Voices from the Past:

The following blurb comes from The Sporting Review edited by "Craven" and published in London in 1865. It's clear and to the point about local flies, and is as good of advice today as it was then.

The angler visiting "the sister kingdom," will do well to procure his flies from a native. The best fishing-tackle manufacturer I know U Mr. William Haynes, of No. 63, Patrick-street, Cork. He is the only practical angler who is also a fishing-tackle maker in the South of Ireland, and inquiry will satisfy any who may be inclined to doubt the writer of this article, that he is the best practical angler in the kingdom. His flies may be relied on for whatever river is to be fished; for the various rivers have each their favourite fly, and he knows them all. His tackle is made under his own supervision, and there is not a fly sold by him that he does not personally examine. How ridiculous it is for gentlemen to purchase (trout flies especially) fishing-tackle from a .vendor who knows no more about the fly fit for the month or the river, than a cow does about a holiday, and yet such persons, who have the gift of the gab and could talk the hind-leg off of a hedge-hog, drive a large trade by the sale of flies, any one of which would frighten more trout than it would kill by one hundred to one. I never had better sport in my life than I had last May with flies and tackle purchased from Mr. Haynes, and when I state that I sent over four hundred trout to London in ice, the fruits of only a fortnight's fishing in the Laune and lower Cara, I think my readers will agree with me that I at least should praise the flies and the place where I found them.

-- Dr. Todd