Marlin University Instructors

Dave Ferrell has traveled the world’s oceans during his 16-year history with Marlin magazine, conveying the beauty and excitement of big-game fishing through his writing and photography.

He is a third-generation Florida native and a graduate of the University of Central Florida with a degree in journalism. He left his position at Sport Fishing magazine four years ago to focus his attention on Marlin full time, and although he still likes to chase the odd snook or redfish in the skinny water, his true love lies in the pursuit of blue-water big game.

Capt. Peter B. Wright, editor at large of Marlin magazine, has fished in all the waters of the world. He began working on charter sport-fishing boats at Hillsboro Inlet in south Florida while still in grade school and fished marlin tournaments in Bimini throughout his high-school and college years. His first experience with the Great Barrier Reef in 1968 convinced him to move to Australia, where he has fished every season since establishing permanent-resident status there that year.

Capt. Wright divides his residency between Stuart, Florida, and Cairns, Australia. In addition, he has owned and operated a charter sport-fishing boat in Kona, Hawaii, for the past five years. He has caught more 1,000-plus-pound marlin — granders — than any other charter captain or angler in history. Capt. Wright has won dozens of tournaments and has guided his clients to numerous world records. In the fall of 2007, Peter B. Wright was inducted into the International Game Fish Association. Peter was selected for the important contributions he has made to sport fishing through angling achievements, literature, the arts, science, education, communication, invention and administration of fishery resources.

Walker Holcomb got his first paying job as a mate — working aboard Postscript III out of Port Canaveral, Florida, at the tender age of 14. Twenty-six years later, Holcomb owns his own outfitting business and is one of the country’s most sought-after first mates for big-game tournaments, having won the 2002 Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship, the New Smyrna Beach Billfish Tournament and numerous other big-game events.

And besides having fished from Mauntauk to the bottom of the Caribbean chain, Holcomb has also been a part of every Marlin University event ever held and is a regular contributor to Marlin magazine. His new business venture keeps him busy rigging, outfitting and trialing new boats, and teaching the owners how to work them.