Oliver White, Indifly Chairman and General Manager and Partner of South Fork Lodge, is the recipient of the 2025 Heritage Award. Oliver will be honored at the New York Yacht Club on May 1.

“Oliver’s life story exemplifies the power of fly fishing to captivate and inspire. His passion for fly fishing, coupled with strong doses of curiosity and tenacity, have made him a renowned practitioner and teacher of the sport, a tireless explorer of new frontiers, an accomplished builder and operator of world class angling lodges, and a visionary proponent of empowering indigenous communities around the globe to thrive by protecting sport fisheries and other natural resources. He is an accomplished and admired leader in the fly fishing community.” commented AMFF President Gardner Grant Jr.

After a serious skiing accident, college student Oliver White took up fly fishing as part of his rehabilitation. He fell in love with the sport, became a guide, and ultimately met Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman in Tierra del Fuego. Bill saw something in Oliver, and offered him a role in New York to pursue a career in finance. After a few years, Oliver left NYC to open Abaco Lodge in the Bahamas, which would become one of the most loved fly fishing destinations in the world. He would run Abaco and Bair’s Lodge (host of the 2015 Season of Buccaneers and Bones) for the next 15 years. In 2020, he partnered with fellow angler Jimmy Kimmel as the new owners of the South Fork Lodge in Swan Valley, Idaho. Carefully expanded and remodelled to exacting standards while preserving its storied history, the lodge is a haven for dry fly anglers visiting the legendary South Fork of the Snake River.

In the meantime, he became part of the Indifly Foundation, first as Vice Chair and then as Chair. Formed out of a Costa project to help a village deep in the heart of Guyana’s rainforest conserve its resources and Arapaima fishery, the project and its success created a natural roadmap to expand the successful model to other areas of need and conservation importance. In addition to the Rewa Eco Lodge in Guyana, current projects include the Wind River Indian Reservation, Anaa Atoll in French Polynesia, and the Makhangoa Community Camp in Southern Africa.

In 2019, Yeti and Felt Soul Media brought Oliver’s life story to the screen in the acclaimed documentary, A Thousand Casts. Told amid the backdrop of a fishing trip to the Kingdom of Bhutan in pursuit of the rare and elusive golden mahseer, Oliver narrates the extraordinary, dangerous and, in the end, serendipitous events that took him from philosophy student at UNC Chapel Hill, to financier, to fishing lodge entrepreneur, to ecotourism champion and a devoted husband and father to two young sons. Oliver White is truly the embodiment of AMFF’s Heritage Award ethos.

Founded in 1968, AMFF is steward of fly fishing history. From its unrivalled and expertly curated collection of rods, reels, flies, art, literature and ephemera, AMFF has told the sport’s most compelling stories for over half a century. With a main campus in Manchester, VT and a gallery in Springfield, MO, at Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium and Museum, AMFF creates both onsite and online programming for avid anglers, enthusiastic novices, and those who simply love the culture and history of the sport of fly fishing.

Bonefish BareHanded (Special Edition) by Stephen Farrelly