Project Healing Waters Film

This came across this in my email this morning.  This video will do wonders for documenting and promoting PHW.  Visit these two sites to learn about the film and how to support it.

Healing Waters on KickStart

Healing Waters Official Page

PHWFF National Rod Building Contest

The Project Healing Waters national rod building competition has announced the winners.  Vets from around the country finished their rods a few weeks ago and submitted them into the nation-wide contest for a bid to travel to one of many fly fishing destinations.  The rods submitted were pieces of art, many paying tribute to military honors and medals.

Feather inlay above the handle and on the ferrule.

The competition had three categories for entry:

Category 1

     Those participants with disabling wounds, injuries, or disorders of the upper limbs, eyes,  or neurological system causing greater than 10% impairment.

Category 2

    Those participants with other injuries, but without the above named impairments or limitations.

Category 3

     Those participants who have built a rod in a previous year’s contest.

Abbondondola's winning stars and stripes rod.

The winners for the three categories are bellow:

Category 1

1st Andy Anderson, Long Beach

2nd Chase Gean, Ft. Huachuca

3rd Chris Bollinger, Long Beach

Category 2

1st Louis Doyon, Togus VAMC

2nd Henry Lessard, Togus VAMC

3rd Gabe Castleberry, Wilmington, NC

Category 3

1st Anthony Abbondondola, Togus VAMC

2nd Jesse Garza, Long Beach

3rd Bill Boyce, Long Beach

US Marine Corp rod by Gabe Castleberry

Curious what they won?  The winners get to choose one of these trips:

• Blue Valley Ranch in Colorado (September 29 - October 1)
• Kodiak Alaska trip (July 31 - August 6)
• Flint Rainbow Club Salmon trip in Michigan (October 12 - 16)
• Big Horn River trip Billings, Montana (June 4-8)
• 4th Annual Wilderness North Canada trip (July 7-12)

Congrats to Chris on a beautiful rod and a 3rd place finish.

Congratulations to all of the contestants and the winners.  Props to by friends at the Long Beach VA for big numbers among the winners and amazing works.  These are beautiful rods and will look great with a heavy bend in them!

For more on Project Healing Waters visit www.ProjectHealingWaters.org

For more on the competition and for more photos visit http://hookhack.com/html/projecthealingwaters

Project Healing Waters at Jess Ranch Lakes

If you haven't yet heard of Project Healing Waters or seen someone who's life fly fishing has changed, it's time to do some reading.  That power has been around for many hundreds of years but more recently it  has taken on a new form.  Project Healing Waters started in 2005 with the intent to help disabled veterans heal physically and emotionally through fly fishing and fly tying education and outings.  PHW now offers itself to veterans at over 70 medical centers and Veteran Affairs hospitals.

PHW rod tube holding the hopes and efforts of one of the veterans.

I have recently become involved with PHW functioning at the VA in Long Beach, CA through the Long Beach Casting Club.  As I entered the program the vets were half way through building their own fly rods.  The rods flaunted decorative ties, rod seats and handles, many paying tribute to war time and country.  Each veteran had a rod to build and keep as an introduction to the world of fly fishing.  Just two weeks ago the rods were finished and some of them sent to Maryland for a national PHW rod building competition in a bid for best rod and a guided trip to Montana.

One vet's rod is a marked tribute.

For the second time in two years volunteers and veterans made the trip  to Jess Ranch Lakes, a hatchery in the high desert of Southern California with associated trout ponds .  Hi-Desert Fly Fishers catered the outing with food and drink, and helped many of the vets test their new gear.  Though the fish were big, I mean really big, it was a challenge to really test the rods.

A rainbow takes a look but won't be fooled.

A HI-DESERT angler ties on a new fly.

Like all good fishers we had our excuses ready, punctuated by some very exciting hook-ups and a netted fish now and again.  The excitement of being on the water made the low numbers quickly forgotten.  The peace, the friends and the focus on the water reduces what’s important to what’s in front of you.  The water becomes the focus, the fish are the goal, and what is not immediately around you becomes far, far away.

The biggest hook-up of the day doubles over a 6wt. rod.

It is harder now for someone to find the outdoors, to get out of the urban, the workplace, the hospital and go fishing.  PHW makes fishers out of war veterans and out of heros.  

The possibility of a large fish gets everyone on their feet.

You don’t have to have seen the perils of a war to know the power of fly-fishing.  It treats all of us the same.

Long Beach Chapter Project Healing Waters is ready now to start fly tying.  In September the vets will be traveling to Montana self-made and ready for world class trout, precious time on the water, and a trip they more than deserve.  To learn more about Project Healing Waters and  PHW at Long Beach visit:
www.projecthealingwaters.org
 www.longbeachcastingclub.org