i hope someone can help identify - i bought a rod at an estate sale recently.  the rod is a one piece bamboo 5 foot casting/trolling type - exceptionally well made with high quality components.  brass ferrule fits snugly into the handle/grips section.  the reel seat is cast aluminum (about 4 1/4" long by 3/4" wide) with two "screw tight" clamps (therefore no ring needed) and no trigger.  the handle has two grips (both are light colored wood) - fore grip is about 3" long and is hollow so it can slip over reel seat female part(?) - the butt grip is about 11 1/4" long (no butt cap).  i have spent hours trying to spot another reel seat like this one to no avail.  i'm sure it's not valuable but its uniqueness makes me really curious about its history.  ant hints or information would be greatly appreciated - ken r

ps - i have pics

Ken, 

it's truly impossible to figure out what you're trying to describe without photos.  

First off, split cane boat rods disappeared about 1955, when fiberglass+resin became the principal rod blank material and, especially in that year, True Temper moved the Montague plant to SC.  Within a few more years, H-I bought Harnell, and South Bend/ Gladding devoured them all.  

 

I have a 1951 Ward's catalog with the typical H-I, South Bend and Montague reel seats represented.  Four pages of them all have pockets, one side fixed, with a sliding pocket on the opposite end secured by one or two screw rings.  Likewise, my 1960 Harnell catalog boat rods all fit this description.  The one unusual exception in the Ward's cat is a boat rod reel seat with two sliding rings and no screw locks.  

 

The closest to your description I can think of were on South Bend and Harnell fly rods, still with a fixed pocket on one end, and the screw ring secured the other end of the foot without a separate sliding pocket.  This may have been a Varmac invention, since Varmac partnered with Harnell and both eventually became part of H-I and then SB/Gladding.