Oliver Jones

Oliver (Ollie) Jones grew up in Kenya, where his mother runs a wildlife safari company and his father grows roses commercially. Ollie and his brother used to launch a small, aluminum, shallow V-hull with a dodgy outboard off the beach and troll for marlin, sailfish, and tuna. He learned to fly fish in the Kenyan highlands, chasing trout, yellowfish, and whatever else he could coax to flies. That led him to apply for a guiding job in Wyoming, where the trout were both bigger and more plentiful. Once his visa expired, he went north to Canada to work as a steelhead and heli-ski guide. From there, he went south to Mexico, where he worked as a kite-boarding instructor and filled his free time chasing roosterfish with a fly rod. The allure of big trout eventually brought him to New Zealand. Ollie is the senior guide at Chris Jolly Outdoors, where he has guided since 2018, specializing in backcountry trips for large browns and rainbows. In the offseason, he goes back to Africa, where he gets after saltwater species and guides wilderness trips in the Central African Republic for goliath tigerfish.