Many of you will have noticed that in the last week or so, the Spirit River website has gone down. Many thought this was due to scheduled maintenance, as the redirect would have you believe, but it was in fact the sign of bigger things going on behind the scenes. In a press release email that went out about half an hour before I wrote this, Hareline Dubbin announced the following:

“We at Hareline Dubbin are pleased to announce that as of October 28th 2016 we have purchased all inventories and assets of Spirit River Inc.  For the past week we have been moving all inventories to our facility in Monroe.  We are working as fast as we can to get Spirit River, Over the Edge Tackle and UV2 products ready for fulfillment through Hareline Dubbin, LLC.  We anticipate this taking us 2-3 weeks time”

What this means for you guys, in our fly tying community is that you need not panic or worry about losing access to the great range of products offered by Spirit River. We at Troutlore have chosen to offer Spirit River products here in Australia because we really do love using them and like to sell products that we can honestly stand behind. So, moving forward, you will continue to see these products offered and made available within Australia through the Troutlore fly tying materials store as we are and continue to be proud Hareline Dubbin dealers.

What the future holds for all product lines is not entirely certain though. There are a large number of products offered under the Spirit River moniker that double up with Hareline products, so it is fair to say that some consolidation of the range will occur, but I think it is safe to assume that the UV2 range of products that made Spirit River so popular amongst fly tyers is going to be continued.

We received our final shipment of Spirit River products at Troutlore HQ just last week, with more UV2 Marabou, UV2 Saddle Hackle and UV2 Sparkle Chenille arriving along with top-ups of tools, vises and much needed dubbing varieties. But this will not be the last of Spirit River products at Troutlore and within Australia as we look forward to the excellent service and product availability that Hareline Dubbin continues to offer across all it’s product lines.

But, if you feel the need to get a little panic-driven and go nuts buying up on Spirit River products right away, then don’t let us stop you. 😉