News by and about Rusty
Observer first-person story about learning fly casting from Rusty
The art of fly casting: Lessons from a local guide
By Carter Weinhofer | 5:00 a.m. February 10, 2024
Fly fishing? I wasn’t sure people did that down here in the saltwater.
Having grown up fishing in the lakes of Pennsylvania and on the beaches of the Outer Banks, North Carolina, I was intrigued at the opportunity to learn a new method of fishing.
Longboat Key resident and longtime fisherman Rusty Chinnis teaches fly casting to anyone interested, and recently showed me the art of the cast.
I’ve never held a fly fishing rod before, which meant I also never tried to cast one. That was a big benefit, Chinnis said, since most people learn bad casting habits that are difficult to break.
Read the article.Observer opinion piece on the evolution of Rusty's conservation focus
My View
Protecting our natural resources is a moral responsibility
We can have all the rules protecting nature we want. Until we enforce them, red tide and other examples of nature degradation will continue.
By Rusty Chinnis | 12:00 p.m. March 16, 2023
I have been fortunate to live on the Suncoast in the Longbeach Village on Longboat Key for over four decades. In those 40-plus years, I have enjoyed the coastal bounty as an angler and been rewarded financially as a building contractor.
Over time, I have experienced a decline in the environment that has compelled me to work to protect it. That experience began in the late 1980s in fisheries conservation, progressed to saving land (the Sister Keys), and now centers on protecting water quality and coastal habitats (Suncoast Waterkeeper) including seagrasses and mangroves.