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Ross, Callum

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My name is Callum Ross and I am another one of the makers from Australia. I am 38 and work as a high school teacher. I have a young family with two daughters and a bad fly fishing habit that began well over twenty years ago.

I stumbled upon the list and bamboo rodmaking around 1997 (I can't actually remember exactly when it was but that must be close) and couldn't believe people were out there making these things. Needless to say I was hooked but faced the problem of many down here in terms of accessing information and supplies. This has changed somewhat over the years. The wooden forms have been replaced by home filed steel and then Bellinger and bamboo is a little easier to source but that first ugly rod from over 10 years ago is still in the cupboard to remind me that my skills have improved a little!

Whether he knows it or not, I am indebted to Peter McKean for his advice over the years and more recently the assistance of another Australian maker, Nick Taransky. Like Peter though, I wouldn't have made the first rod without the help of Tony Young. It is truly an amazing thing that a rod can get made by someone with minimal skill with the help of people separated by thousands of kilometres of continent or ocean.

I may not post too often on the list, but it is the first thing I look at every morning. This thread has highlighted to me that I seem to know so much about people I have never met. Where they live, the jobs they do, when they retire, when their children graduate, the tools they use, their rodmaking style and why they like grits. It can be challenging sometimes as topics get out of hand and personalities rub each other up the wrong way but I doubt there would be many among us who would change the way it operates.

While rodmaking is a global community, I would love the opportunity to make it to North America to fish some of your waters, attend the gatherings, put faces to names and cast rods. I am not sure if that will happen any time soon, so if anyone is ever down this way and looking for a fish...