fly fishing casting

Veterans cast their stress away

“Where are the fly rods?” he said.

Sherba was one of 21 veterans from the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre who participated in Project Healing Waters last Wednesday. The program helps active military personnel and veterans with physical and emotional rehabilitation.

And they use fly fishing to do it.

Wednesday’s event was held on the private grounds of the Indian Mountain Rod and Gun Club. Members of the Stanley Cooper Sr. and the Brodheads chapters of Trout Unlimited, along with other volunteers, helped out by teaching the veterans how to cast with a fly rod and guided them along the creek.

For most of the veterans, it was their first time fly fishing.

“I fished before, but never fly fished,” said veteran Tim Halliday. “This is different. It’s an art.”

On Wednesday, veterans from Afghanistan, Desert Storm and Vietnam came out to do some fly fishing on Dotters Creek. Marion Skomsky, a recreational therapist at the VA, said the Healing Waters program is therapeutic and it’s something that the veterans greatly anticipate.

“It combines appreciation of nature, fellowship and recreation,” she said. “There’s therapeutic value in the water.”

And while the veterans stood along the banks of Dotters Creek casting flies, their minds shifted away from things like stress, chronic pain and war.

On this day, their minds were on the water’s surface and the trout that swam below.

“This has been really good for me,” said veteran Pat Tuorto. “These people really go out of their way to help you.”

Tom Battista, president of the Brodheads Chapter and a member of the Indian Mountain Rod and Gun Club, said the club intends to host a Healing Waters event every year.

When this year’s event came up for vote by 60 club members, the support was unanimous.

Fishing With Fly Fishing Nymphs | Free Articles Directory

So why is fishing with fly fishing nymphs so challenging?

What a fly fisherman does when using fly fishing nymphs is try to imitate the immature insects that still live underwater. Therefore it is difficult and nearly impossible for the angler to see the fish going for the fly. But in dry fly fishing, the fly sits on the surface of the water and the angler can easily see when a fish bites.

Another challenging aspect of fishing with fly fishing nymphs is the fact that the nymph, being under the surface of the water, is more prone to bumping into rocks and trees, emulating a fish taking the hook. It is also more likely to snag your fly fishing nymph on those rocks and trees.

In addition, using fly fishing nymphs become more of a three-dimensional game, rather than a two dimensional game in dry fishing. The angler must now have an accurate cast both front & back, left & right, and be able to accurately predict the depth at which the trout lie.

Lastly, trout are inclined to take in a nymph more subtly that a fly on the surface. They may not hit has hard, and therefore it may be hard for the angler to tell when he has hooked a trout.

As you can see from the above, fishing with fly fishing nymphs can be very challenging, and turns many people off to this technique. However, now that you have a better understanding of the difficulties involved in nymph fishing and with practice, the only problem you will have is catching too many fish (is that even really a problem?).

When fishing with fly fishing nymphs, you use basically the same equipment as when dry fishing. The only additional items I would recommend are small weights (to help your nymph sink a little better), strike indicators (to be able to tell when you’ve hooked that trout!), and a nice pair of fly fishing sunglasses (preferably polarized so that you would be able to see through the bright orange strike indicator and the glare in the water better).

There are many different methods of fishing with fly fishing nymphs, as much of the technique is about preference and style. In this article I will speak briefly of two different methods.

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