Peter B. Wright

The March issue of InTheBite provides a technical breakdown of some of the essentials of boat ownership. Monte Richardson describes a big picture analysis of boat re-powers and Steve Katz pulls the lid off of the battery case as provides insight into the world of sportfishing batteries. On the fishing side of the equation, Jan Fogt tells the story of the owner/operator and Peter B. Wright warns of the dangers of getting too complicated. It is a great issue, one that you shoul

I recently read a book by Professor Charles Mathertitled "Billfish" that caused me some confusion. The book was published in 1976. It included numerous photos of friends and acquaintances taken from fishing spots all over the planet; Places such as Florida, Panama, California, Hawaii, New Zealand and Bimini. I even found myself in a few of the photographs, as a young skipper in Cairns, Australia. There were hundreds of pictures that brought back some great memories and a c

Fishing tournaments have become a huge industry! There are now more sailfish tournaments alone than anyone could have imagined only a few decades ago. There are also numerous “Billfish” tournaments with a mixed bag of species and sizes. In some of these tournaments, particularly in Australia, all the fish must be tagged to get release points. In others, merely touching the leader qualifies. I strongly disagree with this style of tournament. First, if a fish is "released" w

Having written a strong criticism against the evils of anecdotal evidence, I must now do a quick U-turn and speak up again. This time with the exact opposite view, a favorable one. I am now going to warn both the young folks seeking a PhD. in marine science and their grey bearded professors* who already hold these treasured degrees, not to reject anecdotal evidence too quickly! Just because no scientist has studied something well enough to be able to write a "peer reviewed"

Something anecdotal has to do with anecdotes — little stories. Anecdotal evidence is based on hearsay rather than hard facts. People like to share stories about things that happened to them, or that they heard about, to make a point. That kind of talk is anecdotal: based on small, personal accounts. Anecdotal stories are helpful when you’re trying to give an example of something, but there's a downside to anecdotal information: since it’s not based on facts, you never know

In a recent fishing magazine that I read a few days ago, a top-notch journalist had written an article about white marlin. The author had interviewed and quoted several highly regarded sport fishing captains. One of them, Captain John Bayliss, is considered to be among the best of the best by both his peers and his competitors. Bayliss told the author that he always liked to keep an eye out for sea birds. He specifically mentioned looking for terns and shearwaters, "Either wo