The outdoors can bring people together, build friendships and heal wounds.

That was obvious on a recent rainy weekend – when is not rainy? – when a group of area fly fishermen connected with the nonprofit Beyond the Battle to introduce three veterans to the sport.

Indeed, they had some fishing converts, but by no means was that the only objective of the outing to Addieville Farm East in Harrisville. They want to give back to those who have served this country, explains Bob Greco of West Warwick.

Greco and his fishing friends reached out to Joseph St. Lawrence, who with Jeremy Edwards and his wife, Jessica, founded Beyond the Battle about seven years ago. The group has taken veterans on some unusual expeditions, including a bear hunt in Canada where each of the party bagged a bear.

Marine veteran Kevin Dubois, who lost both legs to an IED on his second tour to Afghanistan in 2011, was on that trip. He paused in casting to pull out his cell phone and bring up the picture of the bear he shot with a crossbow.

“It was more than 300 pounds,” he says with pride. Shooting it wasn’t exactly easy, as more pictures made clear. St. Lawrence helped get up into a tree stand.

“Joe and I spent a lot of time in a tree,” Dubois said. In spite of his disability, Dubois – who is married and has two children – is athletic. He competes in wheel marathons and has a passion for playing sled hockey. He works for the Veterans Administration.

“He mastered casting,” Greco said. “Looks like he’s been doing it for years.”

Dubois lifted the tip of his rod, gave it a quick snap to lift the line that curled behind him before coming forward in a graceful loop reaching out into the pond.

“There’s a lot more technique than regular fishing,” said Dubois. He finds fly fishing “peaceful.”

Later, as rain put a damper on the fishing, Greco and his fishing pals – including John Boiros, a Marine vet who served in Vietnam, and Jim Ehrhardt – gathered in the lodge for an afternoon of fly tying instruction followed by thick steaks.

All of the three vets with Beyond the Battle are Marines. Zachary Brizio of East Providence also served two tours in Afghanistan and Tim Jackson served in Iraq.

The vets were up to the challenge of fly tying. They were each given a kit with an assortment of tools that they unwrapped. The tools included thin metal tubes, a bobbin, a springy bit of wire and a vise that mounts on a metal base. Greco, Boiros and Ehrhardt paired up with the vets helping them setup and then stepping them through tying their first fly, a black wooly bugger. The concentration was intense, with the pros offering instruction and encouragement as they wrapped the length of a hook shank with thread and then tied in chenille and feather.

St. Lawrence and the Edwards looked on. The circle of support for veterans has grown some more as Beyond the Battle seeks to do.

The cabin was warm. Outside, the rain let up and the smoke from the grill hung in the still air.

That afternoon the vets returned to the pond.

They cast the flies they had made. But it was the bonds they tied that will last.