Give a kid the gift of fly tying for Christmas

I got my first fly tying vise when I was about nine or 10 years old. It wasn't gift-wrapped, and it wasn't Christmas. It was handed to me by my Godfather, who with my dad was one of my heroes. A few weeks before he showed me a box of flies he tied and I was fascinated.

I remember the warm half-smile on Paul's face when he gave me that vise. It had been his, and had fine jaws for tying small trout flies. I was awestruck. He knew, then, what would likely unfold, but he didn't know all of it.

When I was 12 I tied some flies for President Eisenhower, and received a personal letter on White House s...