The only sound in this one corner of Golden Gate Park is the whirring "zzzzzz" of fishing lines, as they arc out over a deep green pond, sending rippling concentric circles toward shore.
Seven female military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are learning how to fly-fish as a way to cope with the emotional fallout from serving their country.
"As vets with PTSD, we are hard on ourselves, with why our recovery is taking so long, and fly-fishing shows me to be OK with where I am," said Christine Stout-Holmes of East Palo Alto, who served 18 months in Germany in the '80s, as an Army combat telecommunications officer, encrypting and deciphering messages in the back of a van. Her trauma, she said, came from sexual abuse she suffered while enlisted.
As she perfected her roll cast, swiveling her wrist sideways, she compared fly-fishing with dance: "It has a rhythm, like ballet, and you have to learn to move with gracefulness."
It also can help female veterans ease their anxiety and depression, and in some cases, serve as the one activity that draws them out of the house each week, said Maureen Brown, a 30-year Army veteran who served in Desert Storm and started the women's group in May with a fly-tying class at the Menlo Park VA clinic.
Recreational therapy
For the past seven years, Brown has taught fly-fishing as a form of recreational therapy at six Northern California veterans clinics through the Veterans First Fly Fishing Federation.
She enlisted a recreational therapist at the Menlo Park veterans clinic to establish a fly-tying class and called on Golden West Women Flyfishers founder Fanny Krieger, a fly-fishing hall of famer who produced several instructional fly-fishing videos with her late husband, Mel, an internationally renowned fly-fishing instructor with several books on the topic.
"When I started, I, like you, knew nothing," Krieger said, addressing the veterans for their casting lesson at the Golden Gate Angling & Casting Club. "Then I learned a little, and I thought I knew it all. Then I hit another level and realized fly-fishing is infinite."
The students, who are practicing for an upcoming fly-fishing trip, had previously spent many hours making flies out of colorful yarn, peacock feathers and rabbit hair. The focus and attention on a small task is soothing for veterans who remain hyper-vigilant and jittery long after their service is over, Brown said.
"Sometimes it's hard for me to slow down in my head," said Pam Olson of Santa Cruz, who served in the '80s as a Navy cook and as an explosives handler in Puerto Rico. "Fly-fishing and the repetitive motion of it helps."
While fly-fishing may seem to the casual observer like a lot of standing in waders and waiting for a bite, anglers actually cast every two or three minutes, so that their flies mimic the actual hopping behavior of real flies that fish see from below the surface, said volunteer Lelia Lanctot of Larkspur, who was on hand to assist the students' technique.
"Woo! I think I'm getting it!" laughed Navy veteran Ana Espitia of San Jose, whose three years as a machinist mate tending nuclear submarines off the coast of Scotland left her with lingering depression.
Chance to get outside
She smiled as the perfect arc of her line sailed expertly into the lake.
"Fly-fishing feels free; it's good to feel the air," said Espitia, who cares for her ill mother and rarely gets a chance to leave the house. "I now have something to look forward to every week."
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