Fly Fishing Equipment

Item Description

Another slick, precise, machine-made and decorated large Fly Rod?  Absolutely NOT!  This beautiful Fly Rod was hand crafted and hand decorated by a Desert Storm disabled Veteran who was one of the 2014 PHWFF National Rod Building Contest Winners.  Let him tell you about it in his own words:

"My name is Michael Plemens. I am an Army Veteran of Desert Storm. I served with Charlie Company 1/5 Cav Task Force 1rst Calvary Division as an infantryman. During Desert Storm I was the driver for Bradley C-23 and also conducted normal infantryman duties to include recon and op duty. I have lost a lot of my memories for then except for a couple of events that seem like yesterday and those are the ones I don't want. I lost some close friends and fellow soldiers over there, one being PFC Ardon B. Cooper whom I had served with since basic. PFC David Wieczororek and SGT Randazzo were also heroic soldiers and I miss them all dearly.

January 1994 I became 100% disabled from the VA for Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS). I have spent several stents in psychiatric wards since. In 2005 I attempted suicide and ended up in the Cleveland VA. This is where I had my first heart attack. From 2005 to 2011 I had 6 heart attacks. In 2011 the VA rated me 100% service connection for my heart and a blood disease.

I first heard about Project Healing Waters in 2013 while we were living in Cheyenne, WY. My wife and I were planning to move to the Tampa area at that time. I went to a couple of meetings and a fundraiser with the group in Cheyenne and Duane Cook was a great leader for the group and helped me in more ways than he knows. At this time I was sinking into a bad depression and did not even want to leave the house. The part of Healing Waters that really got my interest was rod building. I contacted Mudhole and ordered me a rod lathe and tools and both of Dale Clemens books on rod building, so now I was ready to start building rods. I tried to build a couple of rods by myself and people would say those look good and I thought so too at the time.

We moved to Apollo Beach, FL August 2013 I was ready to get some fishing and rodbuilding done. I joined Tampa’s Project Healing Waters and got involved with some of their events. I went to a fly fishing show with Larry Lurie and that's where I met the man that changed everything I knew about rod building. Curt Baker was in a club called Suncoast Rodcrafters in St. Pete and they had classes twice a week for rod building. So I joined them and went every night I could to learn from these masters of thread.

I entered the 2014 Project Healing Waters National Rod Building contest with Curt as my mentor. He taught me how to do the flag wrap and I also used some tape the club had bought and was trying out. To my surprise I won, I couldn't believe it and Curt was excited also bragged about it to some of the legendary rod builders he knows like Doc Ski. As a winner I got to pick a trip to go on and I picked Kodiak, AK. What an awesome trip everyone was awesome in Kodiak. I ate stuff I had never had before and had a great time fishing. Only bad part was I didn't get to see a bear, but maybe that’s a good thing.

April 2014 Larry Lurie asked me to build 3 fly rods for a fundraiser. The rods are Hook & Hackle FTX 8wt 9’6” each rod was different as far as the patterns.

As you can see Project Healing Waters has helped me, but I still battle everyday with depression, PTS, and pain. Will it ever get better? I wish it would, but then so does every other veteran that fights every day to be strong enough to get through it all."   Mike Plemens

Item Special Note

Donated by Michael Plemens and PHWFF Florida Region