Outdoors
Adapted casting - Program brings people with disabilities out onto river with custom fishing gear
By CHELSI MOY
SUPERIOR - Some say casting a fishing line is like riding a bike: It’s hard to forget how. But Jerome Longpre wasn’t so sure this week when he took the long, slender black pole in his left hand.
“I’m not sure I can do it now,” he said.
Growing up, Longpre fished 10, sometimes 20, times a summer on the Blackfoot River.
*
That was before 2005.
In March of that year, the 62-year-old had a stroke, paralyzing the right side of his body. He underwent years of intense rehabilitation and had to move from his home in
the Ninemile to a temporary residence in Missoula to be close to medical services.
Only recently has Longpre moved home again. He can walk and talk now, but he still can’t move his right arm.
Standing on the bank of the Clark Fork River on Tuesday, Longpre held a fishing pole for the first time in five years, and it felt good. Finally, a taste of normalcy.
“I need this,” he said as guides prepared the three boats for launch at a fishing access in Superior.
Holding it in his left hand was awkward, considering Longpre is right-handed. And yet, just as though he had never stopped casting, Longpre drew the pole back, and with a quick flick forward, let the line fly through the air 60 feet in front of him.
Using the same hand, he wound the line back in using the push of a lever on the electric reel.
An instant smile emerged.
“I’m going to have to buy one of these things,” he said.
Longpre is one of many people with disabilities who took to the river this week, recreating in ways some would never think possible.
Organizers with MonTECH orchestrated a float trip for as many as 20 people with disabilities living in western Montana to show them how to use adaptive fishing equipment - and to prove that a disability can’t keep these people from partaking in the sports they enjoy.
The rafters began in Superior and floated to St. Regis. The stretch of river is calm and close to Missoula. Ramps helped people in wheelchairs access the boats. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks provided fishing license exemptions for the participants.
MonTECH is a program within the University of Montana Rural Institute: Center for Excellence in Disability Education, Research and Service, located on the university campus. It seeks to make technology available to people with disabilities to enhance their independence.
“There’s still good quality of life with a disability,” said Peter Pauwels, a brain injury and rehabilitation specialist.
Pauwels has fished for 50 years, and has 30 years’ experience fishing with people with disabilities. He’s built adaptive fishing poles for 20 years. The Colorado man volunteered to come to Montana to guide this week’s fishing exhibitions.
“Right past the eddy,” Pauwels said, helping Chris Clasby place his next cast.
The sky was blue. The air was warm. The wildlife was abundant along the shoreline.
Clasby, a quadriplegic, was anchored in a 12-foot cataraft. The only sounds on the river were the faint roar of vehicles whizzing by on the interstate and the whir of Clasby’s electric fishing pole.
A car accident 19 years ago paralyzed Clasby from the collarbone down. Over time, though, programs like MonTECH, where Clasby is employed, have helped him find his way back onto rivers and into the backcountry.
Clasby, 37, owns an adapted fishing pole, but it doesn’t have the ability to cast like this one. It’s mostly for ice fishing or trolling.
To draw back the pole, Clasby sucks into a tube. When it’s fully cocked, Clasby quits sucking and the pole launches forward, flinging the fluorescent orange lure 40 feet into the current. With a half-ounce lure, the pole will cast 65 feet, Pauwels said.
To reel in the line, Clasby blows into the tube.
“It was awesome to have that availability,” Clasby said. “To be able to do that by myself and independently cast and retrieve it and send it back out there - that was a really great opportunity.”
About an hour and a half into the float, one of the guides yelled, “Fish on!”
Sure enough, Clasby’s pole was bent in the shape of a rainbow.
“That’s a good fish,” said Pauwels, holding up the 20-inch pike minnow next to Clasby while someone snapped a photo.
Both Clasby and Longpre caught fish that day.
“I love to hunt and fish, as I always did,” Clasby said. “But now it has even more meaning because it’s something I can still participate in with my friends and family.”
The adaptive fishing poles cost about $1,000 and are available for purchase. Pauwels doesn’t charge labor costs, only for the parts. But the fishing equipment, along with other recreational gear, is also available on loan through MonTECH, which rents out adaptive recreational equipment for people with disabilities at no cost.
“We want people to decide when and where they recreate,” Clasby said.
For more information about purchasing adaptive fishing poles, check out www.accessiblefishing.org. For more information on MonTECH’s recreational equipment loan program, go to http://montech.ruralinstitute.umt.edu.
Adapted casting - Program brings people with disabilities out onto river with custom fishing gear
By CHELSI MOY
SUPERIOR - Some say casting a fishing line is like riding a bike: It’s hard to forget how. But Jerome Longpre wasn’t so sure this week when he took the long, slender black pole in his left hand.
“I’m not sure I can do it now,” he said.
Growing up, Longpre fished 10, sometimes 20, times a summer on the Blackfoot River.
*
That was before 2005.
In March of that year, the 62-year-old had a stroke, paralyzing the right side of his body. He underwent years of intense rehabilitation and had to move from his home in
the Ninemile to a temporary residence in Missoula to be close to medical services.
Only recently has Longpre moved home again. He can walk and talk now, but he still can’t move his right arm.
Standing on the bank of the Clark Fork River on Tuesday, Longpre held a fishing pole for the first time in five years, and it felt good. Finally, a taste of normalcy.
“I need this,” he said as guides prepared the three boats for launch at a fishing access in Superior.
Holding it in his left hand was awkward, considering Longpre is right-handed. And yet, just as though he had never stopped casting, Longpre drew the pole back, and with a quick flick forward, let the line fly through the air 60 feet in front of him.
Using the same hand, he wound the line back in using the push of a lever on the electric reel.
An instant smile emerged.
“I’m going to have to buy one of these things,” he said.
Longpre is one of many people with disabilities who took to the river this week, recreating in ways some would never think possible.
Organizers with MonTECH orchestrated a float trip for as many as 20 people with disabilities living in western Montana to show them how to use adaptive fishing equipment - and to prove that a disability can’t keep these people from partaking in the sports they enjoy.
The rafters began in Superior and floated to St. Regis. The stretch of river is calm and close to Missoula. Ramps helped people in wheelchairs access the boats. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks provided fishing license exemptions for the participants.
MonTECH is a program within the University of Montana Rural Institute: Center for Excellence in Disability Education, Research and Service, located on the university campus. It seeks to make technology available to people with disabilities to enhance their independence.
“There’s still good quality of life with a disability,” said Peter Pauwels, a brain injury and rehabilitation specialist.
Pauwels has fished for 50 years, and has 30 years’ experience fishing with people with disabilities. He’s built adaptive fishing poles for 20 years. The Colorado man volunteered to come to Montana to guide this week’s fishing exhibitions.
“Right past the eddy,” Pauwels said, helping Chris Clasby place his next cast.
The sky was blue. The air was warm. The wildlife was abundant along the shoreline.
Clasby, a quadriplegic, was anchored in a 12-foot cataraft. The only sounds on the river were the faint roar of vehicles whizzing by on the interstate and the whir of Clasby’s electric fishing pole.
A car accident 19 years ago paralyzed Clasby from the collarbone down. Over time, though, programs like MonTECH, where Clasby is employed, have helped him find his way back onto rivers and into the backcountry.
Clasby, 37, owns an adapted fishing pole, but it doesn’t have the ability to cast like this one. It’s mostly for ice fishing or trolling.
To draw back the pole, Clasby sucks into a tube. When it’s fully cocked, Clasby quits sucking and the pole launches forward, flinging the fluorescent orange lure 40 feet into the current. With a half-ounce lure, the pole will cast 65 feet, Pauwels said.
To reel in the line, Clasby blows into the tube.
“It was awesome to have that availability,” Clasby said. “To be able to do that by myself and independently cast and retrieve it and send it back out there - that was a really great opportunity.”
About an hour and a half into the float, one of the guides yelled, “Fish on!”
Sure enough, Clasby’s pole was bent in the shape of a rainbow.
“That’s a good fish,” said Pauwels, holding up the 20-inch pike minnow next to Clasby while someone snapped a photo.
Both Clasby and Longpre caught fish that day.
“I love to hunt and fish, as I always did,” Clasby said. “But now it has even more meaning because it’s something I can still participate in with my friends and family.”
The adaptive fishing poles cost about $1,000 and are available for purchase. Pauwels doesn’t charge labor costs, only for the parts. But the fishing equipment, along with other recreational gear, is also available on loan through MonTECH, which rents out adaptive recreational equipment for people with disabilities at no cost.
“We want people to decide when and where they recreate,” Clasby said.
For more information about purchasing adaptive fishing poles, check out www.accessiblefishing.org. For more information on MonTECH’s recreational equipment loan program, go to http://montech.ruralinstitute.umt.edu.