People Spotlight

For New Gloucester’s Emily Bastian, the meaning of life is fly fishing

Emily Bastian in Glacier National Park

| Sasha Nyary |

Emily Bastian can’t remember the first time she sat on the side of a pond and tried to dangle a worm in front of a fish, but she sure does remember the first time she went fly fishing.

Ever since she was little she had longed to join her father, Larry, on his annual fishing trip to Greenville with his brother and friends. Finally, her tutorial came, the weekend before his big trip.

“I had an oversized fishing vest and leaders that didn’t fit me and an old rod of my dad’s and I learned to fly fish at 8 years old in the Roach River in Maine,” Bastian says. “And I’ve been hooked, we would say, ever since.”

Very quickly, she just wanted to be fishing as long as she could, from first light to sundown. They would set up their tent the night before and walk to the river with flashlights in order to be there as the sun was coming up. They’d spot wildlife, eagles and hawks. On occasion a moose would cross the stream above or below them, providing an awesome view of a majestic, huge creature standing in the stream while they were fishing.

“Even as a kid it was the whole experience — being with my dad, camping, the adventure of walking a trail through the woods sometimes a half an hour to get to a river,” she says.

Living the dream

Bastian is one of the lucky ones who has been able to turn her lifelong love for the outdoors, and fly fishing in particular, into a career. After all, she says, “you spend a huge part of your waking hours making a living so it’s nice to find something that you’re passionate about.”

Passionate, indeed. Bastian was the first woman floor lead at the L.L.Bean Hunting & Fishing Store and is now Hunt/Fish’s first retail customer experience supervisor: In addition to being involved in the store’s operations, she is responsible for coordinating events, demonstrations, and customer interactions, among other tasks.

She’s also a registered Maine fishing guide, a member of the Science and Policy Committee at the American Fly Fishing Trade Association, and a pro at the Regal Vise Company.

Most importantly, though, she’s co-founder and current vice chair of the Native Fish Coalition, a nonprofit volunteer conservation organization that began in 2017 with the mission to protect, preserve, and restore wild native fish populations through stewardship of the fish and their habitats.

This month her worlds combine in the annual International Fly Fishing Film Festival, a compilation of films produced annually by fly anglers for fly anglers. Always a fun event, Bastian says, the films will be featured at the Gear Up: L.L.Bean Fishing Day on March 26 at the company’s flagship store in Freeport. The cinema at Frontier in Brunswick will also hold showings over the weekend, starting on March 31.

Emily out on the river in Maine

A child of New Gloucester

A proud product of New Gloucester public schools — she was valedictorian of her Gray-New Gloucester High School class in 2003, as was her brother, Daniel, two years later — Bastian got a BS in wildlife ecology from the University of New Hampshire in Durham. She studied environmental science, biology, and natural history, along with some fisheries work in school as well.

Unsurprisingly, she has built a career in those areas. Her jobs have included working as a field biologist studying loons and as a seasonal interpretive ranger at Colorado’s Curecanti National Recreation Area, serving as the volunteer coordinator of Audubon’s brook trout pond survey in Maine, working as a game warden, and managing the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Gorman Chairback Lodge outside of Greenville.

“Emily’s positive energy and enthusiasm are always infectious,” says Julie Fralich, a neighbor whose son was a classmate. “I have memories of her running in the fields and woods with her blond hair flying behind her. My husband and I have continued to cross paths and be impressed with her life’s journey and passion for the outdoors. We have heard of her prowess as an avid angler and fly tyer and we often see her car parked along Woodman Road early in the morning when it’s hunting season.”

It’s about the fish, not the fishing

While Bastian is in fact a skilled hunter, fishing has been her constant. Even as a child she loved the whole lore of fly fishing. She loved figuring out where to stand and what fly to use, plotting every step it would take to get to the point where she’d catch something. Of course catching fish was the goal.

But even more than fishing, it’s always been about the fish. Right from the start, Bastian and her father never kept whatever they caught. They always released them.

“I wanted to catch them again,” she says. “Even as a kid it was like, if we let it go maybe I can catch it again.”

Native Fish Coalition began out of a conversation Bastian had with Bob Mallard, a writer, Maine fishing guide, and fly designer. They met at a presentation he was giving to a local Trout Unlimited chapter. It quickly became evident that they both felt strongly about fish conservation.

“Like many of us, she fishes because she loves it, but it is the fish, not the fishing that really matters to her,” says Mallard, who calls her an “avid and accomplished” angler. “It didn’t take long before I knew that Emily was different, and in a good way, and that if allowed to she could really make a difference.”

Their connection led to the formation of the Native Fish Coalition. They began with a Maine chapter and local coverage helped them grow. Native Fish Coalition is now operating in 10 states as far flung as Alabama, which is known as the Amazon of the United States because of its biodiversity, Bastian says. Everywhere, native fish — meaning indigenous or historically present — are at risk. In Maine that means Atlantic salmon, arctic charr, and pond-dwelling and sea-run brook trout.

As the chair of the original Maine chapter, Bastian created the blueprint for chapter operations and she now serves as the coalition’s national vice chair. In this role she’s very involved with existing and new state chapters, so much of her volunteer time is spent recruiting and interviewing possible members.

It’s practically another full-time job, she says cheerfully, but it’s a labor of love. “I’m really proud of where we started and where we’ve come and the recognition that we’re getting,” she says.

“To be clear, there would be no Native Fish Coalition without Emily,” Mallard says, noting that no one does more for the organization and at all levels. “I refer to her as my right arm.”

The issue is sustainability, the two founders say. Fish typically take a backseat to other forms of wildlife — fishing groups focus on fishing, sporting groups focus on hunting, watershed groups focus on water quality and conservation groups focus on birds and mammals.

“It’s a small piece of the larger restoration puzzle,” Bastian says. “I’m knowledgeable and passionate about all sorts of areas of the natural world and I chose fishes. It’s been really exciting to watch the organization grow and see it succeed as it has.”

In Wyoming, Emily with her father Larry Bastian (l.) and Bob Mallard of Native Fish Coalition

Off-season is for tying flies and starting seeds

In the winter when she isn’t fishing, Bastian snowshoes and skis — with or without her black lab, Maybelle — ties flies of course, cooks, and pores over seed catalogs.

“That’s what my mom and I do together, the gardening,” she says. “We plant a large garden, more than a couple of people could ever eat fresh, so we can and freeze and get to enjoy that through the year.”

It’s satisfying and important to have that connection to the land, she says, and it allows you to eat with the seasons.

“As a gardener, you get to the point where you’re like, I’m not really hungry for that right now because I know I’ll have an abundance of it later on,” she says. “Gardening changes your perspective about eating and the sustainability of food resources.”

Whether it’s gardening, hunting or fishing, it’s all about seeing the need and the opportunity and going for it, Bastian says. “If you have a passion about something, find a way to get involved and make a difference and give back. When we focus on something, then we can effect change.”

Emily keeps an eye on her line and on Maybelle while pond fishing for trout | Photos courtesy of Emily Bastian