Tom Jones comes from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains where he has been guiding for six years in Mammoth Lakes, CA.  Though he calls Mammoth home he was ready for a break from the snow and freezing temps.  He finds Lees Ferry to be the perfect balance of gorgeous scenery, beautiful fish, and perfect climate in the fall, winter and spring.  We are pleased to say Tom should be with us for many years to come as he feels he has found his place to “winter over".

Captain Jones started fishing as soon as he was able to walk to the rocky shores with his father near his childhood home in Redondo Beach, CA.  He loved fishing with his dad more than anything.  He continued to cut his teeth fishing the shores, jetties and offshore boats as much as he could growing up.  He cherished more than anything his yearly family trips to the Sierras to fish for trout.  He had a couple of weeks a year of spring creek bliss pulling rainbow, brook, and brown trout from the forested waters.  These trips were Tom’s first opportunity to try fly fishing.  He was led to his first fish on a fly at the age of eight by his father, with a fiberglass Abu-Garcia and a gray WD-40.  From then on the fishing bug stayed strong and got to grow as he joined The Boy Scouts and started backpacking. Tom is an Eagle Scout the highest attainable rank in scouting, which means he has demonstrated the highest levels of self reliance, leadership, and citizenship.

Once Tom graduated high school and scouting he went looking for colleges. He wouldn't settle on a school in any big city.  He wanted a quality education but would not sacrifice peace and beauty.  These criteria led Tom to Humboldt State University in the redwood forests of Arcata, CA.  Along with redwoods came the steelhead and salmon rich waters of the Klamath, Trinity, and Eel rivers.  To say that this was not the best thing for grades would be an understatement.  Tom finally finished school with a degree in Landscape Design/Environmental Horticulture.  He took a job where he could be outside at the South Coast Botanic gardens in Southern CA.  Though it was a nice work place it didn't afford him as much free time as he liked.  This caused Tom to take a break and travel.

Though Boy Scouts gave him the initial travel bug through backpacking and attending the National Scout Jamboree, it was his semester abroad in Florence, Italy studying art, architecture, and language that made him want to see the world.  Being in Florence allowed Capt. Jones to see many cities in Italy as well as the rest of Europe.  Since he started traveling at 18 Tom has been to 26 countries and plans to go to a new one each year to keep expanding his horizons.  Tom loves to travel because he feels each new culture and place gives him that much more awareness of new pieces of himself.

After some of his extensive travels he took a job with REI a backpacking/outdoor store where he was able to work with people who were like minded outdoor/ travel enthusiasts.  REI also allowed him to take extensive leaves and come back to a job which he thought was a great deal.  Though he liked the culture there it was still working in a city, though near the beach Tom yearned for the mountains.  These same thoughts prompted Tom and two co-workers to move to their paradise, Mammoth Lakes, CA.

Tom had visited Mammoth before, to snowboard at one of the best spots in the world.  This time he felt like the resort he had loved was truly going to be his new home.  He joined a great shop there, Kittredge Sports, which happened to sell all of the equipment for his favorite hobbies.  Though Tom loves to fly fish most, his activities are many and varied.  Though he loves to mix and match to keep things fresh Captain Jones is still on the water fishing or guiding over 250 days a year.

Tom began his guiding career in 2002 has hundreds of days of guiding experience on the technical spring creeks, fertile tail waters, and incredible still waters of the Mammoth area.  This training has given him exceptional ability to be very versatile and knowledgeable on many types of water.  He has tons of experience with technical dry fly fishing, he describes heavy nymph rigs as his true best friends and is a true master of still water nymphing techniques  He truly is a great teacher and makes it his number one goal every day to help you become a better angler.  Tom is capable of helping any level of angler become better, however he truly loves sharing the joy to be found in fishing with those just starting to fly fish and with the next generation of conservationist anglers, enthusiastic kids!