TUPPER LAKE — This town has a long and treasured history with ice fishing, from shanties peppered around the Raquette Pond ice to the annual Northern Challenge Ice Fishing Derby on Simon Pond. It also has a rich heritage when it comes to residents serving in the military, from World War I to the present.
There’s a new business owner on Park Street who is combining both — sharing his love of ice fishing with the Tupper Lake community, veterans and military personnel at Fort Drum near Watertown.
Andrew Beaudoin owns and operates BattleFish Charters at 123 Park St. He moved to from Saranac Lake to Tupper Lake in October and opened a new shop in the Union Block building a few weeks ago, offering fishing guide services, rod building and sales, fishing gear and kayak sales.
Beaudoin is proud to say his is a service disabled veteran-owned small business. He served for more than five years as a paratrooper and combat veteran with the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade out of Vicenza, Italy, known as the “Sky Soldiers.” He was wounded in Afghanistan.
“Not terribly but enough to retire,” he said on Tuesday behind a workbench in his shop, holding an ice rod his 8-year-old daughter Skye recently made.
The mission of BattleFish Charters is centered on helping people, especially veterans, “discover solace through the joys of fishing.” In order to do that, Beaudoin does what he can to outfit fishermen for a day on the lake or river. As a New York state licensed guide, he helps make each expedition into a form of recreational therapy. and his commitment to veterans runs as deep as a lake trout.
“Every time we sell a fishing rod, we take a veteran out fishing for free,” Beaudoin said. “I actually sold so many rods last year, we started a nonprofit organization called Heroes on the Water, Adirondack Chapter, just to keep getting veterans out on the water.”
Beaudoin’s shop is in the “soft opening” phase right now, but the doors are open, and he has a lot of plans for the space. He wants to make the back part of the store a fly fishing center, called Skye’s Flies.
“We’re trying to turn this into a guide school where we can train military members to come in, get their guide’s license, take a couple of boats home and a piece of the franchise back to North Carolina, Florida, wherever they come from,” he said.
After serving in the Army, Beaudoin went to college.
“I found Paul Smith’s College, and I just have not been able to leave the Adirondack Park,” he said.
Graduating in 2018, he earned a bachelor’s degree in fish and wildlife management.
“We’ve been doing stuff out of Saranac Lake for about five years, mostly out of my house and garage, and it’s just gotten so big, so quick, and with the Discovery Channel’s ‘Discover America’ people, we needed our own space,” he said. “All this stuff was essentially in my living room.”
On Oct. 18, Beaudoin was featured in an episode of “Veteran’s Playbook,” from the Discovery’s Destination America cable channel. Each episode tells a story about a different U.S. veteran small business owner, each story being “a journey into their military experience and their transition to civilian life and entrepreneurship.”
To get locals excited about the upcoming ice fishing season, Beaudoin is offering two after-school ice rod building workshops for students. Each is held from 4 to 6 p.m. for two nights. The first workshop on Nov. 14 and 15 is full, but there are still spots available for the Nov. 16-17 workshop.
“This workshop’s going to be just for kids, and I have a little bit lower price point on it, just to try to get the kids in here and interested,” he said. “But I have workshops all the time for adults. We do fly rids, spinning rods, casting rods. If someone wants to come in and build a saltwater spey rod, I’ll do it with them.”
Beaudoin’s goal is to be recognized as a world-class fishing adventure guide and a skilled fishing rod builder.
For more information about BattleFish Charters, contact Beaudoin by phone at 518-354-5146 or by email at battlefishcharters@gmail.com.