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

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• Talk fly-fishing

In streams flowing through the Zagrab mountains in Turkistan, along the Iran-Iraq-Turkey border, brook trout RULE. It’s a fact. A series of tributaries flow down the mountainsides into the Great Zab river, which eventually confluences with the Tigris. These little feeder streams harbor brook trout.bearing the same jewel-like crimson and blue circles as our Virginia brookies. Hard to believe? It came from an irrefutable source.

The information was passed along to me during a fly-fishing trip on the upper Bullpasture with Col. Scott Norcross, fighter pilot, who has just completed a 14-month tour of duty in Iraq. While with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, he met a Kurdish gentleman in the north, who turned out to be a tribal chieftain. When Scott informed his hosts of his interest in trout fishing, they led him to streams where they “fish.” When asked about their techniques, the potentate replied:

“We have two methods. We either toss a hand grenade into a pool. Or we take a generator to the stream and drop live wires into the water. Either method allows us to scoop out a great number of fish.”

Norcross proceeded to demonstrate flyfishing with his No. 4 St. Croix rod, which piqued a lot of interest but probably would not convert the Kurds from their traditional fish-getting techniques.

During his final month of duty in Iraq, the desert temperature occasionally soared to 135 degrees F. One way Norcross beat the heat was by dreaming about wading in a cool Virginia mountain trout stream. Preoccupied by the idea, he surfed the internet under “Flyfishing” and came across the e-mail address of theWaynesboro Flyfishing Festival, held back in April. He clicked in his desire to have someone guide him on a trout expedition, and his request was picked up by Katherine Aranda, executive director of Waynesboro Downtown Development Inc. From there the message passed to Elizabeth Smith, president of the Waynesboro chapter of Reel Ladies and my good friend of long standing. She relayed a copy of Norcross’s request to me and I promptly replied, “I’m your man.”

So that’s how I ended up last Sunday at Vista Valley with Norcross and his 14-year-old son, Matthew. It turned out to be my most rewarding fishing trip of the year. I wish I had a photo of the colonel’s expression at lunch when he put a slice of my homegrown tomato in his mouth. Beatific is the word. And he caught fish: eight lively rainbows ranging from 14 to 17 inches. I still have in my mind the image of one red-striped acrobat clearing the water by three feet and seeming to hang in midair. Its exuberance seemed to typify the mood of that Sunday’s fishing.

The water temperature ranged around 60 degrees, slightly cooler among the limestone ledges upstream. The upper Bullpasture is one of the few rivers which retains its cool integrity in this weather, due to the number of underground springs constantly feeding it. Number 14 light Elk Hair Caddises were the fly du jour this day, and I even took the time from guiding to try a couple myself. I found in my fly box a version of the Caddis with a bright gold body and a deer hair head -- somebody’s flytying nightmare. But I decided to try it, and was amazed to see the rainbows rush it when floated dry or twitched just under the surface. The colonel and his son tried grasshoppers around midmorning and both had good hits on Letort Hoppers.

There’s another side of Scott Norcross that is unrelated to flyfishing but worth a mention. When he arrived in Iraq he discovered a ragtag group of musicians trying to reassemble themselves into the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra. He immediately had his trumpet shipped over from the U.S., auditioned, and won a seat in the brass section. He proceeded to play concerts with the Iraqi Symphony Orchestra for a year. During that time he issued appeals around the world for sheet music and received a generous response.

“But they can always use more,” he says. Those with orchestral sheet music in their attics please send it along to me and I’ll see that it gets to Iraq. It just may be more effective than bullets.

I would be delighted to hear from other fly-fishing Virginia servicemen over there enduring the desert heat by thinking about a cool Virginia mountain stream. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to guide them out on the Bullpasture or any trout stream of their choosing.

Oscar Driver over at Vista Valley charges $65 for a full day’s fishing, $45 for a morning or afternoon. To make reservations call him at 1-540-396-4866.