“I never fished as a kid,” he said. “I thought it was boring.”

 His outlook changed in 1989, when his father passed away. In the aftermath, Mr. Charlesworth decided he’d take up the sport as a sort of tribute.

 Turns out, all these years later, it wasn’t so boring after all.

 “It was like love at first sight,” he said.

 And so began the journey that led the Clarks Summit resident to hosting his own regional fly-fishing program, meeting the son of the country’s most famous real-estate mogul and landing a gig on national TV.

 Next spring, two shows produced and hosted by Mr. Charlesworth will debut on the Versus network, formerly the Outdoor Life Network.

The first show, “Outdoors on the Fly,” will be co-hosted by Donald Trump Jr., son of billionaire developer Donald Trump. The other, “In Search of World Records,” will feature Joe Humphreys, a legendary fly fisherman who taught the sport for years at The Pennsylvania State University.

Was TV host

Local fishing enthusiasts might remember Mr. Charlesworth from his days hosting the PAX-TV shows, “Fly Fishing the Northeast” and another version of “Outdoors on the Fly.” Those shows took viewers to local streams, but also to more exotic locales like the Bahamas, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, the Everglades and the Florida Keys. It also featured the occasional celebrity angler, including country star Billie Ray Cyrus and former Major League Baseball player Alan Propst, plus Mr. Trump and Mr. Humphreys.

Both shows are currently in production. In order to accommodate Mr. Trump’s busy schedule, “Outdoors on the Fly” will mostly be devoted to trout and steelhead fishing at cold-water streams along the East Coast, with occasional forays to saltwater spots in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

“It’s working around his schedule, but also the seasonal conditions,” Mr. Charlesworth said.

“In Search of World Records” will focus on Mr. Humphrey’s attempts to do just that, whether on Arkansas’ White and Little Red rivers or in the Patagonia region of southern Argentina and Chile. Mr. Charlesworth said most of these expeditions will be done at night, because the biggest trout are nocturnal.

With Mr. Trump, Mr. Charlesworth finally found the break that he never had with the cable stations in previous attempts to take the show to a national audience.

“I’ve been marketing my show to the various networks for five years. Nobody was even answering the phone,” Mr. Charlesworth said. “He opened up a lot of doors for us. It worked out perfect for us.”

An avid outdoorsman since childhood, Mr. Trump has appeared on several hunting and fishing programs in addition to his stint on his father’s popular reality show, “The Apprentice.” Mr. Charlesworth said the younger Trump’s low-key affability and “good sense of humor” make him a natural for the tube.

Has skills

“He’s just such a nice kid. And he’s so knowledgeable,” said Mr. Charlesworth, noting Mr. Trump’s fly-tying skills are impeccable.

Mr. Charlesworth first met Mr. Trump, who could not be reached for this article, during a trip to the Salmon River in Pulaski, N.Y. They were both fishing around the same spot when Mr. Trump’s guide approached Mr. Charlesworth and said, “Would you like to do some fishing with us? I have a pretty famous guy with me.”

The two hit it off and stayed in contact. Eventually, Mr. Charlesworth got up the nerve to propose doing a show together.

“It’s been a good relationship, and he jumped right at the opportunity,” Mr. Charlesworth said.

The Pottsville native’s foray into hosting came while serving as station manager at PAX. One day the station’s employees were sitting around a room discussing their individual interests, in hopes that something might make for good local programming. When it came time for Mr. Charlesworth to throw in his two cents, he mentioned fly fishing.

Program was born

Perfect, his bosses said. And so “Fly Fishing the Northeast” and “Outdoors on the Fly” were born. At that time, Mr. Charlesworth said he was “just a mediocre fly fisherman who wanted to get better.” The shows aired on PAX from 2001-06. Each episode, Mr. Charlesworth traveled to a different tributary to spend time with a different master fisherman. As he educated those watching at home, he was doing the same for himself.

“I spent five years learning from some of the best fly fishermen in the world,” said Mr. Charlesworth, whose FFNE Productions also produces infomercials. “After five years, I became a pretty darn good fly fisherman.”

The beauty of fly fishing, Mr. Charlesworth said, is that it’s “all technique and finesse.” There’s a real science to it, a need to understand things like aquatic insect life and how water flows, he said. To him, it beats traditional rod-and-reel fishing any day.

“I’m a purist,” he said.

Getting paid to fish hardly sounds like work, but Mr. Charlesworth puts in plenty of legwork before heading off on his expeditions. Most days are spent haggling with tourism ministries and airlines.

“I spend 180 days here on the phone or on the computer,” he said on a recent afternoon in his home office. “I love to travel. You’re fishing for a living, but you’re traveling for a living.”

On top of its sporting pleasures, fly fishing is also a great tonic for stress, Mr. Charlesworth said. It gets one to better appreciate all the natural wonders life has to offer, whether you’re in the shadow of a volcano, standing on the edge of a glacier or watching a bald eagle pass over your head, all of which Mr. Charlesworth has experienced during his years on the fly.

“To get that close to nature,” Mr. Charlesworth said, “is amazing.”

Meet Charlie Charlesworth

Residence: Clarks Summit
Family: Wife, Rosangela; stepson, Gustavo, a senior at Abington Heights High School; four children, Charlie, Morgan, Kelly and Kacy. He is a son of the late Charles and Anna Charlesworth. He has a brother, Lewis.
Occupation: Owner of FFNE Productions in Clarks Summit, he is the host and producer of the fly-fishing programs, “Outdoors on the Fly” and “In Search of World Records,” both of which will debut on the Versus network next spring. Previously, he hosted “Outdoors on the Fly” and “Fly Fishing the Northeast” locally on the PAX network.
Favorite catch: Golden dorado in the Salta Province of Argentina. Dorado are a trout-like fish with huge teeth and a deep golden sheen. “It’s a real beautiful fish,” Mr. Charlesworth said. “It’s like a bright, metallic gold. I’m not talking gold like a gold fish. I’m talking gold, gold.”

 

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