[man] Comin' up.
All right. Let's roll!
[Jake] Hey, Bob, you got me?
[Bob on comms] Hey, Jake. You got me here?
How's fishin' goin'?
Oh, you know.
It's going.
Excited to be doing this on my own.
It's pretty crazy to think about.
Managed to buy pots and pull 'em out of my ass
and dumped a bunch of money and rig 'em up
and actually make this season happen.
Yeah. Well, I just want you to know before I go
how proud of you I am.
I appreciate that, Jake.
And, again, I'm really, really [bleep] proud of you.
Take care, and happy fishin'.
My Dad never intended for me to work on boats.
So, it wasn't until he passed away
that I decided to do it.
There you go. Let's drop some gear and fish some crab.
Whoo!
[Bob over PA] Let 'er rip.
[man] Get 'er, boys! Whoo!
I'm getting butterflies. I'm so excited.
Aah!
[narrator] 180 miles northwest of Dutch Harbor...
[man] Whoo-hoo!
Buddy! Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
That's a lot of crab.
...aboard theWizard...
Whoo!
They're nice-looking crab, I'll tell ya what.
Those are all really good crab.
[grunting]
[man] 58. 5-8.
Come on, man. Keep the 50s comin'.
We need 'em. We need 'em.
Money on the table!
I got OJ back on here.
Yeah, boy!
Whoo!
My crew's in great shape.
Morale's back where it should be.
[all cheering]
Good deal.
[over PA] Yeah, that's gonna be the last one.
Whoa!
[narrator] ...Captain Keith Colburn hauls and sets back all 200 pots,
his sights set on a half-million dollars' worth of bairdi crab...
Oh, yeah, look at all of it.
Let's go!
[narrator] ...and has scheduled off-load in just five days' time.
Five-two!
Sweet! Good job.
Roger, copy!
[Keith] We're going to our furthest-west gear.
We'll have enough time to get a little bit of food in the guys.
Those crab are in the neighborhood.
We gotta kind of stay on top of it.
[phone ringing]
Hello, Bri.
How's it going? Thanks for the callback.
Hey. Um... good.
Yeah, I do.
Uh, the cabinets are...
I'm pretty positive I paid the guy $9,000.
They're purchased.
[deckhand yelling]
[Bri] ...in the white.
-Smoke in the engine room? -Yeah.
Bri, I gotta call you right back.
Get up the guys.
I gotta go.
Get out of the way! Get out of the way!
[man] Through there.
[man 2] I got someone right here.
[Keith] Look at the screen.
If you see me give you a thumbs-up like this,
hit the general alarm, okay?
Okay.
[coughing]
[retching]
All right.
[panting]
[coughing]
Cody.
[grunts]
Go ahead and throw some clothes on, but real quick.
[coughing]
That smoke is [bleep] toxic.
Grab that air pack outside the window, okay?
[spits]
Well, we gotta get Roger out of that space
and we need the space vented.
All right.
I've got the crew on it right now.
Roger's gotta get switched over.
We definitely have a burnt-up air clutch.
It's nasty down there.
It's a brake and it engages on a drum.
And if loses the vacuum,
it'll sit there and spin and slip
and it's just a burning brake drum.
That's what it is, and that's why that smoke is so toxic.
Roger, right now, is bringing out a hose,
put water on that clutch to cool it off.
That could've been a major fire on this boat.
We've got some gear to haul here about 16 miles
and that engine is out of commission right now.
We're on one engine.
So I need to find somebody
that has a spare clutch out here somewhere.
[bleep]
Oh, God, that stuff's nasty.
[coughing]
[narrator] 20 miles south...
[Johnathan] We made it up to Pribilof Islands.
We'll get to know the canyon real quick.
[narrator] ...on theTime Bandit...
We just need to gobble up whatever we can
and get our piece of the pie.
Whoa!
[narrator] ...Captain Johnathan looks to a 14-mile trench
southeast of St. George Island
to claim his portion
of the $2 million golden king crab fishery.
[Johnathan over PA] Coming up on our first spot here.
-[man] Yeah! Come on! -[man 2] Give 'er, man.
So, we're out here in, uh, about 245 fathoms.
This canyon is 5 miles wide.
Come on, Neil. Let's see some [bleep] big mounds.
Oh, yeah. Crossbars!
You dirty crossbar cross where
I would [bleep] my pants.
Literally.
[man] Whoa, baby!
[Johnathan over PA] No! What is this?
Ooh. Ay-ay-ay!
[man over comms] No table.
[Johnathan] All right, pot number 2.
In 200 fathoms.
Let's see what this one's got.
Got some crab legs or not?
[man] Come on, baby!
Give us some love!
There's a couple.
[man 2] Whoo! Lord!
There's crab legs.
Crab legs, crab legs, crab legs.
A few more crabs!
A couple more.
I can smell 'em. They're out here.
[man] They're getting better and better.
[Johnathan] Come on, baby.
[man on comms] Come to Papa!
Oh, yeah!
Okay, here they come.
Yay!
That's more like it, baby!
[Johnathan] These crab are movin' up the hill.
And the way they're movin',
unless I have somethin' that'll slow 'em down,
I just don't have enough gear to keep catchin' 'em
before they run out of the canyon.
I can't stop 'em enough but, I'll try to make it work.
-[man] Hey! -[man 2] Yeah, man!
[man 3] Teamwork, brother.
[phone ringing]
[Johnathan] Time Bandit.
Oh, Wizard, Wizard, is this Hillstrand?
Hey what's up man?
I see you above me
about 20 miles above the canyon here.
[Keith] Yeah, we've worked our way all over the place.
Uh, and then this morning, we burned up an air clutch.
That brake was fried down to just charcoal briquettes.
Do you use air clutches over there?
Yeah, we use air clutches. We've...
I got one on the inside, so I think we got a spare.
I would really appreciate it, John.
If you could afford to give me one,
we're not really too far from ya.
[Johnathan] Yeah, I'll tell ya what, if--
I'm chasin' these crab and they're runnin' shallow.
And set 'em right above me at 130 fathoms,
bait the hell of 'em...
And then I can transfer your clutch,
and all that stuff for you,
since your boat will be right here.
Like, a day and a half.
That'll give me another pick on these things.
You know what, I-- I...
I'm gonna make it happen, John.
I'll get a little more soak time on the rest of my gear.
And I've got over 200 pots.
So, you know, I can set 'em there and, who knows,
maybe I'll find some bairdi while we're there as well.
[chuckles]
It's gonna work, man.
-All right! Talk to you soon. -Thank you. Ooh.
We're Beaver 1 and Beaver 2.
Beaver-- Now we're a beaver.
No. Beaver 1 and Beaver--
I should have never said "dam."
I should have never used the word "dam."
Here we-- Here we go.
[laughing] Here we go.
All right. I'll talk to you soon.
Johnathan comes up with some of the most harebrained ideas
but I just need a new air clutch.
[narrator] 170 miles southeast...
[Rick over comms] Hey, guys. You about ready to rock and roll?
We're just about here.
Roger!
...on theAleutian Lady.
[Rick] I didn't make any money last fall.
And me and my brothers still need to buy this damn boat.
But I like the pressure.
I'm excited.
We are gonna kill the cod.
[narrator] One week after the start of the winter great cod derby,
Captain Rick Shelford sets his first 40-pot string
on the hunt for his share
of the 12 million pound total allowable catch.
[Rick] I wanna get over 1 million pounds.
I think we have a good crew.
Brought on a couple new guys.
Jacob, he was with Keith last fall.
Said he had a bit of an attitude.
But he's got drive.
And I think it's worth giving him a shot.
[Jacob] I'm really hoping it doesn't end like the last boat I was on.
It doesn't seem like Rick is anything like Keith Colburn.
But one thing is for sure...
everybody changes on the water,
captains and greenhorns alike.
That's fishing.
So I'm gonna show him through blood, sweat and tears
that I got it and I can do it.
All right, guys, let's set. Here we go.
Okay, Rick.
Here it goes. First pot, baby!
[Rick] I got Jacob on hydros.
He's gonna have to prove to me
that he does know what he says he knows.
[Jacob] All right, baby. Let's go! Let's go!
[man] Watch yourself!
So, we're gonna focus all of our gear
on north side of Unimak Pass.
This area has a lot of cod fish
flowing at every tide, moving in and out.
So if I spread my gear out,
and I cover this whole array of depths,
I should get a good feeling of what's going on in this area.
So I'm hoping it's gonna run smooth,
it's gonna go good.
Kurt!
So, I'm kind of just trying to see the average workflow.
And then I'll start changing, like, with my own little herbs and spices.
To help efficiency.
Hey!
Oh, that sucked.
Come on, guys.
I got Jacob on hydros.
Watch the rail!
Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
The valves aren't always in the same spot as every boat,
and it takes time to learn what's what.
[Jacob] Next pot coming up.
So I'm hoping he'll catch on and do it pretty smooth.
[man] Going over!
[Rick] He better be able to back up his talk.
[man] Okay, watch out. Watch your ass.
Go!
Hold!
[men clamoring]
-[man] Whoa! -[Rick] Son of a bitch!
[man] Okay, watch out. Watch your ass.
Go!
Hold!
[men clamoring]
Whoa! What the hell, man?
What the [bleep]?
[over PA] Come, guys!
We gotta be careful, man. We don't wanna hurt anybody.
Damn!
Sorry.
[man] Go.
Hold.
Are you okay, Noah?
Just a little...
just a little scared.
I don't know if he thought he was grabbin' the launcher up.
You don't need the wire up that far
that close to the next pot.
I'm sorry, man.
Hey, Noah.
Yeah. Roger.
[Rick] He's really gotta be paying attention, man.
He' gotta learn from this.
-Sorry. -That freaked me out.
I freaked out myself.
[Rick] I'm hoping it's just being on a new boat.
But we're gonna have to see.
We have a derby going.
[narrator] 160 miles northwest.
All right, guys, get ready to dump 'em, okay?
We gotta keep that sphere nice and tight.
...aboard theWizard.
[Keith] We're gonna do something marginally insane,
which is building a beaver dam with John Hillstrand.
I'm doing this to help John a little bit,
but to get that air clutch a lot.
[over PA] All righty, guys. Throw it over.
[man over comms] Roger.
All right, let's do this, Johnathan.
[narrator] The plan...
Keith sets a wall of heavily-baited pots
at the mouth of the canyon,
blocking the migrating school's escape route,
giving Captain Johnathan time to attack
a target-rich environment.
And, hopefully, a damn good haul.
[man] Got some, baby! Whoo!
Clear!
I don't know if this is a good idea.
I've worked with John a number of times
and we've had issues in the past.
Don't [bleep] talk down on me for that!
[bleep]
Yeah, where's my prospect pots?
The next string that we have
looks like a reproductive organ.
[men laughing over radio]
Man.
[man] Going over!
[Keith] The last time I worked with him,
he took my gear and set it all over the universe.
But we need the clutch.
[phone ringing]
[Johnathan] Beaver 1.
Beaver 1, Beaver 2.
Come back.
[laughs]
Yeah, busy beaver here. How you doin' John?
Hey, doin' good, man. Uh...
I'm on my way, so dam that [bleep] up for me.
The dam I'm building is 22 pots.
Three bags, two jugs and eight fish
in every single pot.
If they don't come to my gear, then they're not hungry.
It's about 130 fathoms.
That is perfect.
That is perfect!
They'll pile up down there for ya. Don't worry.
Oh, yeah. That makes damn good sense, Beaver 1.
Beaver 2, damn good sense.
[laughing]
Okay, buddy.
We got the electric clutch.
I got it in a black pelican case
and I got some buoys.
I got a red buoy. I think that'll float it.
Buoy's going over at 11.32 and 33.70.
-Copy? -Okay, I gotcha.
We'll be in touch, John.
We're out.
One problem solved. John's got an air clutch for us.
That's a [bleep] good guy.
That's a good guy, that guy.
Okay, guys. Let's deliver the clutch for Keith.
Going over!
[Keith over PA] Go ahead for the mail delivery.
Through rain, through sleet, through sand,
we deliver the mail.
-Whoo! -Wet style!
[chuckles]
Busy beaver.
[narrator] 620 miles east...
[Bob] Okay, I didn't show you my super-cool jacket.
...on theVictory.
[Bob] '80s jacket.
I think this was my mom's.
[imitates bass guitar]
Isn't it sweet?
I think this was my mom,
but my dad used to wear stuff like this, too.
[Bob] It makes me feel like he's watching over me.
[knocking]
Knock on wood.
We're about to pick a string that we set yesterday.
Let's see what's in it.
Everybody's excited.
[Bob] We gotta catch at least 30,000 pounds.
[man] Get 'er, boys! Whoo!
[Bob] Isn't this exciting?
First time my brand-new line is getting used.
Oh, yeah! Whoo!
Yeah, baby.
Holy dog [bleep]!
[man] Oh!
[Bob] [bleep] yeah, bud!
That's [bleep] awesome.
Yeah, buddy!
We'll see what it comes out to be.
I see a lot of legals in there.
There's some barely legals, of course.
There always is.
But, uh, that is really awesome.
Yes!
Goin' over!
Whoo!
Hmm.
Really?
Whole [bleep] ocean,
everyone's gotta be right [bleep] here.
[narrator] On theVictory...
[Bob] Everybody's on the move.
There's like three, four boats right off my starboard.
Not lookin' too good.
Did not look too good.
Nine! 0-9.
[Bob] There a lot of gear out here.
[man] No good.
Garbage. We gotta go. We gotta move.
[Bob] This was just bound to happen.
Uh, let's just-- Ooh, jumper.
What the heck was that?
Look. There's something jumping out there.
Jumpers off the starboard bow.
Oh, it's a pod of porpoises.
[producer] Let me see.
[Bob] Look at all of-- Look at 'em all! Oh, my God!
I think this is trying to tell me something.
We just pulled a pot right here.
It's pretty deep, but maybe not deep enough.
Obviously, the deeper you go, the colder it's gonna be.
And they're trying to tell me that there's crab there.
And so I think I'm gonna snake one string
right along this edge here, in the deepest part.
There's a lot of water flowing through here,
so they probably get a lot of feed.
At least I can spot my buoys out from everybody else's.
And it's not cluttered with anybody else's [bleep].
I think we're getting a good omen, guys.
Should we set here?
[Bob over PA] Let 'er rip.
[man] Roger!
Goin' over.
[Bob] Someone somewhere is wishin' me luck.
[narrator] 620 miles west...
...on theTime Bandit.
[Johnathan] Here we go.
I got the beaver dam drawn. See, here it is.
And I got where I'm gonna set my gear
and suck them crab right up.
[narrator] With Keith's heavily-baited steel pots
blocking the canyon,
Johnathan prepares to gnaw off his piece
of the golden king crab quota.
[man] Oh!
[Johnathan] It's gonna be genius.
If it works!
It could possibly-- It just might work.
[over PA] Okay, guys. Dump this one over.
-Roger! -Whoo!
Big boys!
[all laughing]
Whoo!
Oh, we're settin' in the money hole.
I'm gonna definitely owe Keith one.
That's for damn sure.
[narrator] Just 6 miles southwest...
Mail call!
All right, here's our clutch.
Let's get this thing on board.
[man] Roger!
Okay, right on. Go ahead and bring it in, Rog.
We're gonna get this fixed.
We've got a lot of crab to catch.
If I can't make any money, I can't pay my bills.
Right on. How'd our mail buoy do for us?
It's just got some twine here. I think I got it.
Okay. Right on.
This doesn't look like the right size.
[exhales]
Right here. 10CB300, right?
Nope. They sent the, uh, 8-Charlie-Bravo-250.
This is the 8-inch.
Smaller PTO.
Are you [bleep] kidding me?
No.
No, you can't make this a 10-inch.
We just got burned.
Yeah.
[Keith] We're heading back to town, okay?
Yup.
[line ringing]
[automated message] The person you are calling is not available to--
Straight to voicemail.
"Build a dam."
I'll tell ya what.
Eager beaver just got the best of us.
[narrator] 180 miles southeast...
...on theAleutian Lady.
Unimak Pass, hell yeah, baby.
We ready to rock?
Whoo! [grunting] Let's do this!
There is a lot of cod traffic in it
all day long.
With every tide, they move in,
they move out.
It has potential to be amazing.
And we're about to find out.
I'm ready to haul some gear.
All right, guys, here we go.
We really need there to be cod in these pots.
First pot's comin' up.
[men cheering]
[man] We got fish!
[man 2] Yeah!
[Rick over PA] That's a good start!
That's a start we like.
That is big cod, too.
We got big cod, medium cod.
Big, big fish.
That's a good first pot, man.
[man] Whoo-hoo!
[man 2] Yeah!
That is good. That is so good to see.
That means them big cod are down in this heavy current
down in the pass.
Good numbers, nice big clean fish.
These are nice-looking pots.
Ah, they're [bleep] big!
-[Noah] 30? -3-0.
-Thirty. 3-0. -Whoo!
Ah, yeah! We're catching some cod.
Whoo!
Heavy tide, good bottom...
hell of a lot of cod.
[machine stops]
Jake!
Pick that one up.
You want me to spit it outside?
[Jacob] The picking boom isn't going anywhere.
It's not going anywhere?
It's not going up or down.
[Rick over PA] What's up?
The picking boom line is stuck in the housing.
I'm trying. It's not moving.
Okay. If it won't come down, let's take the aft crane,
hook it up on the top, more above the crossbar.
-Hey, hey, hey! No, no, no! -What? What?
Just right there! No! No! Don't! Stop!
[narrator] On theAleutian Lady...
[Rick] Hook it up above the crossbar.
-Hey, hey, hey! No, no, no! -What? It's fine, dude.
No, just right there. No! Don't! [bleep] stop!
-The bar right there. -Okay.
I don't want you hanging on a pot
that's hanging over the side of the boat.
That is dangerous.
Okay, can you get the aft crane up by it
and try to just come straight up
and get slack on the picking hook?
Okay.
[Rick] There we go. Okay. Good. Put it down.
All right. So, we're gonna have to pry this [bleep] out.
[bleep], I can't even feel my hands without any gloves.
All right.
-[Noah] No. -Could we actually put the hook line in that?
Pardon?
Can we put the hook line in that
if we put a pot tie through?
If we just...
If we just splice the pot tie through
and did the little eye and just kind of...
[makes squeaking noise]
...lift up on it?
It's... possible.
Yeah, no, that's fine. But just be careful.
-All right. All right. That's what we'll do. -Yup. All right.
[Noah] Pull up the crane to it.
Okay.
-Okay, let's try it. -[Jacob] Comin' up!
[Noah] Man, I think we should just use the [bleep] crane to haul gear
and take the [bleep] in.
Like, this is silly.
It's gonna be slow, [bleep] bringing pots up--
[Jacob] There it is!
[man] [bleep] yeah!
[man 2] Make it straight.
-Okay. -I'm goin' down.
Yeah!
[Jacob] Whoo! There we go!
We have successfully got the line out of the winch housing.
Now we're just feeding it back through
so we can continue operation.
[Noah] Good job, man.
All right.
[narrator] 510 miles northeast...
Comin' at you, laser beam.
Porpoise string.
What is going to happen? Nobody knows.
They rode with the boat for a little bit
and I said, "Maybe they're trying to tell us
that there's some crab down here."
Maybe it's a sign.
I don't know. We're about to find out.
We threw them off, just in hope
that all the porpoises knew where the crab were.
Oh, here she comes.
[man yelling] Show me the money! Yeah!
Show me the money!
[man 2] Oh, yeah!
I told you the porpoises were trying to tell me something.
Well, it worked. Good job, Boss.
-[man 2] Good job, Boss. -Thank you, Blair.
You guys are getting paid for this?
I am. I don't know what you guys get.
I didn't actually think that was gonna pay off.
[laughing]
I just thought it would be fun. I don't know.
Maybe something cool will happen.
Something cool did happen.
[man] Makin' money!
Whoo!
Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Nice.
[man] Whoo!
Yeah, baby!
[Bob] And the next pot...
has got crab in it.
-[man laughing] -[man 2] Yeah!
Let's go!
[humming]
[Bob] Someone wants me to make money.
At this rate, it's gonna be a $30,000 day.
Porpoise string produced.
Oh, for porpoises!
I think I have some guardian angels somewhere watching over me,
and they sent some porpoises for good luck.
-[man] Oh, yeah! -Hell yeah!
[Bob] Probably Michael Jackson.
[chuckles]
[narrator] 620 miles west...
[Johnathan] Okay, guys, we're hauling the dam string.
[man over comms] Here we go, man.
[Johnathan] Shake and bake, baby. Shake and bake.
[narrator] ...on theTime Bandit.
Whoo-hoo!
Okay. Let the games begin.
[narrator] Captain Johnathan readies to haul his 40-pot string
and learn just how much crab his crab trap traps.
[Johnathan] Come on.
Let's see what the first one has.
-[man] Come on, baby! -[man 2] Come on, big boy!
Come to Papa!
[man over comms] Come on, baby. Give us some love!
[Jacob speaking]
Let's go first one to 50.
[man] All right. You guys ready?
[Jacob] Yup.
Go!
[narrator] A new crew mate's guide to making friends on deck.
Step one, assert physical dominance.
I'm at 44, baby.
What's wrong with you?
Step two, rub it in.
[Jacob] Oh!
-[laughing] -Undefeated. I got the belt.
What's up?
[man] You know what, I just didn't wanna tire out my arms
'cause I know we were gonna go through a long night, so--
Oh, he's worried about his longevity.
That's why he chose to lose.
-[all laughing] -You hear this?
[narrator] Ah, narcissism,
the only sure way into anyone's heart.
[narrator] On theTime Bandit...
Come on, baby!
Let's see what the first one has.
There's crab legs.
[man over comms] Yeah! Whoo!
[men exclaiming]
[man] That's more like it, baby!
Unbelievable!
-More! -There we go. Whoo!
Yeah, baby!
That's beautiful big crab. My God.
Yeah, baby!
Whoo! Big load.
Twenty-four, baby! Yeah!
Twenty-four crab, dude! Whoo!
We're on a big run or something. Knock on wood.
I don't wanna jinx the boat.
[all cheering]
Wow! Whoo!
That's serious crab. That's for damn sure.
We had a hunch they were coming this way.
And this shows they were coming this way.
And Keith stopped 'em with that bait.
Forty-nine!
[Johnathan over PA] Forty-nine?
[all cheering]
That dam string's workin'.
We're gonna get rich, baby.
-Yeah! -Yeah!
Be still my beating heart.
Come on!
[all cheering]
Oh, no way! No way!
Dude!
Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! No way!
Whoa.
[laughing]
My hair's standing on my neck.
[men chattering excitedly]
[Johnathan over PA] Fifty-two.
-[all cheering] -Fifty-two!
Whoo!
Unbelievable.
[line ringing]
[phone ringing]
[Keith] Hello, Wizardhere.
This is the best damn crabbin' I've seen all season, Keith.
[all cheering]
I mean, look at that pot! Unbelievable.
Unbelievable, Keith.
It's the best fishing I've ever seen in the canyon ever.
How'd that clutch work out?
Uh, you sent me the wrong clutch.
Oh, no!
[laughing] Oh, man! Sorry, buddy.
I build a beaver dam for you...
[all cheering]
...and then...
You totally got the piano-- the grand piano on the head.
But this has sure paid off, man. Thank you.
Thank you. I hope I didn't put you back too far.
We'll be in touch, John.
Go clean up that pile of crab I got chummed in for you, okay?
Once in a while, we butt heads.
And most of the time, we get along.
But, once in a while, me and Keith...
[making crashing sounds]
Well, if nothing else, John always keeps me entertained.
Turned out we gave him the wrong clutch.
[laughing]
He did all that all for the wrong clutch.
[narrator] 175 miles southeast...
Oh, yeah!
Boom.
[laughs] That's the start of it. We like that.
I'm hoping we'll continue to get good counts
because we've had way too many issues.
[Jacob] I'm really liking this boat, this crew, this captain.
Every boat is different.
[Rick] I hadn't ever worked with Jacob.
Didn't know if he would work out,
if Keith is full of crap
or if Jacob is a natural good deckhand.
[Jacob] Wire up, wire up.
Keep wiring it up, okay? And I'll back it out, too.
Nice.
[Rick] I think he will come around fine,
learn our deck and the program
and help out a lot.
[Noah] It's definitely pretty different than the last boat I was on, too.
It takes a while to get the hang of it,
-get a feel for it. -[Jacob] Yeah.
But you'll get it though.
Roger. Thanks for letting me give this a try, DB.
I believe in second chances, you know.
[Rick] There's gonna be learning curves.
There's gonna be a lot of trial and error.
But...
I think we're in really good shape.
I wish my girlfriend believed in second chances.