PROJECT HEALING WATERS FISHING OUTING

On December 6th On December 6th, the Arizona Fly Casters Club (AFC) was proud to conduct a fly casting and fishing experience for the residents of the Arizona State Veterans Home. As requested, a group of AFC volunteers assembled in the lobby of the Veterans Home at 0900 hrs to assist staff in moving participating vets from the home to an adjacent urban lake called Steele I.S. pond.



This site is located in a Phoenix city park immediately west of the Veterans complex. The site is several acres in size, has an aerator system, casting platforms and grass banks featuring clear back-cast areas. This is an ideal location for teaching fly casting. AFC provided ten volunteers and pre-rigged rods for everyone’s use. The morning started out cold (32 F) and some vets declined because of health reasons. Seven hardy souls bundled up and we headed out. By 1000 hrs. the temperature was in the low 70's and the rest of the day was a picnic. It was amazing how some of these wheel chair-bound troopers learned the casting stroke and rod loading in a relatively short period of instruction. Special thanks to Arizona Fisheries Department for a fish stocking of 100 trout the previous day.



Did we catch fish? No! We threw everything but the kitchen sink at them with no luck. We received the usual comments from several civilian bystanders telling us, “You should have been here yesterday”. Our positions was, “If these AFC pros can’t catch them today -they’re just not hitting! Anyway, we are all committed to repeating this outing the first Wednesday of each month, January -March, 0900 -1200 hrs. We will keep you posted.

Submitted by Dario Travaini and Chuck Howey