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.

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• Notes from the Charlotte Fly Show
• A chance meeting
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• Column archive
• Talk fly-fishing

The Outdoor Channel’s fly fishing show “Familiar Waters” recently came to Floyd County to shoot their program at my farm in Indian Valley.

With a reach of 25.7 million homes, The Outdoor Channel is the only major cable company solely focused on hunting and fishing.

Mike Pawlawski, the host of “Familiar Waters,” contacted me a few weeks ago after reading my roanoke.com column on brook trout stream restoration. Pawlawski is dedicated to narrating fly-fishing stories from a fresh perspective.

Last weekend, he came from California with Eric Rathbun, his partner at Reel Pure Inc, the hot new media and apparel company based in Seattle. Completing the team was Steve Howell, his director of photography and Beau Ryan , his second cameraman from Los Angeles.

“Familiar Waters” travels the world shooting outdoor television. And you thought you had a good job!

Pawlawski is a story unto himself. An ex-NFL quarterback, he is tall, blonde and good looking. What he is not, is an arrogant, puffed-up fly fisherman who thinks he can out fish or outshine anyone else on the stream.

Married, still in love with his college sweetheart, and naturally proud about his 4 year-old son Casey, Mike is “a man’s man.” He loves to hunt as much as fish, and he loves telling jokes, and sharing stories about the love of fly-fishing and the abiding frustration that fly-fishing isn’t seen as accessible to the masses.

Above: Richard Formato (left) talks with "Familiar Waters" host Mike Pawlawski while taping an episode for the show at Formato's Indian Valley farm. Below: Pawlawski displays a rainbow trout that he caught.

Pawlawski says his crew shoots a program that shows “missing fish as much as catching fish.” That is the true side of fly fishing. No one always catches fish, and the TV shows that show only hook ups aren’t telling the whole story, he added.

Come to think of it, you don’t see many fishing shows showing anything except self-professed experts effortlessly hooking big trout on what appears to be their first cast.

Always punctuated by the line, “nice fish,” fishing television rarely tells “the how” behind the hook up and it never shows the “spiritual why” of angling.

Sunday’s outing was to tell that story.

The stream-restoration process was a tough project. It took over a year. And I never knew how heavy a rock could be, until I had to roll it. I hand-placed 30 tons of rocks as my own personal “stream of dreams.”

My methodology was simple. I would put in a large “test” rock, then build a small break downstream to see if the backup would cover the upstream rock. Even the smallest revetment (angular dam) would take at least 20 rocks. I worked a small section at a time then would review the downstream effect to make sure there was no silting, and the upstream effect to make sure there was no flooding.

Still the question remained, if I built it, would the brook trout come?

The answer was yes.

Miraculously on Sunday, while mic’d up with two cameras rolling, I caught a wild brook and wild rainbow within 10 minutes. Mike caught a brook trout as well.

The show from Sunday’s taping will air when the new season starts in April. With this broad visibility, I am hopeful landowners everywhere will realize that small spring-fed streams are viable for the natural renewal of life, for both the fish and the fisherman.

After filming in Indian Creek, we packed up and drove to Mira Fork.

Mira Fork is only slightly larger than Indian Creek, but it has a better bottom of rocks, cut banks, nice pockets and riffles that gives it the complexion of Mossy Creek.

With crew in tow, we started off throwing eggs with droppers.

Mike immediately hooked a 12-inch rainbow. With this kind of skill, it’s no wonder why he has his own show.

I slipped off upstream hoping to become more focused.

Using the “chuck and duck” method of casting big nasty streamers off the bank, I hooked two beautiful wild rainbows and the pressure was off.

Mike and I caught a few more fish and Eric Rathbun hooked a large brook trout. With a dwindling December sun, it was time to wrap it up.

Heading around the back-side of the property, both trucks got stuck on the soft farm road that had thawed into muck. Using Steve’s cell phone, I was able to call my buddy Gerald Cox who came with a four-wheel drive tractor.

If “Familiar Waters'” mission is to lighten up fly-fishing, my tour provided the right comic relief after a fun and intense day of fishing and filming.

The California boys also loved Gerald’s engineering skills, his one piece Carhart suit, and his authentic Floyd County accent that belies his success in business, and the fact that both his boys are whip smart. His youngest son is on the Dean’s list at VT’s engineering program.

I didn’t get the feeling that where the TV crew came from, a neighbor would come to the rescue with a tractor and 50 feet of chain.

Gerald’s down-home touch added even more of a human element to a story and reveals that southwest Virginia has fine people along with our beautiful land and water.

Trying to make me feel better, Pawlawski said as we left, “There is no way you can be stuck more than me."

He summed it up,“You know, if you aren’t getting stuck, then you are too close to the road.”