the hard way, and quickly, that steelhead aren’t trout, and the Rogue is a steelhead river.
The Rogue’s unique river, it’s really got two flavors. It’s a steelhead river, sure, but it’s also a world-class whitewater rafting river. You can fish beautiful runs in the morning, and you can go recreate on, or in, the river, and wrap the day up skating a run at last light.
It also has steelhead (almost) every month of the year. May, and June, are tough, though, ha.
It’s also a half-pounder river. I think of them as high schoolers that have wandered into a college party. They have no business being there. They’re trying to have a good time, but they get kicked out, so they go home, and come back later when they’re a bit older, and they’re ready to party.
It’s a unique fishery, with lots of opportunities around, but with that comes complications and confusions, right? All of the options, the different reaches, the entire year, it’s a problem solver’s river. I don’t think it’s an accident that the Rogue is a hub of tinkerers, inventors, creatives, and critical thinkers. Guys like Bob Meiser, Steve Godshall, and Gary Anderson. This river makes you figure it out, unlock its secrets. I’m not sure whether it makes people that way, or if that is just its nature and people are drawn to it, in a sort of magnetic way, but it’s home for me, and when I think about it, that’s a part of the reason why.
STF: Two Hand Hardware doesn’t JUST make customer-facing toys, but, like I always say, you’re my friend who builds his own solutions. Two Hand Hardware is designing/producing quite a few different products for folks like rod designers.
RB: There’s another side of the business that focuses on creating equipment for people that are making their own rods. That piece goes hand in-hand with fly tying, right?
Most people who tie their own flies, will eventually try to make their own rod. It’s not that hard. I’m a problem solver. I’ve been building rods since college, the same way a lot of people have, but, eventually, my brains start to think about how I’d like to have something to make it easier, or, more fun, or, do things that other equipment couldn’t.
Just like how when you start, you buy the least expensive vise, and not great materials, and eventually, most folks that love fly tying, learn that they want something that works perfectly for their exact needs.
My interest in making these tools, for rod building, happened right around when I got to know and started working with Swing The Fly.
I wanted to be able to make an impact, in a meaningful way, somewhere, from a conservation perspective.
Two Hand Hardware had started to make the smallest bit of money, and I wanted to give back. Bob Meiser told me without a doubt I needed to call Zack at Swing The Fly, and he’d either know what to do, or who to talk to.
Because I wanted to give back, right, and sure, you can just write a check, but, this is a small world, a small space, and I wanted, instead of writing a check to some organization, some lobbyist, which, don’t get me wrong, we need, I wanted to see my money go somewhere that was helping fish in Oregon, or, even better, in southern Oregon.
While I was at Bob’s shop, talking about all that, the tinkerer in me couldn’t help but start to notice there were ways to make things just that much easier, like a wrap thread or, shape a handle.
Now, we’re making hobbyist level kits that people can afford, and use on their own. We don’t sell a LOT of them, but it makes people’s lives easier, so it’s worth it for me.
STF: What does it mean, to partner with Swing The Fly?
RB: What I like about STF, if that ‘s an authentic brand. It’s important to me, to not be perceived as a company just trying to take away from the resource, in a strictly commercial sense, to not give back, to come across as just another brand in the sea of “industry.”
What I like about STF, is that all the articles, all the photos, are created by people you feel like you can trust. You’re hearing from folks who say what they mean, and mean what they say. The people that are the STF family, are honest, and genuine, and you never feel like anyone’s just trying to sell you something.
Like Kruk (Bruce Kruk), for instance. Even before I was producing things for sale, I needed folks to demo stuff, and I ran across Bruce, and reached out, and, sure, he could have told me he was busy, I didn’t know anyone, and he gave me great feedback, and to this day he’s a good friend.
I was focused on surrounding myself with authentic people, and I did, and when I did, I sort of realized all of these people were involved with Swing The Fly.
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You can check out all the toys we talked about in this interview, and connect with Rob today, at his new and totally functional website, https://www.twohandhardware.com/ .