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

Craig County is 15 minutes from Roanoke -- and a world away.

About 14 years ago, I was offered an old cabin to buy on 621 on Craig Creek.

It was flooded, dirty, moldy and muddy with dated, rotted furnishings. I bought it.

The cabin was one of four, right next to each other, bordering the Jefferson National Forest.

The other cabin owners were hunters, so my purchase was not an invitation to a club, but more a solution to a vacant cabin.

In those days, the cabin was my refuge and a place where I  started fly-fishing in earnest.

I decided to turn my life over out there, laid out the business plan for my new company, and taught myself the basics of fly-fishing, standing in the shallows, throwing more flies into the bushes than the water.

Craig Creek runs warm and slow. It flows through bottom-land, starting from a trickle in Montgomery County, ending as pretty wide water as it flows into the James.

Craig Creek was famous years back for its chain pickerel, but now is known more for small mouth bass and other “rough” fish than “rarified” trout.

Johns Creek, Roaring Run, Barbou’s Creek, Paint Bank, Meadow Creek are the Craig County streams of renown.

The aforementioned are the streams of private clubs, National Forest support, and patrician lineage because they harbor the cold water salmonid.

What I love about it Craig Creek is its diversity as a fishery.

In a recent sampling taken on this stretch, there were 28 varieties fish informally catalogued.

One of my cabin neighbors, Kenny Skelton, met me at our compound gates. “You have got to see these fallfish!” he said.

Kenny Skelton is a story unto himself.

Last fall, Kenny moved to Craig from Roanoke to build by hand, by himself, one brick at a time, a one-room cottage beside the creek.

Kenny’s retreat has no running water, electricity or indoor plumbing.

He heats his home with fireplace and bottled gas. He watches movies on his TV/VCR combo by running a gas generator.

But in matters of the outdoors, botany, archaeology and local lore, Kenny is a student and scholar, and a man I pride on calling my friend.

He can properly identify any root, make you some tea, tell you about the seven types of meat in a turtle, and what is the approximate age of a chert you may find in rocks.

Living this way is not for everybody, but it is so pure, and I admire him for it.

When I landed at Craig Creek a few days ago, the fallfish were schooling like Middle Bight Bonefish, running up and down the deep holes in packs.

Kenny had been watching them, and he was ready to help me land them.

In all my years, I had never seen anything like this.

The Semotilus Corporalis, or fallfish, is a member of the minnow family, and the largest minnow east of the Rockies.

Foot long fish are common and they spawn this time of year in the James River drainage in waters with gravel and rocky bottoms.

The fallfish spawn and live and nest in domed mounds with a pit in the downstream part, built with gravel-sized stones, topped with small rubble.

The minnow is the most ecologically diverse family of freshwater fishes.

There are more than 290 species of minnows in North America, and 67 different species in Virginia alone. Most are small fish, like shiners, dace and chubs. These types of minnows are the basis for many flies that fly-fisherman and spin fisherman try and emulate with streamers and gummy-style flies.

While we think of a minnow being an immature bait-fish, the largest native American minnow is the Colorado pikeminnow (an endangered fish), which grows to 6 feet and 100 pounds in weight.

The fallfish is Virginia’s biggest minnow and are routinely over 12 inches in length.

Last weekend, with Craig Creek’s water temperatures in perfect spawning range, the fallfish were excited, rolling and waking the water.

Knowing that larger fallfish feed on small insects, I tied on a crayfish pattern, and used some 5X tippet for the beef I’d need.

Racing through the clear water, I was sight-casting to the school just like salt water flat’s bone.

Wham! Fish on, bending the 5 weight in half with a nice tight line.

With Kenny staying in the bushes on the bank, he called out where the school was, and I cast again, and hooked a nice 2-pound plus fish.

The fallfish is usually the “fall back” fish, like the ladyfish in salt water, when you are having an off day.

But not on this day. There is nothing conciliatory about hooking a big fish, no matter what species, on a 3 ounce fly rod..

We were after this big minnow. What is usually styled as the bait became the prey.

Now is the time fallfish will be their most active and can be found in large quantities in Big Walkers Creek, Little River, Roanoke River and any creek or river that tends to be on the warmer side.

These fallfish have shoulders, grit and a strength that belies their name as a “minnow.”