Photograph courtesy of Battle Fish Charters
There is no better salve for post-traumatic stress, A. J. Beaudoin believes, than the call of the loon and the morning mist rising from an Adirondack pond. But it’s more than just that. Beaudoin wants to build a model in the Adirondacks, inspiring veterans to launch outdoor-oriented businesses in their own hometowns, where they, in turn, can bring the joy of the woods and waters to other veterans, students, Scouts and anyone who needs a breath of fresh air.
There are many moving parts.
But so far they have come together better than he ever imagined. Certainly better than when he himself returned from Afghanistan in 2008—after an air drop of Howitzer shells burst open and ripped up his knee—when he tuned out the world with only video games for companionship. “For a year I shut myself in my room. I didn’t even like going to the grocery store,” he said.
Beaudoin recognizes the irony that today he can hardly stop talking about Battle Fish Charters, his guiding service in Tupper Lake, which has already attracted national media attention through Discovery Channel’s Discover America, in an episode featuring six
veteran-run businesses.
His Battle Fish University guide school does “teach a man to fish” one better—he’s teaching a man to teach a man to fish. Currently, it’s an accredited weekend program at Paul Smith’s College, but Beaudoin is working to build it into a two-year degree. In the future, he envisions a nationwide network of
veteran-owned guiding services.
On a recent weekend, 24 veterans got a taste of what it would take to become a guide and an entrepreneur—and to jump-start their lives. “What we’re trying to do is generate a sense of purpose,” Beaudoin said.
As a combat veteran and paratrooper, Beaudoin said that treatment of veterans is better today than it was in the conflicted days of Vietnam. But once vets are discharged, society expects them to be able to flip a switch and go back to civilian life as if nothing has happened.
“You get shot at every day, you see friends die and it doesn’t leave you in a good place,” he said. “Then you’re supposed to shut all that off when you come home. It’s not that easy.”
Civilians are aware, in some vague sort of way, of elevated suicide and homeless rates among veterans, Beaudoin said, but what they probably aren’t aware of is that only a small fraction of veterans who start their own businesses succeed long-term.
So Beaudoin’s plan is to help them heal at the same time that they are learning about business models. After all, it worked for him. “Slowly, the outdoors helped me recover from PTSD,” he said. “I can’t think of a better place for veterans to recover than the Adirondack Mountains.”
Beaudoin grew up on a farm in western New York, where hunting, not fishing, was his primary outdoor recreation. With little in the way of vocational opportunity, he joined the Army and began jumping out of planes. He was at a remote outpost in Afghanistan, which could only be supplied from the air, when that pallet of shells came apart, ending his military career. On returning home it took time and a series of fortunate events for his world to come together.
He received housing through Operation Homefront’s Homes on the Homefront program, and paid it forward by taking over a Boy Scout group of 73 kids, becoming one of the first troops to admit girls.
But it was a visit to the Adirondacks that changed his worldview. He and his wife decided it was a place they could put down roots, and that Paul Smith’s—a school that has been described as a few hundred students crammed into 14,000 acres—was a perfect place for someone who was still a bit sketchy about crowds.
“Within a month I was enrolled at Paul Smith’s,” Beaudoin said. His idea was to become a forest ranger, but when he was asked to be an in-house guide, he found it was something he was good at.
Beaudoin graduated in 2018 with a degree in environmental science and a concentration in fish and wildlife management. He had just parlayed his house in Dansville into an Adirondack guiding business when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and the state put a stop to communal gatherings. “It was the best thing the State of New York could have done for me, although the State of New York didn’t know it,” he said.
Beaudoin flipped his Boston Whaler (not literally) and used the $9,000 he received from the sale of the boat to buy nine kayaks in which anglers could socially distance.
From a borderline recluse, Beaudoin was now, for all intents and purposes, a social director. He learned it was something that came naturally after all.
“I’m not the best fisherman in Tupper Lake,” he said. “But to be a good guide, you mostly have to be a nice person.”
He has leaned heavily into school programs, showing children how to drill a hole in the ice with an auger, use electronic fish finders and set tip-ups, a spidery contraption with a flag that springs to life when it senses a tug on the line.
Paul Smith’s and the Adirondack Watershed Institute join in, teaching students about the health of aquatic species. Among other things, they learn to “lock eyes” with a fish to determine if it is healthy enough to be released back into the water.
With 40 kids on the ice, there’s a good chance that one of them will land a lunker, and one photo of a 30-inch pike all but guarantees repeat business.
While the guide service is open to the public, Beaudoin has one rule: vets fish for free.
Battle Fish participates in Heroes on the Water, a nonprofit that promotes mental well-being through nature. “The peaceful rhythm of the kayak, the bond with nature and the focus required in fishing bring a calming balance, reducing stress and promoting cognitive healing,” Heroes explains on its website.
To pay for veteran experiences, Beaudoin relies on grants, sponsorships and the sale of his handmade fishing rods. These rods are a little more expensive, “but they come with a lifetime warranty, and every time we sell one, a veteran can fish for free,” he said.
Battle Fish has also come along at a fortuitous time, when New York State is working with Fort Drum, encouraging soldiers transitioning to civilian life to consider the North Country, a region that is desperately in need of workers and young people.
Each year, more than 3,500 soldiers and 1,000 spouses leave the base, and a $10 million initiative drawn up by the North Country Regional Economic Development Commission will help place them in North Country jobs and schools.
In his own case, Beaudoin said the skill of parachuting that he learned in the Army may not translate into any obvious line of work, but the leadership and resiliency skills he learned can apply just about anywhere—including a guide service.
From the one weekend at Paul Smith’s, Beaudoin has seen nascent green shoots. A couple of veterans are making or selling lures. A vet from Wyoming is setting up float trips where participants are on the lookout for Sasquatch.
“These guys are taking the idea and running with it, and it’s working out well for them,” he said. The proposed two-year degree from Paul Smith’s would teach ecology, leadership and marketing, and “how to put it all together.”
And at the same time they are learning a skill, they would be healing their souls. “Early in the morning it’s quiet and the sun is shining through the mist and you can see the loons,” Beaudoin said. “How can you say no to that?”
Battle Fish Charters (518-354-5146, www.battlefishcharter.com) is located at 123 Park Street, in Tupper Lake.
