About J Craig Haney
J. Craig Haney is co-author of the new book Buck & Wart: Backcountry Letters.
Craig grew up in north Alabama feeling somewhat out of place calling a town a home. His parents grew up in small towns, but didn’t fish, camp or hunt. At age nine or ten, something in Craig’s DNA kicked in and he started craving more of the outdoors than he found two weeks every year at summer camp.
On frequent trips to visit aunts and uncles in rural Alabama, he explored the streams, fields and woods on family property. An avid reader, he soon began to devour the outdoor magazines and books of the time like a bluegill devours a catalpa worm.
Soon thanks to his ample appetite for reading, he discovered an outdoor mentor, a grandfather to lead him about the outdoors he so passionately loved. Craig had discovered the “Old Man and the Boy” column written by Robert Ruark and quickly claimed the “Old Man” as his surrogate grandfather, eagerly absorbing the lessons the “Old Man” taught from a lifetime afield. If the “Old Man” was his grandfather, then he also learned a lot from the writings of his “uncles”, such as Jack O’Connor, John Jobson, Ted Trueblood and many more.
During high school and college years, Craig spent all his spare moments fishing, hunting, and camping. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science from Auburn University. He spent part of his first paycheck on a new Grumman canoe to help with his post graduate studies in the outdoors. Since those early years, Craig has fished for everything from tarpon to trout and bass to bonefish. He has hunted a number of game species, from canecutter rabbits in the swamps of Alabama to antelope and mule deer on the plains and rimrock of the Rockies. As an amateur explorer, he has researched Horace Kephart on the ground, hiking the mountains and remote headwater streams of the Great Smoky Mountains spending as much time as possible “back of beyond”.
Since college, he has worked as a lake guide for bass and stripers, and has also guided stream fisherman for bass and trout. For close to twenty years, Craig worked as a manufacturer’s representative selling fishing, hunting and other related gear to distributors and dealers in several southeastern states. For eight years he was managing partner of a full service fly shop, where he also taught fly tying and casting lessons.
Since the mid eighties, Craig has written on and photographed a variety of subjects for a number of regional and national outdoor publications. Additionally, Craig has served as consultant for Westervelt Lodge’s Fred Bear Bowhunting School, Turkey School and Backcountry Skills Schools. He also was an advisor and instructor for the Alabama Backcountry Lodges and Stagshead Lodge deer hunting, turkey, outdoor skills, backcountry cooking and survival schools.
Craig has served as a board member of the Southeastern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers, as well as president of the Birmingham Fly Fishers. He was one of three founding members of Cahaba Chapter of Trout Unlimited and served as its president as well. He has presented programs at various Federation of Fly Fishers, Trout Unlimited, and Izaak Walton League chapters, and bass and civic clubs around the South. He also has taught classes at the university and community college level on various fishing fly fishing, outdoor skills and hunting subjects.
Craig currently writes The Gun Rack column for Great Days Outdoors magazine and is editor at large for http://www.southerntrout.com as well as other freelance writing and photography projects.
He lives with his wife Lynn on the headwaters of Patton Creek in the foothills of the Southern Appalachians.
Some Magazines Where Craig’s Work Has Been Published
The New Pioneer
Backpacker
Rural Sportsman
National Outdoor Outfitter News
Outside Business
Game and Fish Publications
Bass Angler
Alabama Game and Fish
Aqua Field
Southern Outdoors
Gutmann Knife Annual
Camping Journal
Progressive Farmer
Great Days Outdoors
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