COPLIN PLANTATION – Bonnie Holding has led hundreds of anglers to some of her favorite remote fishing spots for years but doesn’t eat fish herself.

“I’m a big believer in catch and release, partly because I don’t eat fish and just for conservation reasons,” Holding said.

She was considered one of the best master fly-fishing guides in North America by Outdoor Life magazine in 2005.

And even with that prestige, she cleans and cooks the brook trout or land-locked salmon that the “sports” she guides catch, if they request it, over an open fire.

But more often than not, people are out fly-fishing for the enjoyment of the sport and beauty of the area.

“More people fish for pleasure,” she said. “I think more people are seeing it is more important to protect their resources. I would say at least 90 percent of the people I guide catch and release.”

Her fishing vessel of choice is a double-ended Rangeley boat.

She shares her talent and expertise of more than two decades by teaching fly-fishing at clinics, including this summer’s Sugarloaf Guided Adventures Program.

One of her favorite adventures is the Casting for Recovery Program, for breast cancer patients and survivors, that she has been involved in for the last 10 years.

Holding, 52, grew up on the coast of Maine in Scarborough, married her high school sweetheart Blaine Holding and moved to northern Franklin County 22 years ago, when her husband’s job as a game warden took them there.

Prior to marriage 31 years ago, the couple had hunted a little and fished a lot, and got into fly-fishing the year they married.

That brought Bonnie Holding into L.L. Bean where she was the first woman in the fishing and hunting retail department, and she worked part-time during the summers at its fly-fishing school. She got her Maine Master Guide’s license while she was there and before the Holdings headed north to Coplin Plantation.

“I really liked fly-fishing. It became a passion,” she said.

One of the sporting camps asked her about teaching a fly-fishing school for it and other sporting camps asked if she would guide for them.

Many of the spots she takes people to are those that she and her husband love to fish.

Fly-fishing is a simple exercise and a great place to put your mind. It’s a great stress reliever, she said.

She enjoys teaching the skill, which some consider an art form.

“I love seeing somebody get it. I love seeing the smile on their face when they get it, when their body and mind work together,” she said. “I also like someone seeing someone catch a fish.”

Her strawberry-blonde hair is pulled back from her face this day, a touch of red tinting her skin from being outdoors.

More women are getting into the sport, she said.

When she’s guiding its probably 80 percent men who go on her trips but at the Sugarloaf program, she is finding it’s half women and half men.

“I’m very fortunate in my life that I get to be out in this atmosphere,” she said. “To be able to introduce people to the outdoors is a great feeling. … It just makes me feel so good.”

She’d like to think that when someone sees her do what she does that person would say “If she can do it, I can do it.”

When she’s guiding, she doesn’t fish with her “sports;” instead she makes sure they and their equipment are set up.

“You have to be aware of what’s going on,” she said. “I need to know what flies are hatching and what the water levels and water temperature are.”

It’s hard work, she said.

“Sometimes it’s not physical work. It’s dealing with different personalities and some people are more needy than others.”