“Barbie Can Just Go Hang”

Sure, Ellie May Dean has the advantage of young eyes—which can focus on flies as small as size 32—and sure, her parents own a West Virginia fly shop and lodge, but there’s more than family and talent behind the young tying phenom’s hobby of choice.  John McCoy writes about  the eleven-year-old who spends hours behind the fly tying vise every week and has much bigger plans:  “‘I’ve hunted and fished in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and here at home,’ she said. ‘I’d like to keep doing those things, and to make a show from them – “Ellie May Outdoors.”‘”