At Powell Middle School on Friday and Saturday students had to be careful and pay attention to detail. 

They were building fly fishing rods with the help of a Wyoming-based fly fishing organization for children.

Homeschool student Blake Wood visited Powell Middle School to build his first fly fishing rod over the weekend with his friend Orin Onstine, who serves as a club mentor. Wood said he has “never really fly fished before,” to which Onstine chimed in excitedly that he gets to help Wood. 

“You want [the mentorship] to be more genuine and natural versus forced, like you have to be here to help out,” club sponsor and middle school Physical Education teacher Eric Oram said. “And all of the kids that are here helping are wanting to do it, just genuinely helping.”

But Onstine also has his own work to do — the guides on the 5-weight, 9-foot rod he built last year were crooked. He tried to use it regardless but had to resort to contortions to reel his line in. To fix it will only take a few hours, he said. He’s excited to finally use his rod that’s been two years in the making. 

Students who were with the club last year already have their rods so for the most part they helped new members build rods or they built rods to donate to large supporters of the club. Next year, Oram is looking forward to having many eighth grade students available to mentor new members.

Oram is working on putting together a fishing trip for his mentors for the end of the year, with the help of teachers and parents who have boats and fishing experience. Hopefully, the students will be able to experience a float trip, Oram said. 

This is the second year of Powell Middle School’s Fly Fishing Club and the second time they have partnered with Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation to supply its members with rods they build themselves. Joey Puettman, the foundation’s founder, is both a former fishing guide and mental health professional who for the last 16 years has put the two professions together through the foundation. Puettman said that fly fishing, fly-tying and rod building provides a support service for children. In the winter months they build their equipment and in the summer months Joey’s take them on a four day fly fishing camp. Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation has a main office in Sheridan and an office in Buffalo, and they are currently looking into expanding into the Big Horn Basin.

“They’re calming themselves down with the sensory integration, with the pressure the touch the feel the smell, but at the same time too, the confidence that comes from building their own custom rod. I don’t care how old you are, who you are, [if] you build your own fly rod, tie your own flies, and then you go out and catch a fish with it. There’s no better confidence booster than that.” 

Oram has said the goal of the rod building clinics is to make sure every member has a rod to fish with. 

“Last year, we had a big influx of kids, because none of them had ever had a chance to build a rod,” Oram said. “So now we’re finding that kind of year in and year out, we’d like to try to keep the number down to 16-20 max, it’s a little easier of a group to manage.”

The event was possible thanks to donations from the community, including a raffle that offered a guided fly fishing trip from Two Rivers Fishing Company, a custom rod built by the Powell Middle School Fly Fishing Club and a custom box with 24 flies tied by the club. Proceeds went to rod building and fly tying supplies.

“I would just like to say thank you to the community, to the school and for the parents. This is for the kids and it doesn’t take off, it doesn’t grow if there’s not kids willing to be a part of it,” Oram said. “And with that comes a lot of support from the community financially on that raffle and they’ve just knocked it out of the park.”