Reel Recovery 2016

[BilletHead]

   Once again I was asked to help in the Reel Recovery retreat. It was held at Westover Farms. Ten men had signed up and seven were feeling well enough to make the trip. I got to do the guide thing to take three of the men. Matt from Kearney, Tyler from Mansfield and Steve from around the St. Louis area. I was given the heads up on some things about Matt and felt urged to ask him if he would like to fish with me the first session, he did and we had a great time fishing and talking about what we had in common, not in common and life in general. Great guy and boy did we catch fish. He informed me when we had our closing ceremony and everyone was done fishing that we had caught the most out of all sessions . Second was Steve and I was asked to take him out. What a gentleman. He was the only one that had even fly fished before. When he found out after lunch we would be fishing together he was pretty excited. I had an alert on my phone we were under a thunderstorm warning as myself and the other river helpers watched the darkening sky it became dark, the wind blew, lightning hitting all around the rumbling of thunder! Just as it was at it's worst out on the porch came Steve, waders on,  his bamboo rod in hand saying I am ready. I say Steve it's storming right now, but I want to go! We will they don't want us out there right now. Well I am ready . Still raining lightning and thunder in the distance he says again we gonna go? Yes we will go I am going to get my waders on and get a rain jacket so I don't get too wet. So where is your jacket Steve? Oh I got this light one. That won't keep you dry I got an extra.. I return and we get his rain jacket on. He grabs a wicker creel and one of the guys says we don't keep any fish. Oh I know Steve says my stuff is in there. So we rig up his bamboo rod and he says he had acquired the bamboo blank in Germany from an old guy that made it and could not fish anymore. He brought it back to the states and had it built. Steve is no spring chicken I tell you but we caught fish, quite a few. Every time he got hung up I cringed as he tried to flip it loose. I would finally say let me get it unhooked and then I was in a sweat holding that nice stick. I even got him to stripping woolly buggers and he caught a couple that way. Another river helper came down, Mike S. from the Ozarks Flyfishers. I told him he could be my net boy. Steve got a chuckle out of that and the three of us got to business working the fish over. Soon Steve says hey I got to sit down you two are wearing me out. He took a seat and handed the rod to us and says try it out. I castled a few times and handed the rod to Mike. Mike hooks up on a fish and I get it landed. He says this is pretty neat. I then tell Mike the story on the rod and he says as he turned a lighter shade of white if I knew that I wouldn't of even touched that rod. Steve caught a couple more and said I am done and want to get ready for dinner. We got him back and we I think were the last to quit. A while later after dinner some of the river helpers were trying their hands on the creek and I look down to see Steve bamboo rod in hand fishing by himself. I go over to see him hooked up on a fish. As I get there the leader broke and off goes the fish towing the strike indicator downstream. As I hurry closer Steve is following it reaching out with the tip of that rod trying to catch it. No Steve No don't do that I will try to get it. BUT it has that fly we caught so many on! Ha I thought and soon the floater separated from the line and we get that back. He looks at me and says I wanted that for a pattern I want to tie some of those. Do you have another ? Yes I will get you another. I do two and tell him one is a fly to fish with and one to take home, he grinned big. Day two after breakfast Tyler comes over and introduced himself. Will you take me out this morning? Yes I will be honored to Tyler. We grab gear and head out. More fishing and visiting, talked about his treatment and where he had it. Mercy in Springfield, hey that is where Pat my wife had her treatment. We caught a few and he said he wanted to fish the larger stream. We had lots of room there and we worked on his casting. Every time it went right and the line shot out he had the biggest grin. I swear you could see the gears in his head working. He asked questions, I did my best to answer. He learned to roll cast, upstream mend and downstream mend. He then asked to watch me cast. I explained a few things. Showed him a single hall and the double haul. Changed him over to a bugger and soon had him stripping. Missed a couple there. Then can I try to single haul? Sure but you don't need this right now. With a little help he did! Excellent! A few minutes before lunch we headed back to the little stream. If any of you have been here it is the garden section. A twisty little stream with a few short straight sections. I told him this would be his test. We lined up those straighter sections and told him to cast down stream and strip back watching the fly and the fishes reaction to it. Well it was on then. His heart was pumping, mine was pumping as the fish attacked that little black bugger. Tough to hook as they had to attack from behind in the four foot wide stream so most fish were missed as he strip set the hook right out of their mouth. He did hook and land two with that big grin on his face. He said he had bought a couple of eight weight rods with reels and line on craigslist and wants to learn to bass fly fish. I told Him I will tie him up a bass assortment so he can get started. I would also say we will be fishing together in the future.

   Lunch was served and closing ceremony finished goodbys said. Everyone back to real life. Good thing for these fellows and good for me too. A very humbling experience and I need that to reset from time to time. Out of these three fellows one is on maintenance chemo, one a year cancer free and one has been given six months left. The other four in various stages of treatment. I ask you all to say a prayer for these seven special guys.

This is Matt and his very first fly caught fish.

Steve and his bamboo rod just before the break off fiasco.

Matt, Tyler, myself and Steve,

BilletHead reset and humbled

[Johnsfolly]

BH - This was an inspirational post! Thanks for sharing and participating in this great event!

[fishinwrench]

Good on ya, buddy.

Those guys look as healthy as any of us.  We are all walking around with it, aren't we? It just hasn't gotten bad yet.   Sad stuff.

I'm not sure how I'd handle being told I had a terminal disease.  I think I'll continue to avoid doctors so that I never have to hear it.   With zero health insurance coverage it wouldn't do me any good to know anyway.  

[Foghorn]

BH, that's a feel good story all around-for those you helped,you as a helper and Forum members who have friends and family who are hurting.

[JestersHK]

You are an inspiration to all of us BH.  Thanks for sharing, and for all you give back.

 

[dprice]

NIce to read   Think I'll do it again !

puts my mind to Mathews 7:7