Jon Covich

My name is Jon Covich, and I am the founder and owner of World Fly. I have now been in and around the fly fishing business for about thirty five years, in several different capacities. Before my affliction for fly fishing, I had developed a love for travel. During my college years, I took my first international trip, spending fifteen months back-packing around Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. My experiences on this trip truly shaped my future…..from working on a kibbutz to floating down the Nile in a felukka, to being thrown off the train by guards on the border between Poland and then Czechoslovakia, to forming life-long friendships with people I met along the way. In short, travel became a very important part of my life.

After university, and while working an office job for Nordstrom, I really became a fanatic for fly fishing, spending every weekend and any days off exploring the waters around the Pacific Northwest. I never felt a love for the corporate world, so quite and ended up working behind the counter in downtown Seattle for Kaufmanns’ Streamborn. During my couple of years working there, I met many of the reps that called on our shop and others. Observing their jobs, I decided it was something I could do, and so embarked on a career as a tackle rep.

While working in the fly shop, I took my first international fly fishing trip, to the Bahamas. After that it was Belize, then New Zealand, and finally Cuba, Argentina and Chile. During my time backpacking around Europe I became enamored with photography, and so while on these fly fishing adventures carried my camera. After a time I gained a reputation as a good photographer as well as someone who had expertise in traveling the world in pursuit of catching fish on the fly.

About fifteen years ago I was approached by one of the very established fly fishing travel agencies. I ended up going to work for them as a rep, calling on shops, and beginning to host trips to different parts of the world. I really fell in love with the saltwater flats and the jungle, and over many trips gained expertise in destinations like Cuba, Colombia, and the jungles of Bolivia and Brazil. It was only about five years ago that I decided to start World Fly, and to take a different direction than most agencies in the business of fly fishing travel.

Our Story

World Fly came to be after many years of leading hosted fly fishing trips around the world and realizing that something was missing in our sport. Customers often commented to Jon Covich, who hosted the majority of these trips, how much they gained being in the company of someone who knew the destination so well. They had been used to “hosts” being fishing professionals, but who often knew no more about their destination than did their customers.

So, we decided that this is what we would do, and how we would focus our business. Not to be everything to everyone, but to instead have a limited offering of destinations that we know well. Destinations we have been to many times, where we know the people on the ground, speak the language, and understand the culture and the fishing.

Meet Your Hosts

“Jon, thanks for everything you did.  It would not have been anywhere near the same trip if you did not set up things for us.  It was flawless really.”

-Bryan Sohl

Backpacking on Crete with friends