Bonnie Holding Recognized with Award

Here’s some great news from DIF&W.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife honored longtime Maine guide Bonnie Holding of Coplin Plantation with the Wiggie Robinson Legendary Maine Guide Award on Saturday night. The award was presented by Commissioner Judy Camuso at the Maine Professional Guides Association annual banquet in Brewer.

“This award is extremely well-deserved, and it is an honor to recognize Bonnie for her distinguished work as a guide, and a pleasure to recognize the first female recipient of the award,” said MDIFW Commissioner Judy Camuso.

Holding is a Master Maine Guide for over 30 years, and has guided every year for each of those 30 years. In 2008, she was honored by Outdoor Life Magazine as one of the top four women guides in the nation.

Along with guiding, Holding is a pioneer with Casting for Recovery, a national program that uses fly fishing and its related skills to help women recovering from breast cancer.

“Bonnie’s passion and dedication for helping others through the Casting for Recovery program is legendary, and she is tireless when it comes to advocating and raising funds for this incredible program,” said Camuso.

Maine has the longest running Casting for Recovery program in the country thanks to her hard work and dedication. She uses her knowledge of the outdoors, her fishing skills and her engaging personality to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for this program, and help hundreds of women.  Maine is also the only state that hosts a Casting for Recovery reunion, comprised of alumnae from the program, that attracts survivors from all over the northeast.

Her annual fundraiser, Fish Tales and Cocktails, is a can’t miss January event that attracts dozens of people from all walks of life who are willing to donate time and money to Casting for Recovery.

Holding’s leadership of the Maine chapter of Casting for Recovery has helped hundreds of women cope with a devastating disease. Her tireless work has made Maine’s chapter of casting for recovery the envy of other states and she has spent countless hours teaching many women an appreciation of fly fishing and give them a moment to forget about their illness

The Wiggie Robinson Legendary Maine Guide Award is presented annually at the Maine Professional Guides Association annual banquet. Winners must have been a Registered Maine Guide for 20 years and been an active guide for at least 10 of those years. Along with guiding, winners must be active in the local or outdoor community, or active on boards or committees that enhances and promotes the importance of Maine’s outdoor resources.

 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.