Impact of fishing rod class goes beyond their dreams

With the help from some friends, Puget Island resident Bud Mickelsen is seeing an old dream come true, to share fishing rod building with people who could benefit from and enjoy the art.

Mickelsen has been building fishing rods for the better part of 66 years. But first, let's step back in time a bit.

In the early 2000s, Wahkiakum High School Voc/Ag teacher John Doumit had heard Mickelsen talk about raising money for Dollars for Scholars. He also found out that Mickelsen built rods.

"The last two years I was teaching," Doumit said, "I told my students that anything I teach is going to be something I'm interested in for retirement. I'd always been mystified by the process of rod building and I wanted to learn how to do it."

He approached Mickelsen.

"The first year he hemmed and hawed and basically said no," Doumit said. "He was busy and he was certain that he could only handle four or five students at a time. I told him not to worry about classroom management, that I would take care of it and he could just come and do his thing."

The second year, Doumit remained persistent.

"He was that," Mickelsen said with a laugh.

Mickelsen gave in and the pair began to plan.

"There were 18 students plus me," Doumit said. "He sat down and within 10 minutes I knew we had a winner on our hands. It was utter chaos, kids were totally involved and grandpa was in the room. That was the effect he had on the kids. The first few days were chaos and after that you could have heard a pin drop in the classroom when those students were working."

The pair learned their first lesson as well. Stick with the basics.

The class was such a hit, the pair found themselves teaching Ag teachers from across the state. They had 18 teachers in their first class and provided an inservice for the next four years in a row.

"It just took off," Doumit said. "Bud knew everybody in the industry. When he set after something, nobody could say no."

Including Jeff Mason, who had helped Mickelsen when he was organizing the Warrior, Widows and Heroes Salmon Derby last year.

"I didn't realize at the time I was being played," Jeff Mason said, laughing. "I came down here last year and the first derby was just a tremendous success. Shortly after that, Bud in his normal low key way said, 'I want to run something by you. What do you think about offering rod building classes to the Wounded Warriors and Veterans?'"

Mason, who guides fishing trips for Wounded Warriors had already had some requests about rod building, but it was a less natural fit for him.

"My neighbors see me with a tool and they get kids and pets off the street," Mason said. I was the conduit for getting people together."

Get people together he did. In March this year, several veterans traveled down to Cathlamet with Mason to take a basic class in rod building, so they could teach their peers at Madigan Army Medical Center and Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

"John led the class with Bud keeping an eye on all of us," Mason said. "As John said, it really demystified the process to where even I could do it."

The class was the first step in teaching the teachers, including Ryan Caldwell and Tommy Piper.

After that, Doumit went up to Olympia and gave the trainers an advanced class.

On their own, they ran a practice class with some of Caldwell's friends. They were brutally honest. It helped.

Caldwell served in the Army for 15 years before being medically retired. He is setting up a guide business for veterans.

"I loved the idea of carrying on an art that is done by hand and isn't done very much by people who are in the USA," Caldwell said. "What an amazing thing to do. Working with these guys I get to carry it on. I enjoy teaching it. It's a lot of fun."

So far, he and another instructor, Tommy Piper, have taught several classes. They estimate that 25-30 rods have been built by the veterans who have taken the class.

"We have five active instructors as a result of that and a permanent classroom in Tacoma now that has been donated to us," Mason said.

The classes are being offered to veterans, and according to Mason that's a big universe that includes active duty.

"Two classes ago we had some special forces personnel that had been beat up pretty hard," Mason said. "We're serving different groups as they become known to us."

In the future, they will be offering classes in Centralia as well. According to Mason, there is an organization that works with veterans that are facing some tough challenges.

"It gets them busy," Mason said, "it gets them out to fish after they build their own rods."

Piper acknowledged that the class, the teaching and the new hobby had done a lot for him.

"It has helped me out more than even I can imagine," he said. "It's broken me out of a shell. I have PTSD. I would sit in my house, get out maybe once a month. Now I'm getting out all the time. It means a lot to me."

After high school, Piper spent three years in the Marine Corps before joining the Air Force with a friend on a buddy program. When he got out, he had a hard time finding a job, so he went back in, this time with the Army, the only branch taking men with prior service.

"I spent three more years with the Army until they said it was time to put the brakes on," Piper said. "I was a forward observer. I was the one with the radio on his back that went out and spotted where the enemy was and called out the attack on them."

"That is probably one of the most dangerous jobs in the field," Bob Roche, a local veteran and the organizer for this year's Warriors and Widows event said. "I'm glad you are here."

Doumit explained the process of building a rod and how they've settled on teaching the art. He spoke about handles and guides and wrapping the guides.

"A typical student would start out wrapping the big guides on there and they think, I can do this," Doumit said. "It's a good thing you get better with every guide, because by the time you get to the little teeny one at the end and you wrap the tip, you'd better have picked up some skills or you are going to be there all night."

Everyone laughed knowingly.

"I call it the four letter word process, because the closer you get to the tip, I don't care what the class, you start hearing the four letter words," Jeff Mason said.

Mason talked about the instructors, including Caldwell and Piper.

"The credibility they possess having been in the military--it's amazing how quickly they connect on what they are doing," Mason said. "I think one of the most important elements to this is the fact that it is being taught on a peer level."

He gave an example.

"When I procured the classroom for us to use," Mason said, "I came up with what in my mind was a good layout to use. When we were setting it up Ryan asked what I was doing. It won't work, he told me. Not one of these guys is going to have their back turned to the entrance, Ryan said. I had no reason to even know. I would have created an obstacle with the best intentions, but he caught it right off the bat."

"I made him do pushups," Caldwell joked.

The creative aspect of rod building has also been a joy to witness for the instructors.

"We're bedazzled," Caldwell said.

Mason concurred.

"In my wildest imagination, I never thought I would see a group of what I would call Type A personalities, testosterone driven as a general description, get so wound up over thread and glitter," he said.

That's where Doug Martin comes in. There was a lot of praise in the room for the rods he builds, and Doumit was quick to point out that dentists are frequently artistic people. Martin has only become involved recently, but his rod building skills will appeal to the more creative rod builders.

"We've got another guy that has gone a million miles past us," Caldwell said. "He's wood burning in the cork, he's doing braiding."

"You could see his eyes open up during the advanced class," Mason added. "He's starting his own little company now."

A 13 year old boy, Brian Trujillo, who attended the fishing derby with his mother last year has been learning about the art as well. The group is setting Trujillo up with his own rod building supplies to start up a business. Apparently, he's already gotten some orders.

Trujillo will be giving a rod building demonstration at the derby this year. He will come down with his mom who is the president of the Washington Gold Star Wives.

Caldwell put an exclamation mark on what the rod building has meant to the veterans who have taken the class.

"A guy built a rod he called Dimplestick," Caldwell said. "He took his kids out fishing on a lake near Olympia. His daughter dropped the rod off the side of the boat and he tried and tried to find it. He marked it on his GPS and he dragged that lake for two days before he found it."

"He took a lot of pride in that rod," Caldwell added.

Mason said that because the program at JBLM was continuing to grow, they would be providing equipment in a lending library for the participants who want to advance their skills.

"One guy ordered his own equipment after class," Mason said. "He told his wife what he had done thinking he was going to hear about it. She told him it was the best $500 he could have spent."

"That was our goal," Doumit said.

Mickelsen smiled.

In response to several local requests from local veterans and widows to participate in the Warriors and Widows Salmon Derby, Organizer Bob Roche had this to say:

"The town is hosting the Warriors that are assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion at Madigan Army Hospital. It's also for the Washington Warrior Widows organization, widows whose husbands were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few representatives from local fire departments, the sheriff's office and state patrol have been invited as well."

According to Doumit a rod building class will be offered in Cathlamet on August 6. Watch the Eagle for future details.