Cam Pollock owner of precision engineering business, which manufactured butchers meat saws. He started making fishing reels around 1965. His early reels were cast gun-metal Y backs of his own pattern. They were cast at Joseph Green’s foundry in Brisbane, Queensland. The finishing machining was done at home. He later changed to spun stainless steel for the small 6’’ estuary model to keep the weight down and minimise corrosion. The spools were made from red cedar which was finished with epoxy and most of them had the ‘C.P’ stamped on the back. A knurled domed nut that holds the spool on, on some of his reels, was the same as the ones on large Thompson. He was a fishing mate of Len Thomson and made a couple of ball-bearing reels with ‘Thomson’ stamped on the back.
Email from the son of Cam Pollock (January 2020)
Dear Fishing Museum
I have just read the brief commentary on Cam Pollock fishing reels.
It is a very complimentary summary of my father’s work. But I’m not sure where the first sentence has come from. My father never owned a “precision engineering business”, nor did he “manufacture butchers meat saws”.
My Dad worked in the machine shop at Rheem in Bulimba, Brisbane, for most of his working life. When the machine shop closed, he then worked for himself out of a large shed at the back of his home at Oxenford.
The only connection I can make with your description is that maybe it has gotten mixed up with Len Thompson’s business. Len Thompson owned an engineering business at the Gold Coast (whether they made meat saws or not, I do not know). And at one stage Len did ask my father to come and work for him. But Dad never took up the offer.
I remember the joy my Dad got from making things related to his love of fishing. In addition to reels, he also made trophies and medallions. These were all made under the house I grew up in at Stafford. Despite the regular inundation after storms, under our house was a little engineering workshop, the centerpiece being the main lathe.
The Australian Surf Fishing trophy was designed and made by my father. He also designed and had made member badges for his local Unity Fishing Club. I still have some of these – including the original blanks and prototypes.
I have some photos in case you are interested but the file size is too big to email them all at once. If you are interested, please let me know and I can email each picture separately.
Anyway, one day when I get down your way, I would love to look in and see the reels again.
Kind regards
Adrian Pollock