Don Kirk & Greg Ward 
The Ultimate Fly-Fishing Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains 

The Ultimate Fly-Fishing Guide to the Smoky Mountains does more than any other book in print to bring success to a fishing trip. This newly updated landmark volume is an essential guide for anyone planning to fish the rivers, streams, and lakes in the Smokies — these fisheries are some of the greatest in the nation. For successful fly-fishing, this guide is as important as the right tackle.


The first half of this guide offers advice and history. The second half examines each of the 13 watersheds found within the park. Don Kirk and Greg Ward provide information about trail access, fishing pressure and quality, species, fly hatch information, and campsite availability.

About the author

Born in 1952,
Don Kirk grew up fishing the waters of east Tennessee. From childhood he loved creek fishing, and especially with this Dad’s old Leonard fly rod, which he broke during a fall in 1964. He began writing professional in 1977, with this first book on fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains published two years later.

Over the course of the next fifteen years he was a full freelance outdoor writer who hunted and fly fished worldwide. He has had thousands of articles published in such magazines as
Field & Stream and
Outdoor Life. During this time he was also the outdoors editor for the
Knoxville Journal newspaper and co-hosted the syndicate Dixie Angler radio show.

In the early 1990s Kirk accepted the position as Editor-in-chief of Vulcan Outdoors Publishing, in Birmingham, Alabama. There he conceived almost two dozen different magazine titles, including
Whitetail Journal and
Southern Sporting Journal. While there he also wrote three books:
Fly Fishing Guide to the Smokies, Guide to the TVA Lakes, and
The Endangered Species Cookbook.


Greg Ward is the owner of Rocky Top Outfitters in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Currently Kirk is the editor of
IS Outdoors Magazine, and co-host on IS Outdoors, a nationally broadcast sporting show on Sirius/XM and the Voice American Network.