If you grow up the son of a fishing guide, two things could happen. You could hate fishing for the rest of your days and choose a life of indoor leisure supported by a career as, say, an investment banker. Or, you could inherit the passion, carry on the family business and write the biggest book ever dedicated to the history and art of fly tying. Both types of progeny may end up retiring on the banks of some river in Montana, but it's the one with the most flies who claims the real inheritance.

Terry Hellekson lives in Libby, close enough to the Kootenai River to wet a line whenever the urge strikes him. At 66 and after a lifetime dedicated to the fishing industry including several years as a professional fly tier, Terry still likes to spend the mornings of his retirement tying flies as he drinks his coffee. With a new version of his book "Fish Flies: The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art" just released, he spends the rest of his day talking to the media and working on his next book, which will be a biography of his father, Herman Hellekson, one of two people to whom the 720-page encyclopedia is dedicated. The other is his wife, Patricia, whom, Terry writes in the dedication, he has "to pry off the river every time" they fish together."

Terry spent his youth in California. His father was a fishing guide on the Klamath and Trinity rivers at a time when there were few fishing guides in the West.

"My father got lucky in that most of his clients were celebrities of some kind," Terry said from his home in Libby. "Everything from Bing Crosby, Harold Smith (founder of Harold's Club in Reno), a great number of Hollywood executives, the governor of Nevada, and the list goes on. When he wasn't guiding them in the winter on the rivers in California, he was accommodating them here in western Montana during the summer and fall."

Herman introduced Terry to the Kootenai for the first time when he was 10 years old, and it became an annual summer event for the family to float from Eureka to Libby. Terry also took up the art of fly tying at an early age, and in the preface to his book, he recalls meeting Ted Trueblood, "a giant in the field of fly fishing." Trueblood wrote articles for fishing magazines, and Terry had tied some flies that Trueblood had included in his writing.

"I don't know how good those flies really were, but Ted told me the following morning that I could tie just as well as he could," Terry wrote.

That experience could be considered early research for what eventually became "Fish Flies." Terry said the encyclopedia is still a work in progress.

"Basically, the research on flies and fly-fishing history started with my father in the early 1940s," he said. "I picked up where he left off after he passed away in 1973. I first wrote 'Popular Fly Patterns' (1976), then (the first edition) of 'Fish Flies' (1995) and it has been an on-going project ever since."

The new edition includes more history, fly patterns and how-to instructions. Terry designed the book himself and tried to keep production costs low enough for the hardcover tome to retail at a reasonable price. And indeed it is surprising to open such a large, beautiful volume and see the $50 price on the dust jacket. The book is divided into 24 chapters that cover history, tools, materials, wet flies, dry flies and then pattern recipes for almost 3,000 flies, 695 of them are shown in color. Terry himself developed 350 of the patterns featured in chapters 10, 11 and 12 -- the ones on mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies. In addition to writing and designing the book, Terry also provided line illustrations for many of the flies and has tied each and every fly he included. But he doesn't admit to being particularly proud of any single one.

"I take pride in any fly that I tie well," he said, "and if it doesn't come up to my standard I simply cut it off the hook and start over. I also take pride in those flies that I have developed and are real fish takers. This is especially true when others find my flies to be successful."

Like any kid, Terry said he considered several other career options before settling on what he enjoyed most -- fly fishing. He didn't really want to become a guide, so he tried his hand at professional fly tying and then expanded into other areas of the fly-fishing industry.

"Tying for dollars is a real job of work and I have the utmost respect for those who still engage in this work," Terry said. "I had five children to raise and it is not possible to make it with the meager income that fly tying alone provides."

Terry eventually founded Fly Fishing Specialties, a wholesale and retail business in California.

In all that time, even after traveling around the world to places like Kashmir and Karalla, India, Terry only remembers using other people's flies a couple of times.

"I just believe in my own more; hence, I fish them with far more confidence," he said.

"And please do not assume that just because one is in the fly-fishing industry that they get to go fishing all of the time," Terry added. "My real productive fishing time started in 1994 when I retired."

One of Terry's sons now runs the business in California. Terry's productive fishing time is spent in places much calmer, quieter and more peaceful.

"California has far too many people, and I swear that I have looked up and down some of the rivers on opening day and it was as if some fly-fishing figures had stepped off the cover of the same mail order catalogue -- almost all dressed in the same new outfits," he said. "Presently, my wife Patricia and I can go out on the Kootenai and fish for hours seeing only a few people and lots of wildlife. There is enough water for everyone. Thank God for wild fish in Montana as opposed to tagging along behind a hatchery truck as some fly fishers do in several parts of California."