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Outdoors

Practice always key to fly casting mastery
Fishing, Outdoors, Reel Time

Practice always key to fly casting mastery

Apr 8, 2025 – Rusty Chinnis
March 3, 2025
By Rusty Chinnis
The honorable harvest

Reel Time: The honorable harvest

While reading a chapter in “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer this morning, I came across the chapter entitled, “The Honorable Harvest.” Kimmerer, an American scientist, ac­claimed author a…
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February 26, 2025
By Rusty Chinnis
Anatomy of a fishing rod

Reel Time: Anatomy of a Fishing Rod

All fishing rods, whether a spinning rod, a fly rod or a casting rod, share the basic components – blank, guides, reel seats and handles. So why is one rod more expensive than another? A rod’s bla…
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February 17, 2025
By Rusty Chinnis

Reel Time: Harbingers of spring

The signs of spring are in the air, even though the official start of the season is a month away. I heard the first whippoorwill this past week and bait is starting to school in Sarasota Bay, welcome…
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February 11, 2025
By Rusty Chinnis

Reel Time: Become a citizen scientist

On Feb. 7, Suncoast Waterkeeper Founder Justin Bloom, Board Member Richard Moore and I took Professor John Bowden and three of his research students into Tampa Bay to help them collect samples for an…
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February 4, 2025
By Rusty Chinnis

Fishing for fun

When we introduce children to fishing, we should make the experience uncomplicated and as much fun as possible. Creating unrealistic expectations can discourage young anglers and be the difference be…
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January 31, 2025
By Cindy Lane

Coast Lines: A Gulf by any other name

President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” is more than historically inaccurate, it is unnecessarily confusing and will no doubt cost taxpayers million…
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January 28, 2025
By Rusty Chinnis

In praise of guides

My first experience fishing with a guide was when I moved to the Suncoast and met Bobby Lee, a neighbor and avid angler. Lee had been chartering for Capt. Scott Moore and would invite me to join him…
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January 27, 2025
By Leslie Lake
Wildlife signs installed at Chappie Park

Wildlife signs installed at Chappie Park

BRADENTON BEACH – The city’s Scenic Waves Partnership Committee held a ribbon-cutting on Jan. 24 to showcase the first installation of “Wildlife of Anna Maria Island” signs on the Bradenton Beach Sce…
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January 21, 2025
By Rusty Chinnis

Fly casting fundamentals explained

I’ve heard anglers say, “It’s just like riding a bike.” That’s true in the sense that it’s a learning experience that has to be practiced to be mastered. When we learned to ride a bike we often forge…
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January 14, 2025
By Leslie Lake
FISH Preserve being restored following hurricanes

FISH Preserve being restored following hurricanes

CORTEZ – The recent hurricanes took their toll on the 98-acre FISH (Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage) Preserve. Allen Garner, a retired landscape architect who has been working on the preser…
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Upcoming Events

April 9, 2025
11:45 am

The Off-Stage Ladies of the Island Players, April luncheon meeting