I recently went to a fly-tying workshop at Bristol’s Lawrence Memorial Library. Getting a lesson in tying flies from David Henderson and Bob Reynolds was not only highly enjoyable, it also reminded me of two important outdoor sporting lessons I learned when I was young.

The first was that outdoor sports can be expensive and dangerous. The second, and more important lesson, related to the first, had to do with which of my parents to go to for money and which to go to for permission.

If I needed a little money, my mother was...