Richard Formato

Richard Formato is an avid catch-and-release fly-fisherman from Wytheville, Va. When not on the water, he operates a small business there. Formato loves to fly-fish in his native Southwest Virginia because of the great water and wonderful people. He also loves to fish the flats and shallows of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic whenever work and weather permit. He is on the Department of Conservation and Recreation's board of directors and is a trustee of the Shenandoah National Forest and Skyline Drive.

Recent columns

• What about Bob?
• Notes from the Charlotte Fly Show
• A chance meeting
• A wish for Jack

• Column archive
• Talk fly-fishing

Lately my time seems to be occupied with teaching rather than practicing fly-fishing. Sunday afternoon I met the Curry brothers, Morgan and Luke, at Green Hill Park in Roanoke County for an instructional session.

After some talk and knot-tying practice, we took advantage of the fine autumnal weather by casting in the grass, and finally in the Roanoke River. The water was running in high, greenish plumes, making fishing difficult. I took a tempeerature, a satisfactory 58 degrees, and tied on a Meanie Greenie for Morgan and a Crawfish for Luke. Casting into a relatively clear channel next to shore, Luke hooked a sycamore twig, which is par for a beginner. The next thing I knew he had shed his shoes and waded in after the fly. Fishing with him could save me a lot of fly money!

Oct. 1 marks the beginning of artificial lures only, on the regulated stretch of the Roanoke River, and there probably will be the usual stocking of trout that month.

For me, this time of the year is the premier season to fly-fish Virginia, with a dozen or so of the most gorgeous, perfect days of the year coming up.

I know, there are few hatches this time year, but there are plenty of terrestrials, such as beetles, leaf hoppers, crickets and the whole range of other land-bred insecdts to be imitated.

According to  Joe Brooks,  one of the most famous writers on the subject of trout fishing, 90 percent of a trout's feeding takes place beneath the surface, with only 10 percent on top. There are plenty of mayfly nymphs on the bottom in the fall, as their role in the life cycle takes one or two years of shucking and growing new skins.

I can understand the attitude of dry fly purists, such as my friend Galen Wilkins, who take thkeir greatest pleasure in seeing the strike and splash of a fish streaking to the surface for a Royal Coachman. But there's also a kick from watching your line pause in mid-current, then suddenly go taut from a sub-surface strike.

Later on Sunday evening, I received a call from Nicholas Trego, an 8-year-old who lives in Summerville, S.C., and reads my column regularly. His third grade teacher had given his class the assignment of writing a report on an "interesting person" and he chose me. If you think that didn't inflate this old streamlasher's ego! Nicholas had a list of 10 questions to ask me, one of which was, "Why do you like to teach fly-fishing?"

My answer was that teaching fly-fishing is one of the most rewarding things I do, particularly with youngsters in their formative years from ages 8 to 16. I feel that I'm giving them a gift that they can enjoy for the rest of their lives, at least up into their 80s.

He then asked, "Why do you like to fly-fish?" I replied that it is an activity which takes you into some lovely settings, particularly following the small native trout streams up the mountains. It's an opportunity to enjoy scenery away from all roads and most trails, seldom seen by anyone else. Nicholas's question called to mind a quote from Izaac Walton's book, "The Compleat Angler," published in 1653, which still today expresses the spirit of flyfishing:

"No life so happy and so pleasant as the life of a well governed angler, for when the lawyer is swallowed up in business and the statesman is preventing or contriving plots, there we sit on cowslip banks, hear the birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness as these silent silver streams which we now see glide so quietly by us. Indeed, we may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries: 'Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.' and so if I may be the judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling."

Whew! No wonder his book went into four editions and outsold everything at the time except the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress.