SALEM, Va. (WFXR) — The poet Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “Many go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”

Sometimes what they gain, without realizing it, is healing.

That is the premise Project Healing Waters operates from. Project Healing Waters (PHW) helps active military members and military veterans through flyfishing. The organization works with veterans groups and Veterans Administration hospitals around the country, taking them on flyfishing outings and teaching them how to tie flies.

Flyfishing gives the veterans a chance to decompress in a peaceful setting, while practicing repetitive motion and focus. It also allows them to share their experiences with other veterans.

The Roanoke Valley chapter is assisted by volunteers who work with the veterans on the water.

Seyward McKinney is a local veteran who works with and is helped by Project Healing Waters. An Iraq War vet, McKinney is paralyzed on one side of her body, and she is legally blind in one eye.

“Even if I don’t catch anything, it’s just very relaxing,” said McKinney as she cast a fly rod in the Roanoke River at Green Hill Park in Salem recently. “I don’t have to think about the other stuff, that I have an injury or that I’m different from everybody else because it’s not a big deal to everyone around me, which is cool.

On this day, McKinney was assisted by volunteers Brenda Willis and John Loope. Both are members of the Roanoke Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

“I have a passion for fishing and I don’t mind sharing it,” said Willis as she assisted McKinney with a cast.

Despite the obstacles, McKinney has embraced flyfishing and calls it one of her passions. She says it brings her peace and joy, and the knowledge that there are always good times ahead at the end of a fly line.

“I like just how they hit the fly and put up a good fight,” said McKinney. “It just gets you going.”