Ernie Papacek holding a nice rainbow trout that he landed at Silver Creek in March on one of our overnight trips.
George Abernathy
Fly-fishing trips started gathering momentum at the end of March and will continue all the way through November-December this year. By the time this article is read, club members will have gone on multiple trips to the Mongolian Rim, White Mountains and local waters.
In addition to befriending fellow residents while fly-fishing, our club has taken on a new goal. After several meetings with Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Steve Nolan of Cottonwood, John Porter and Faye Stone of IronOaks, our club will be hosting disabled veterans with fly fishing on the fishable waters at both phases. What is Project Healing Waters? Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is a nationwide nonprofit organization that is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled veterans through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings. The organization began in 2005 serving wounded military service members who were returning at Walter Reed Army Medical Center returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our club members will be hosting the veterans when they come out to fish our waters four to six times per year. As with other fly fishing clubs that host this group, a free lunch is always provided for them and typically the cost runs approximately $120, depending upon how many veterans attend. Everyone would appreciate it if or a Sun Lakes club would like to sponsor a lunch for them. Please contact me. Also, their outings will be published ahead of time and if you are in the area and would like to drop off some sweets or drinks, the veterans would absolutely enjoy it. I personally would like to thank the above mentioned names for making this goal become a reality. Helping disabled veterans is something everyone enjoys supporting and the management teams at IronOaks and Cottonwood Palo Verde were behind this idea 110 percent and made it happen!
If you would like to see what our club is all about and what we do, you can now go to our web page at SunLakesFlyFishingClub.com. Thanks to Randy Smith; he was instrumental in putting this together for the club. You can view previous trips, forthcoming trips and events. It’s loaded with great fly-fishing pictures and interesting articles.
Over the course of the past year, our club has grown to about 47 active members and unfortunately some names, e-mail address and phone numbers have been inadvertently deleted over time due to computer issues. I blame it on computer issues but it’s probably more like my inputting ability and basic skills. Anyway, if this applies to you and you would like to get back on the roaster and join our club, please call or e-mail me at 480-521-1060; [email protected].
“The fun of fishing is catching ‘em, not killing ‘em.” –Norman Schwarzkopf
Fish On! Fish On!