DALLAS — During a telephone interview, Malic Poole, 14, of Plano,Texas, sounds like a normal, smart, enthusiastic eighth-grader who loves fishing. One fact separates this young man from hundreds of other area teenagers who also love to fish.

Malic Poole has his own tackle business, called Flies By Night. Though he does not fish with fly tackle, he spends 2 to 3 hours most days tying flies. An angler and retailer of the new millennium, Malic's handspun flies are a hot commodity on Web sites such as www.finnytribe.com, and he gets plenty of attention from the Texas Fishing Forum.

The young entrepreneur has his own Web site (www.flies-by-night.com), with a link to his e-mail and a photo of his product, a variation of the Clouser Minnow, one of the most popular streamer patterns ever invented.

Malic got interested in fly tying while on a fishing trip with his father, Brad Poole, and family friend, Mike Oser of Mesquite. Oser gave Malic a fly-tying kit that included materials, a vice to hold the hook and an introductory video.

That was two years ago. Malic has surfed the Internet to find other fly-tying videos on fishing sites and even on YouTube. Though he doesn't fly fish, he uses a drop loop knot to attach a Flies By Night fly about 18 inches above a slab spoon when fishing for hybrid striped bass and sand bass.

"When you retrieve it or jig with it, the tandem setup looks like a small fish chasing a smaller fish," Malic said. "I frequently catch two fish at a time like this."

Brad Poole said his son has been enthralled by fishing since age 5, when he caught his first small sunfish on a worm fished under a bobber at a pond near their home.

"Malic has always been excited about fishing," Brad Poole said. "We have a boat, and we try to get on the water every weekend when the weather is good, particularly this time of year."

Brad and his twin brother, Bryan, own a chain of retail stores called Sample House in the Dallas area, and Malic has learned a lot more than most kids his age about running a business.

"He knows how it works," Brad Poole said. "Most teenagers don't know much about what their dad does other than he leaves home every morning and comes back in the evening. Malic has learned that business success is 99 percent dependent on customer service."

When Malic gets home from school in the afternoon, he first takes care of homework and studies for any tests that may be approaching. Only then does he set up his fly tying equipment and go to work. It usually takes him about a minute to complete a Fly By Night lure, which sells for $1.50. Most nights, he works until 10:30 or 11 p.m.

"I save some of the money that I make from selling flies, and I invest some of the money in fishing equipment," he said. "I like fishing with Shimano reels and G. Loomis or Falcon rods, and they're pretty expensive.

"My dad and I usually fish for hybrid stripers and sand bass. They're fun to catch, and we can usually find some that are biting. Hybrids are my favorite because they get big and they fight hard."

Not only a successful lure maker, Malic is also an accomplished angler. In late February, he set junior lake records on the same day for Cooper Lake hybrid stripers (5.48 pounds) and white bass (2.3 pounds).

And, no, he did not use one of his hand-tied flies to tempt either of the record fish.

"I caught both of them on a Storm WildEye Minnow," he said, showing exceptional honesty for a devoted fisherman.