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

Fly-fishing for bonefish is such a sublime quest. It is more akin to hunting than fishing.

When Mike Pawlawski, the host of the Outdoor Channel’s TV show “Familiar Waters,” asked me to join the crew on Andros Island in the Bahamas to shoot another episode, I eagerly agreed.

And a few weeks ago, Pawlawski; Eric Rathbun from Reel Pure Inc.; Steve Howell and Beau Ryan, camera and sound operators; and I escaped the cold temperatures of Southwest Virginia to wade the 80-degree flats of Mangrove Cay.

It is a misconception that you have to be a so-called expert to fly-fish for bonefish. In fact, you do not have to be an “expert” fly fisherman to fish for any type of fish. All you need is a plane ticket and a good guide who can put you on fish and set you up in a way where even a short cast will do.

Fly-fishing is what you want it to be, and that’s the story Pawlawski wants to share about Andros, the No. 1 bonefishing destination in this hemisphere.

With Pawlawski calling the shots and fishing right next to me, we spent two days there, wading and drifting for bonefish.

“Familiar Waters” is definitive on how they want the show to look, which is a realistic account of the highs and lows of Andros bonefish. The high is seeing tailing bones. The low is when they see you – and “poof” they are gone.

Above: From left, Beau Ryan, Steve Howell, Mike Pawlawski, Richard Formato and Eric Rathbun pose at Mangrove Cay airfield, a single strip with no tower in the Bahamas. Below: Formato (left) and Pawlawski display the 8-pound bonefish that Richard caught.

The rush of seeing a fish - so perfectly camouflaged that it’s almost invisible - is incredible. Starting out my first morning, I wondered if they were even there. And after a few hours of drifting, anchoring down, and wading, I really started to wonder.

But finally, I saw a slow-moving school dead ahead of me. In his thick Bahamian accent, Ezra softly announces, “Richaad, buns at 12 o’clock.”

Oh please, please don’t be the time my line is wrapped around my leg! Please (bonefish) don’t see me!

Lifting my rod, I tried to throw a nice tight loop, dropping the fly in front of the lead fish.

After a few quick line strips, it happened. “I have a hook up!”

At this moment fishing and TV filming became one. The wading camera dialed in. The camera boat slowly moved in, and all I was thinking about was keeping this fish on.

Pawlawski started narrating, and it became harder to focus.

A bonefish chased down a fly. Once hooked, it ripped off hundreds of feet of line. After backing in for just a few seconds, it bent my rod in half, forcing the reel to rotate forward.

A hooked bone screamed away from me at light speed and scuffed the bottom trying to unlatch the fly.

Bonefish don’t jump. They run. And they run hard.

When the “Familiar Waters” episode airs this spring, don’t expect the usual fare of catching a fish on every cast. It just didn’t happen. Pawlawski, the crew and I worked hard to get every hook up.

We didn’t see the numbers you normally see in the spring, but we caught fish, including two barracuda on the fly. The last bonefish I caught was 8 pounds, which is a great size.

The comic relief came with all “the missed fish.” Rathbun laughed and shook his head after missing three in a row from the flats boat. “This is just unacceptable,” he said. “I am going to sit down now.”

Ryan’s deadpan comment to me, after I made a suggestion on a camera shot: “We will do it this way, but thanks anyway, Spielberg.”

And between long drifts, Pawlawski regaled us with colorful jokes.

Camera or not, this was what fly-fishing is all about: Hanging out with friends in a spectacular environment.

At night, we bunked down at Moxey’s bonefish lodge; it’s a modest place owned and managed by the Moxey family, who cooked us fresh fish and whose granddaughter played the trumpet every night at dinner.

To make a compelling show, they used underwater photography and sophisticated tactics to show fishing from a diverse perspective. They shot the show in DVC Pro HD 720p, a much faster format than normal TV.

Most of all, they want to tell the truth and show the grandeur of the surroundings.