Fishing Outings Provide ‘Icing on the Cake’ for Healing Waters Participants

The fly rod moves back and forth, generating the energy required to cast the line, and with it the fly, which lands gently on the water. Slowly, a fish rises to the surface, inspects the fly, and takes it in its mouth. The battle is on!

The Veterans who participate in Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing have the opportunity to tie flies and to build fly rods. The program’s fishing trips connect the dots in the sport of fly fishing, joining the participant and the fish in a setting that is part competition and part serenity. “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after,” wrote Henry David Thoreau, perhaps summarizing the attraction of fly fishing. That same realization struck Ed Nicholson, a retired Navy Captain, when he launched Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing in 2005.

“The mission is to get involved with Veterans and teach them everything there is to know about fly fishing, from tying their own fly to building their own rod to learning how to fly cast to putting that all together and catching their first fish,” says Bob Barnett, Program Lead for Project Healing Waters in Greater Kansas City. “The fly fishing outings, really, that’s the icing on the cake.”

The majority of our time together is spent in twice-a-month fly tying sessions. The Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing national rod-building competition involves weekly meetings through the first quarter of the year. Our fishing outings give the participants a chance to catch fish on the flies and rods they have made, and the rewards are remarkable.

“That gives you so much joy, to do that on a rod you’ve built, on a fly you’ve tied,” says Mike Davis, a Veteran of the Army and Marine Corps. “There’s no words to describe it.”

Air Force Veteran David Bagley agrees. “When you’re on the lake or the river, you forget everything. I can’t speak for everybody, but I’m focused: Getting that line out, getting the fly where I want it, stripping it back in the way I need it to get back in, that way the fish are attracted to it. And when you get hooked onto a big trout, there’s no feeling in the world like it.”

The Greater Kansas City Program takes several fishing trips each year. Many of these are outings to nearby James A. Reed Wildlife Area in Lee’s Summit. The program also sponsors an annual “Plover Pickup” project, in which members pick up trash around Plover Lake, enjoy a cookout supper, then spend the rest of the evening fishing. Of course, the winter trout season is popular as well, when the Missouri Department of Conservation stocks many municipal lakes – including Plover and Coot Lakes at James A. Reed and the lakes at Fountain Bluff near Liberty – with trout between November and February.

Other outings include annual “Bluegill Blast” trips to Bolivar, hosted by Tri-Lakes Flyfishers and day trips to Bennett Spring State Park. Jim Rogers, concessionaire at Bennett Spring and a certified master fly casting instructor, treats our group to a special “Jim Rogers Fly Casting School.” Many of us also participate in events hosted by our sponsor organization, the Kansas City chapter of the Missouri Trout Fishers Association.

Our most popular outing is an annual trip to Rockbridge Trout Resort, a 2000-acre private trout ranch near Ava, MO. The Amyx family operates the ranch, which includes a spring-fed stream stocked with trout raised in its own hatchery. Trout average about two pounds, with many in the 4-5 pound range.

Our program depends on the generosity of our hosts at these outings, as well as the support of our sponsors, because the trips are offered at no cost to the participating Veterans. Volunteers who accompany the participants do so at their own expense, and often do some of the cooking for the group.

The fishing trips solidify the relationships that have formed during fly tying and rod building sessions. The joy of shared success on the water, the laughter from stories shared around an evening campfire, build more than memories – they complete the program by bringing Veterans to the Healing Waters that fly fishing can provide.

“I’ve learned how to fly fish, which I never did, build my own fly rods, build my own flies,” says Chuck Bradbury, a Vietnam Veteran, “and it’s really satisfactory for me when you catch a fish on your rod that you built and a fly that you tied. It’s a wonderful feeling, an accomplishment that we’ve made.”

Veterans enjoy success and serenity in the morning mist at Rockbridge Trout Resort near Ava, MO. The annual trip to Rockbridge is a favorite of participants in the Greater Kansas City Program of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing.

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing participants receive fly casting instruction from Jim Rogers (right) at Bennett Spring State Park. Rogers, the concessionaire at the park, is also a Certified Master Fly Casting Instructor. Each year, he donates a trip to his Jim Rogers Fly Casting School to our program.

Bob Barnett (left) and Mike Davis (right) hook up with a pair of rainbow trout during the winter trout season at Plover Lake James A. Reed Wildlife Area. Bob is the Program Lead and Mike is the Outreach Coordinator for the Greater Kansas City Program of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing. The outing is one of several the program makes to James A. Reed every year.