Why make your own flies? There have been countless reasons advanced, reasons probably as diverse as the people who do tie their own.

However, two of the most often cited are (1) to have exactly the type fly you want when you need it and (2) to save money. The latter assumes fly tying is cheap. That is true if you can resist buying every new gadget, synthetic material, and exotic feather that comes on the market.

A reason mentioned less often, but just as valid, is that it is a way to extend the fun of fly fishing through long winters. I can think of no better occupation for those occasions when frigid wind and swirling snow restrict us to quarters. It's a palliative for cabin fever.

This is the third in a series of how-to articles on making deer hair fishing flies. We are fortunate to live in white-tail deer country. Their hair is among the most prized for hollow-hair fly construction.

Previous articles have detailed sources of material, Hunters, taxidermists, and fishing tackle dealers are all good bets. A small scrap of deer hide with hair attached will furnish material for dozens of flies.

Tools needed are few and relatively low-cost. A basic set would consist of a vise, scissors, hackle pliers, and whip finishing tool. A bobbin to hold tying thread is nice if your hands are rough or chapped. All are available at tackle stores. Prices vary widely, even for the same make and model, so often a little shopping is worthwhile.

Compared to most, fly tying is an inexpensive hobby.

Angling authorities classify insects that fish feed on into two loose categories, aquatic and terrestrial. The former refers to those born in water and that spend at least part of their life there, and the latter indicate forms that are land based.

There are a million known species of terrestrial insects and more being discovered daily. They are everywhere, in woods, meadows, croplands, and marshes. Stream and lake edges harbor large numbers. By comparison, less than five percent of all insects are aquatic. The very word, insect, automatically brings to mind some type of terrestrial. Many are clumsy fliers and can inadvertently fall within reach of hungry fish. Others leap, fall from grasses and trees or are blown onto the water.

The quantity of land insects available for fish diet is rendered even more copious by the luxuriant vegetation fringing most ponds and streams.

Fortunately for both fishers and fish, these aliens not only are nourishing but appear to be particularly delectable to fish. As a rule they are less fragile and delicate than water bred flies so one's embarkation often is audible to fish some distance away.

It is not unusual for a fish to leave its feeding station and move several feet away to taken an unfortunate beetle or hopper whose arrival was heralded by a faint "splat" on the water. Sounds like these must trigger the predator instinct.

The majority of land insects do not have an interior frame-work but rather an exterior skeleton of chitinous shell-like material. Creatures like beetles, ants, hoppers, and crickets are also protected with a waxy varnish-like covering which keeps them from dehydrating. This substance also prevents water from penetrating and such terrestrials may float for days at a time.

Deer hair with its built in buoyancy, its opaqueness without weight, and ease of working is a natural for terrestrial limitations.

Here are tying instructions for two more very effective, easy to construct deer hair flies.

The first, called the "Hank of Hair" is an incredibly simple dry fly. It is merely a clump of deer body hair tied on a hook as a wing, usually without body or hackle. It can be made either full or sparse to suggest a wide variety of insects both aquatic and terrestrial.

It will successfully imitate any number of caddis, stoneflies or land based creatures like hoppers and moths.

To make one, clamp a hook in a vise and daub cement on the front third of the shank. Make a base for the wing by wrapping thread over the cement, fasten with a half-hitch and coat the thread with cement.

Select a clump of deer body hair, stroke the butts to remove fuzz and short hairs, and try to get the tips fairly even. Hold the hair on top of the hook with its tips projecting slightly back of the bend and the butts out over the eye.

Make two wraps of thread around the hair and the hook and pull straight down to tighten. Both the tips and butts will flare, which is what you want, but don't let the hair turnaround the hook. Make a half-hitch over the thread wraps and cement liberally.

Now work the thread through the hair and half-hitch just back of the hook eye. Push this back to crowd the butts and make them flare even more, retighten and cement the knot. Make a couple more half-hitches and crowd them back the same way.

Finish off with a whip finish and more cement and trim the hair butts to make a head. The Hank of Hair resembles a Muddler Minnow without the turkey quill wings and tinsel body.

I have had good luck with this fly for stream trout and for bass, bluegills and crappies around lake edges. Make it small and dark colored for early season, larger and light colored for mid-season and darker towards fall.

The second, a deer hair cricket, is just a little more complicated but not much. It was shown to me by Jim Chestney, well-known tier of Palatine, Illinois. Jim says it is a variation of the Letort cricket.

To tie a "Chestney Cricket", fasten a hook in the vise and make a base for the rest of the material by wrapping the hook shank with thread and coating with cement.

Select a bunch of black-dyed deer hair ("Rit" dye works well) about two and one-half times as long as the hook. Twenty-five hairs is about right. Bind it by the butts on the rear third of the shank so the tips project to the rear and trim the butts so they don't extend forward past the middle of the hook. wrap thread to rear of the hook, half-hitch and cement.

Now fold the hair frontward so its tips lie out beyond the hook eye and spiral thread around it to simulate segments. Do this to where the butts were trimmed off. Secure with a thread wrap and half-hitch and cement the knot. This is the cricket's body.

Cut an approximately three-sixteenth inch wide section from a black-dyed goose or duck quill and tie on as a single wing by making two more wraps and half-hitch directly on top of the previous one. It should be tied on flat, not edgewise like most wings and extend slightly beyond the rear of the hook.

Wind the thread forward, around the deer hair and the hook, not quite to the eye and back to where it is half-hitched. Fold the hair back again so the tips extend towards the rear of the hook and make a couple of thread wraps and half-hitch around the hair wing butt and hook just ahead of the body previously formed.

Do this tightly so as to flare the hair tips. You have just made a deer hair head for the cricket and deer hair hackle for its legs.

Now lay the thread forward, half-hitch it just in front of the head close up to the hook eye and tie off with a whip finish. Cement this knot and the winding back of the head thoroughly. Cut the thread, clean the cement from the hook eye and your cricket is done.

Cricket patterns work well all season, probably because they also resemble ants. The Chestney cricket tied in small sizes and without a wing, makes a dandy black ant imitation.

Someone once said, "Good flies should be simple to construct, made from easily procurable materials, and catch fish". You couldn't ask for a better description of the two you just tied.