Group uses fly fishing as therapy for veterans

Teach a wounded veteran to fish, and you’ll help him heal.

That’s what the creators of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc., believe. The organization, which offers expense-paid fishing trips for military veterans who have a service-connected disability or have earned a Purple Heart, began its first chapter in Onslow County this month.

For the veterans involved, casting a line is the last part of the journey.

The group began with Billy Spencer, a Richlands resident, who worked with program regional coordinator John Bass and attended a Healing Waters outing.

“I saw a Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair in the water and a guy with no arm fly fishing,” he said.

The concentration, patience and attention to detail needed to create flies and fish with them made the activity especially therapeutic for those with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or brain injuries, said Spencer.

“There’s no scientific data that says that (fly fishing) helps, but there are people with PTSD that say it helped them,” he said.

The chapter met for the first time Tuesday3 at Richlands United Methodist Church to learn a not-so-simple skill: how to tie a fishing fly. Working with special kit materials provided by Healing Waters, the six men in the class received instruction from Myron H. Beatty, a Richlands local who is a 30-year fly fishing veteran.

The project of the night: a “woolly bugger,” the simplest fly to learn.

A furry-looking creation of black chenille and marabou feathers, the woolly bugger “looks like nothing, but it looks like everything” in the water making it a tempting lure for fish, Beatty explained.

Even with the easiest project, the work was painstaking, requiring fine motor skills and a little bit of practice.

“The whole point of this is to get these kids working with their manual dexterity,” Beatty said. “It’s their physical therapy.”

Beatty, who was named the president of the Onslow County chapter, created a logo and a name for the group: Fly Fishers in Friendship and Fidelity.

It will meet the first and third Monday evening of each month, he said. Members will spend the majority of their time at the beginning learning to tie a variety of flies, each with its own levels of difficulty.

Although the program has started, the chapter continues to look for new members, Spencer said, ideally eight to 10 veterans with two instructors.

The people who stay with the program will be able to participate in a number of fishing trips, including outings to parts of North Carolina in coming months, and a trip slated for April that may take the group as far as Pennsylvania, Beatty said. In addition to several hundred dollars’ worth of equipment for each member, Healing Waters provides a $6,500 per head travel stipend.

“The veterans don’t pay for anything when they go on trips,” Spencer said.

Philip Buchinger, a retired helicopter pilot who resides in Richlands, said he heard about the group through the Methodist church and joined to support other wounded warriors.

“It’s great therapy for me and recreation, so it should be great for them too,” he said.

Project Healing Waters has 75 chapters nationwide and is a non-profit organization funded by donations. To learn more about the Onslow County chapter, contact Billy Spencer at wespencer@embarqmail.com.

Contact Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453 or hhodge@freedomenc.com.