Pete McDonald

1 week ago | boatingmag.com | Pete McDonald

When the shrimp would run on the full moon in wintertime down in South Florida, we'd head to the inlet in my friend's old Boston Whaler Montauk, armed with headlamps and long-handled dip nets hoping to cash in. I don't recall the exact age we started doing this, but I do remember the feeling of being on the water for the first time at night. Objects on the shore looked like shadows, and unlit docks suddenly appeared as we slowly made our way down the canal to the inlet.

1 month ago | boatingmag.com | Pete McDonald

OverviewPunch the throttles at the helm of the Mystic M5200XL, and the acceleration feels so smooth and effortless that you don't realize how quickly you're gaining speed or even how fast you're actually going. That is, until you glance to one side and notice the houses and channel markers along the waterway start to blur. Then you feel like a pilot flying a private jet on a bluebird day, experiencing nothing but pure speed in a luxury setting.

2 months ago | boatingmag.com | Pete McDonald

The name Jet Ski is synonymous with PWCs the way Kleenex is with tissues or Xerox with copy machines. Now, with the introduction of its Jet Ski Ultra 160LX-S Angler, Kawasaki is converting its personal-watercraft platform into a dynamic-yet affordable-fishing machine. This platform provides the anytime, anywhere versatility of a PWC while also creating a stable fishing boat with the tools an angler needs to chase fish.

2 months ago | boatingmag.com | Pete McDonald

No matter what type of boater you are, you should consider a quality pair of polarized sunglasses to be essential safety gear. Not just for how they reduce glare, but for how they protect your eyes from the sun's harmful UV rays as well. Sunglasses-makers now offer myriad lens colors to choose from, but you shouldn't pick based only on style. The different lens colors provide different benefits depending on how and where you boat.

2 months ago | boatingmag.com | Pete McDonald

OverviewThe newly redesigned Mako 18 Pro Skiff Backwater Edition is a light-tackle angler's dream. It's a skinny-water boat that's packed with standard features that will help you find and chase fish. EngineRunning with two aboard and a 22-gallon fuel load, we pushed the 18 Pro Skiff to 52 mph, reaching 30 mph from idle in 5.8 seconds. For a relatively flat-bottomed boat, it held true in hard-over turns at planing speeds, never slipping or blowing out the prop. It climbed onto plane in 2.4 seconds.