(PHOTOS) Youth mentors teach fly rod building working in Casper

CASPER, Wyo — The young men of Sheridan-based nonprofit Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation Youth Program were at the Ugly Bug Fly Shop in Casper this weekend to teach anglers how to assemble their own fly rods.

Student Tyler Morton, who “eats, breathes, and sleeps fishing,” said he’d already picked up a invaluable information within the first hour, including how to find the spine of a rod. 

“That was something I never really thought about doing…. If you’re not lined up on your spine right, the rod won’t cast true,” Morton said

Morton said he hoped to end up building more rods, and was grateful to the young mentors for helping him get through the “growing pains” of the process. “Now that I kind of got an idea of what’s going on, I know what to look for to buy.”

At the same work table as Morton was Randy Ford, who said, “I think this a great opportunity for these young men to share their talents with anybody of age, young or old.”

On Day two of the workshop, Oil City News checked in on how the process of winding the guides onto the shaft was going.

“Terrible!” Ford said. “Ian’s doing it.”

“They’re doing good,” said instructor Ian Gale. “Wonderful.” He said wrapping the very last guide on the thinnest part of the rod is likely the trickiest part of that particular process. 

Joey Puettman, founder of Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation, said this is the 14th year of the classes. He’s a former youth program director at Northern Wyoming Mental Health, kindergarten teacher, and fly fishing guide.

The idea of combining fly-fishing and youth mentoring came together for him back then when he took one young man out to show him the ropes, and noticed that the process immediately calmed him down. “I wish his parents could have seen it. I wish his therapist could have seen it, I wish his principal could have seen it,” Puettman said.

He said the intricacies and attention to detail required by the sport — gluing the handle, wrapping the guides —“harnesses” ADHD-like energies, including his own. He’s been integrating it into therapies ever since and offering it to school districts, families, and churches — “anyone that wants to learn,” he said.

At-risk youth are Puettman’s number-one demographic— kids that “have almost slipped through the cracks.” They are not generally engaged in other extracurriculars like sports or music,  Puettman said.

The kids he’s taught are now mentors themselves, teaching people of all ages what they know. The Youth Program, headed by Stephen Richards, governs itself and has its own bylaws. They’ve even helped Puettman expand his repertoire. Young Anthony “Fish” Kindle introduced Puettman to lathe work by way of his school shop teacher.

Everyone has their specialty. Fish’s is building and shaping grips. Orrin Cottman “one of the best fly-tyers I’ve seen,” Puettman said.

Puettman said the core values of the program are “patience, confidence, respect, and mentoring.”

“The biggest part of Joey’s is not the fishing, it’s the mentoring inside of fishing,” said Fish.

“I’ve had a pretty rough past with my father: in fact I joined Joey’s as that was going really badly.” 

He described coming into the fold as “almost that missing piece” of male mentorship in his life. 

“He’s taught me so many life lessons, especially that ‘what you put into it is what you get out of it.’”

Fish recruited his friend Ian Gale to Joey’s. “They got me through a lot of stuff,” Gale said, including the death of his older brother Reese.

One of the things he learned was to “Walk with purpose: always know what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it…. Don’t dink around, because you don’t have that long.”

Ian added that, before coming to Joey’s, he used to wake up late and miss the bus to school. Now he goes to bed earlier and wakes up on time. “I actually get a good night’s sleep. Life is way more relaxed, less stressed.”

“There’s so many life lessons to be taught from it,” Puettman said. “There’s a reaction for every action when you’re fly fishing…. If I try to pressure a cast.. if I’m not taking my time and letting the rod do the work, I’m going to foul that up.”

“There’s probably been five pivotal moments in my life as adult where I’m like ‘What am I going to do? I can grab a six pack, or I can grab my fly rod.”

There’s times where he’s done both, “but I always went to the river, thank God.”

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