Don Kirk

Don Kirk has been a full time writer/editor for the better part of five decades. He has written several books, been the start-up editor on dozens of magazines, hosted television and radio shows, been a consultant and published over 10,000 articles on fishing and hunting. A native of east Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, Don is the best known fly fishing expert in the country on Southern waters, especially the trout streams of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His fishing guide books to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park have sold over 100,000 copies.

Also an accomplished hunter, Don has hunted around the world for everything from polar bear and geese, to lions and whitetail deer. He also is regarded as one of the country's leading experts in antique fishing tackle. A frequent speaker at FFF, TU and other events, Don’s newest projects include the release of Flyfishers Guide to Tennessee (Wilderness Adventure Press, 2013) which is the first ever comprehensive fly fishing guide to the Volunteer State. In May of 2012 he launched Southern Trout Magazine (www.southerntrout.com), the first ever publication devoted exclusively to fly fishing for trout in the Appalachians Mountains (from northern Virginia to northern Georgia), plus southern tailwater trout rivers as far west as Arkansas.

Don currently resides in Montevallo, Alabama with this wife Leah and two of his five children, Adam and Loryn. He is known by grandchildren as Papa Don, and is under strict instructions not to allow them to smoke cigars with him. An old, fun-loving child of the 1960s, Don admits that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up.