Fly Fishing Film Tour 2015 - Project Healing Waters Edition

Looks like a sell out.  Hope to see you there. 

Project Healing Waters Chair is Finalist for L.L. Bean Outdoor Hero

As you attempt to recover from your July 4th festivities, please take a moment to cast your vote for Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing's Chairman, Douglas Dear for L.L. Bean's Outdoor Hero 2011.

As you may already know, PHWFF is an organization that promotes healing for our wounded warriors through fly fishing. Mr. Dear has been a die hard supporter of this excellent organization for many years.

Douglas Dear was recognized in the nomination for the L.L. Bean Outdoor Heroes Award for his passionate leadership and tireless efforts which brought about significant and sustained program growth in just four years. From the program’s inception at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. to more than 100 programs in 2011, PHWFF volunteers have assisted disabled veterans and recovering soldiers by exposing them to the therapeutic benefits of fly fishing. The number of PHWFF volunteers and participants has increased every year, and, in 2010, some 3,000 disabled veterans and recovering military service members were involved in regularly scheduled classes and fishing outings offered by PHWFF. Through fly fishing instruction, fly tying classes, fly casting lessons, rod building and fly fishing outings, participants learn new skills that help them enjoy the healing properties of the outdoors and lessen the symptoms of their disabilities.

If being a great guy wasn't enough to get your vote, a win for Douglas means a big donation for Project Healing Waters:

A $5,000 donation will be made to the winner’s 501 (c)(3) nonprofit and the individual with the most votes will also receive a $500 L.L. Bean gift card. Douglas stated, “If I am fortunate enough to win the $5,000 for Project Healing Waters, I will donate the $500 to the organization as well.”

Thanks for taking a few minutes out of your day to cast your vote and help a great organization.

Proj. Healing Waters Two Fly Raises $110k for Wounded Warriors

PROJECT HEALING WATERS EVENT SETS RECORD FOR CONTRIBUTIONS,SMILES

SYRIA, VA -- The Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Inc. 2-Fly Tournament (www.phw2fly.blogspot.com) is billed as a competition where those who catch the most feisty rainbow trout win trophies. Yet, SPC. Billy Herrell, who finished way back in the event was all smiles as he made his way around Rose River Farm (www.roseriverfarm.com) where the benefit was held May 2, to raise money to help soldiers and veterans injured during service to their country.

“I caught trout on the fly rod and I had a lot of fun. Who could ask for more?” said Herrell, who must get around with the aid of a walker due to severe back injuries he received while serving in Iraq. Herrell is stationed at the Warriors in Transition Unit at Fort Eustis.

Ed Nicholson, founder, president and chief executive officer for Project Healing Waters, said, “The tournament aspect of the 2-fly is really a pretense to get us all together to have fun and raise money to provide, fly fishing training and outings for even more service members recovering from wounds or injuries.”

If smiles and donations were the goal, the 2-fly was a tremendous success. Everyone who participated caught fish and the event raised more than $110,000, a new record for the 2-Fly, which is in its fourth year.

Thirty two-man teams participated in the fly fishing contest and 15 of those teams paired an active-duty service member or veteran with a more experienced fly angler. Ten teams with corporate sponsors competed in a Pro/Vet category and 20 teams competed in an open category.

The winners of the Pro/et category were:Army Specialist Caleb Huss, of Woodbridge, Va., and guide Eric Stroup, from Spruce Creek, Pa. Army Sergeant First Class Jose Ortiz, of Ft. Belvoir and guide Chris Murphy of Warrenton, Va. Marine Sergeant (ret.) Sean Locker, of Dahlgren, Va., and guide William Heresniak, of Manassas, Va. The largest fish award went to LCPL (ret.) John Gilroy of Salisbury, N.C.

In the open category only two trophies were awarded. The winners were: Jason Baker and Chris Smith, both of Charlotte, N.C. The largest fish award went to Garretson Carter of Alexandria, Va. The event was sponsored by The Orvis Company, Temple Fork Outfitters, Rose River Farm, Dominion, and numerous other companies that donated fishing gear, gift certificates and other items for a raffle.

Project Healing Waters Fly fishing, Inc. (www.projecthealingwaters.org) is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and veterans through fly fishing and fly tying education and outings. Project Healing Waters was founded in 2005 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and is a registered 501c3, non-profit organization. PHWFFI currently has 86 programs in 70 Veteran’s hospitals and 16 military facilities. The organization’s programs operate in 37 states, Canada and U.S. military facilities in Germany with the assistance of Trout Unlimited Chapters, the Federation of Fly Fishers and independent fly fishing clubs.

Events: Project Healing Waters 2-Fly

Follow this link for more info

Project Healing Waters Online Store

Here is your chance to show your support for one of our favorite organization and get some very cool looking gear at the same time. Visit the Project Healing Waters Online Store and pick up this what is quite possibly the best looking rod tube ever. It comes in Digital Camo with the PHW logo for $44.50. Of course proceeds benefit PHW.

If you don't know about this excellent organization that helps our wounded hero's get back into the swing of things with fly fishing and fly tying, visit their website and read all about them.

Healing Waters: Evergreen Hand Fly Tying

Helping wounded warriors tie flies, the Evergreen Hand was created by Jesse Scott and makes it possible for a fly to be tied using only one hand.

The River Just Knows

Support Project Healing Waters and their Annual 2 fly event.

Project Healing Waters 2 - Fly Tourney

Doug Dear and the fine folks at Rose River Farm are once again making their facility available for an excellent fund raiser that benefits of one of our favorite causes, Project Healing Waters. Project Healing Waters has a great mission:

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

Help a good cause and fish what is known as "Western style fly fishing for trophy trout in Virginia"at the same time. What more can you want? Click here to sign up.

**Update** This note came in from Doug via the comments. I thought it deserved being added to our post.

If anyone has any questions they can email me at douglas @ roseriverfarm.com you can also get more info about the tournament at http://phw2fly.blogspot.com/

Rose River Farm - Western Fly Fishing in the East

Douglas Dear, owner of fly fishing destination Rose River Farm in Virginia, sent us a note to let us know that he still has a few dates available for Fall fishing on his excellent fly fishing, catch and release trout fishery.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I just fished the Farm today and water levels and flows are very good. The River is loaded with hungry trout and is fishing well. We are booking up fast for the fall and if you want to get an opportunity to enjoy the fall colors and catch trophy trout now is the time to book your reservation.

Douglas is a major league supporter for Project Healing Waters and the fishing up at Rose River Farm is first class, so we encourage you to spend some time fishing with him if you get the chance. You can contact Rose River farm and book your visit via their web site http://www.roseriverfarm.com/.

Orvis Customers to Round Up for Project Healing Waters

I am back in the lower 48 and can only say that our Alaska trip surpassed all expectations. I'll have more info and substantial fish porn shortly. While I recover from a redeye flight out of Anchorage I wanted to pass along a word from our friends at Orvis about a new initiative they have put in place to help support one of FlyFishMagazine.com's favorite organizations, Project Healing Waters.

Orvis is asking their customers to round up the amount of their purchases during the month of September with the proceeds going to Project Healing Waters. In addition the good folks at Orvis will be matching the customer donations dollar for dollar. Seems like a great time to buy some gear. Check out this video for details.

James Gandolfini: An Offer You Can't Refuse

This comes via the desk of the Editorial Trophy Wife. Christie's Auction House is holding an auction that appeals to our inner mob boss (lest you forget that our day job is in construction and was once based in Jersey.) James Gandolfini head of HBO's fictional Soprano family is selling the shirt off his back and donating the proceeds to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Black, olive, and cream short sleeve button front shirt by Nat Nast worn by the character Tony Soprano played by actor James Gandolfini in HBO's award winning series The Sopranos. Mr. Gandolfini wore the shirt in "The Ride" (Season 6, Episode 9) during the sequence in the Soprano kitchen where Carmela talks with Tony about Adriana's disappearance and tells him that Ade's mother thinks Christopher may have killed her.

It seems Mr. G got to keep the clothes from the show and has decided to dispose of them while helping out a worthy cause. If you decide to bid be sure to remember that only items worn by Tony create a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project. Uncle Junior must be keeping the money for himself.

Memorial Day

On this Memorial day we want take a moment to wish all of those who serve or have served our country a thank you. Nothing we could possibly say could express the debt of gratitude we owe. We ask you to think of the good folks behind groups that serve those who have served such as Project Healing Waters.

Project Healing Waters 2-Fly - May 4th, 2008

The Eastern Blue Ridge Fly Fishers, a FFF chartered club, is hosting the 1st Annual 2-Fly Tournament Fundraiser for Project Healing Waters (PHW). PHW is a non-profit organization that has been utilizing fly fishing and fly tying in the rehabilitation of wounded servicemen and women at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the past two years.

The tournament is held on the private fly fishing waters of Rose River Farm in Madison, VA. Entry fee is $500 per two man team with the proceeds going to help our wounded heroes. Click here to sign up.

Project Healing Waters: Two Fly Tournament

Project Healing Waters has announced their second annual "Two Fly Tournament" to be held May 4th on the beautiful and trout filled waters of the Rose River that runs through Rose River Farm near Syria, Virginia. 30 teams will compete in the event with at least 10 of the teams being made up of corporate sponsored Pro/Vet teams.

Entry fees are $500 per team or $2,500 if you or your company would like to sponsor a Pro/Vet team. Follow this link to the entry/information form.

Watch for more information and coverage of this event here in the near future.

Project Healing Waters was featured in FlyFishMagazine.com's annual Charitible Giving Guide.

Blogging the Charlotte Fly Show 2008

This weekend we made our yearly trip to the Fly Fishing and Wing Shooting Show in Charlotte, NC. The show was pretty much the same as every year but we ran into a few familiar faces. Excuse the crappy camera phone photos:

Scott Hed, Outreach Director for the Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska. Scott was fresh off the plane and hard at work getting signatures on the petition to stop the Pebble Mine. Scott tells us that the fight to save Alaska's salmon run is going strong. Signatures gathered at this week's show are heading to the Governor of Alaska's mail box.

Noted author and Tennessee fly fishing guide, Ian Rutter of R&R Fly Fishing ,took a few moments to tell us about fly fishing for Small Mouth Bass. He also gave us the low down on our pal from the Trout Underground, Tom Chandler. We won't bore you with details, but we have the inside scoop indicating that slaw dogs, curvy mountain roads, and Tom don't exactly mix.

It's one of those "you had to be there" stories but lets just say this fellow might have a somewhat "un-natural interest" in the Trout Underground.

We also ran across our friend John Bass and the rest of the good folks from Project Healing Waters. We bought a raffle ticket for a sweet bamboo rod with proceeds going to this worthy cause. John also reminded us that we don't have a sidebar link to PHW. Something we are correcting right away.

Project Healing Waters visits CFFC

The Carolina Fly Fishing Club, the FFF chapter of which we are proud to be a member, will have a representative from Project Healing Waters. Project Healing Waters is the group which takes wounded solders on fly fishing trips as part of their rehabilitation. It is a very worthy cause which we fully support.

Anglers who are interested in learning about the group and their mission are encouraged to attend the CFFC meeting Tuesday, September 11th 2007 at the Gander Mountain Store in Mooresville, North Carolina. The meeting starts at 6:30 PM.

Cataraft with Wheelchair Platform

John Bass from North Carolina works closely with Project Healing Waters to help provide fly fishing opportunities for wounded service men and women. John is himself confined to a wheelchair and sent me this photo of his new cataraft complete with a wheelchair compatible front casting platform.

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day and we want to take this opportunity to say thanks to all the men and women who are part our military. Thanks for taking the heat for us so that that we can have the freedom to fly fish and to blog and even to blog about fly fishing.

Take a few moments today to visit a couple of links:

The Baghdad School of Fly Fishing and Project Healing Waters. Both are doing great things for our American heros and are worthy of your support.

Paper is to rock as candy is to wounded warriors?

From an article in the News-Gazette.com where a viewer poll picked a story for the CBS Evening news "Assignment America" to cover. It seems today candy beats the blood of patriots almost everytime.

A Tuscola candy shop will appear this Friday on the "CBS Evening News," thanks to the help of area computer users. CBS News announced Sunday night that Flesor's Candy Kitchen in downtown Tuscola was the top choice in Internet voting over the weekend.
The story of a Greek immigrant named Gus Flesor establishing the shop in 1901 and two granddaughters who reopened the shop in 2003 got more votes than a story on fly fishing for wounded soldiers and a 13-year-old boy who is the CEO of a baseball bat company.

link to our previous coverage of this item.

The excellent RPS poster above comes from this site.

Healing Waters

Douglas Dear, the owner of Virginia fly fishing destination Rose River Farm, gave us a heads up about an article in the Richmond Times Dispatch about wounded Army Ranger Eivind Forseth's experience fly fishing through Project Healing Waters.

"At the time, I was very frustrated with every aspect of my life because of my wounds and my recovery from the wounds. I thought it was just one more thing that was going to frustrate me, and it would be one more thing to remind me I had a permanent disability."
Hooking a fish changed all that.

Project healing water's mission says it all:

Project Healing Waters salutes all of our brave armed forces, and strives to serve those who have come home woundedand aid in their physical and emotional recovery by introducing or rebuilding the skills of fly fishing and fly tying.

Here is a link to the article in the Times Dispatch and a link to the good folks at Rose River Farms where they offer trophy trout fishing.