Fans find many facets in fly fishing

Local folks celebrate arcane art of casting, tying tiny lures

Friday, Feb. 5, 2010

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by BOB RENNEISEN Paul Blayney works at his fly tying bench at home in Port Republic. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

"If fishing is like religion," newsman Tom Brokaw once said, "then fly fishing is high church."

Norman Maclean, in his book, "A River Runs Through It," agreed. "In my family, there was no clear division between religion and fly fishing," he wrote.

Robert Redford's motion picture based on Maclean's book etched the idyllic aspect of fly fishing into the minds of millions of moviegoers with images of Brad Pitt "shadow casting" while joyously being swept down Montana's Blackfoot River in quest of a monster rainbow trout.

It can be therapy

For some, fly fishing and fly tying are pastimes or business opportunities, but one organization, headquartered in La Plata, has made these activities a form of rehabilitative therapy for injured service men and women and veterans.

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing "is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active-duty military personnel and veterans through fly fishing and fly tying education outings," according to the organization's brochure.

"It started at Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] back in 2005," explained Ed Nicholson of Port Tobacco, a retired U.S. Navy captain and the organization's president. "I had to go in and have my prostate removed … and when I was recovering, I couldn't miss the fact the hospital was filled with guys, and some ladies, too, that were really banged up. I mean you think about your own miserable situation and then you put it into perspective, and think ‘Geez, I'm not 21 years old and [my problem] is not an arm or a leg or an eye.'

"So anyway, I'm recovering there and I'm seeing all these guys and ... I got to thinking — you know how sometimes small thoughts start to grow — maybe I'll snag a couple of these guys and … take them bird hunting or fly fishing, these things that I love to do."

After recruiting one or two volunteers and coordinating with the head of the occupational therapy section at Walter Reed they started small, but grew rapidly as news of the program began to spread to Veterans Affairs hospitals.

"The first place was the Togus VA Hospital in Augusta, Maine, and [the recreational therapist there] jumped right on it," Nicholson recalled, "and [then] we were dealing with older, more mature veterans, not just those who have just come right off the battlefield. They've been living with their issues longer and adapted more, but are still craving that kind of outlet, both physical and emotional — to get that part of their life back. That was February 2007, three years ago, and from that first VA [hospital] we now have nearly 65 VA hospitals that we are running programs in.

"We're also running programs around the country in what are called Warrior Transition Centers at various posts and bases — like Fort Lewis, Fort Hood, Fort Bliss, Fort Belvoir and Fort Drum — for those injured soldiers who are transitioning back into active service," Nicholson added.

Does it have an impact? According to Army Sgt. 1st Class Diane Cochran, who is quoted in the project's brochure, it does.

"Never have I felt less in control of my life as I did when I arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with wounds and injuries sustained in Afghanistan," she wrote. "It is through events such as a day on the river fly fishing that has allowed me to regain some control over my life and limbs. Any day on the river is a good day. The pain goes away, and, for a while, I am allowed to be one with nature."

It can be a pastime

While fly fishermen, and the fish they pursue, vary greatly around the world, Paul Blayney of Port Republic epitomizes the type of fishing Maclean's book extols.

"I like the small stream fishing for trout," he recently said with a smile. "It takes you to beautiful places; generally not crowded and manageable, controllable. Wading mostly, but not always, you're there in the element with the fish. It's a total getaway and I've learned to appreciate it and read the water and understand a little bit about what's going on. You get into the life cycle of all the insects and stuff like that." He added, "I always prefer to catch fish on top — it's just more fun."

Blayney settled in Southern Maryland with his wife, romance novelist Mary Blayney, after his retirement as a rear admiral from the U.S. Coast Guard. He brought with him his lifelong love of fly fishing. "I've been a fly fisherman and a fly tier all my bloomin' life. I started out as a kid, just playing around with it." His first memorable fly fishing experience was "a trout fishing trip with my father to southwestern Wisconsin."

Over the years, he has made numerous trips to favorite fishing spots. "My favorite streams are up in the Catskills — the Beaverkill River and the Willowemoc Creek. I make at least one trip, usually two trips per year up there. I've been going there for 25 years. I know the water well … the fly fishing museum is up there and it's sort of a pilgrimage for me."

However, he also indulges his fly fishing urge closer to home. "Maryland has some good streams," he said, "like Big Hunting Creek and Beaver Creek and the upper reaches of the Potomac." He's also tried saltwater fly fishing on the Chesapeake Bay, but said he still prefers fresh water streams.

Like many fly fishermen, Blayney uses wintertime and other nonfishing periods to pursue a related pastime — fly tying.

"Fly tying is my wintertime therapy," he says. "It requires total concentration, so it takes you away from everything else; and yet, it allows for unlimited creativity. I'm not a formula tier — I have my favorite patterns, but I've adapted all of them in some way — I think that most tiers do the same."

He has been tying flies for as long as he has fished with them. "I think it was a Cub Scout project or Boy Scout project that first got me started with fly tying, so it was clearly when I was in grade school that I got a starter fly tying kit and started fooling around with it. … My favorite flies are standards — Royal Wulff, Royal Coachman, Elk Hair Caddis ..."

"I also love to experiment," he added. "I love to come down here and pick up some scraps on the bench and say, ‘OK, what can I make with this?'"

But Blayney's first love is the fishing. "Every fishing trip's an adventure," he swore. "Every trip's a story."

It can be a business

While fly fishing and tying are pastimes for many Southern Maryland residents, they are business opportunities for others.

Ken Lamb, owner of The Tackle Box in Lexington Park, says his shop has stocked fly fishing and fly tying materials since his father opened the business 50 years ago.

"The market for fly tying materials here in St. Mary's County really varies. It has hills and valleys, you know. Several years ago, I had an employee who tied flies; he sort of pushed it and we had some people who were interested in doing it, so we built up a clientele," he said recently. "For a while there really was a big interest in fly fishing, you know after the movie ‘A River Runs Through It.' That really buzzed it up quite a bit. It's declined a little, but there is still interest in fly fishing and tying. Every now and then, people come in and want different kinds of [fly tying] materials and when I get enough demand, l sit down and make an order up. We're actually moderately well-stocked at the moment."

As far as the fly patterns go, Lamb says that "saltwater and bay patterns are more popular here than freshwater patterns — big streamers and popping bugs, Deceivers, that kind of thing."

Brady Bounds, 60, of Lexington Park said he was one of the first two professional fly fishing guides on the Chesapeake Bay. He caters strictly to anglers who want to fish by the cast-and-retrieve method. He uses no bait and does no trolling.

"I started the business in 1989, having been a charter boat captain since 1982." Bounds had sold his charter boat but wanted to keep his captain's and fishing licenses active by using a smaller boat he owned.

He ran an advertisement in a magazine as a "light tackle guide" that got no response. Then a banner was added that read: "Fly Fishermen Invited."

"The rest is kind of like the American dream," he said. "The phone started ringing off the wall, we had to buy an answering machine — there was almost an unlimited demand for someone who would take fly fishermen in a saltwater environment on Chesapeake Bay. Today, I'd say, there are probably 30 light tackle guides active on Chesapeake Bay."

Bounds also ties the flies he uses.

"I fish a wide variety of flies and almost all of them I tie myself for my clients," he said.

rrenneisen@somdnews.com

To learn more

Information about Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing is available at projecthealingwaters.org.