[waves rolling]
[Bob] I took a big risk coming over here.
You know, there's things that you have to do to figure out
how to navigate a boat.
It's just going to take me a while to get the hang of it.
I have to prove myself.
I think that I can make it work.
-Uh-oh!
[Bob] But the Bering Sea during the winter season?
Fricking waves are pushing me off-course!
[Johnathan] Holy moly!
Watch out, guys!
Watch out guys, watch out, watch out, watch out!
We have to expect the unexpected.
You all right?
[Johnathan] It does, you look terrible.
That's good, ready?
[screams]
[Bob] I took a gamble and I hope it pays off,
and I'm kind of nervous.
240 miles north of Dutch Harbor,
on the bairdi grounds...
Whoa!
...aboard the Aleutian Lady.
Going over!
I need 25,000 pounds every day,
so going in shallow, taking a shot off.
-Watch the rail! -Argh.
Once we get all of our gear moved on this spot,
hopefully we'll hit the mother lode.
Setting east-west, perpendicular to the weather,
Captain Rick Shelford races to set 29 pots
in the 44-fathom northern waters...
Make sure whoever's throwing shots do not leave your back to
the rail and keep an eye on it.
...before surging currents thrust to the surface by the shallow
bank launch 22-foot waves on a collision course with
his starboard rail.
-Whoa! -Damn.
The thing that worries me the most is just
trying to not fall behind.
If I fall behind, it slows everybody down, not just
myself, so...
[Rick] Todd is an up-and-comer, and I want him on the boat.
[Todd] Trying to keep up. [chuckles]
[Rick] But he's never fished on the Bering Sea.
[Todd grunting]
[Rick] I need Todd to be able to do it.
But... we still don't know.
-Yeah, watch out! -Oh, no.
Whew.
[intense music playing]
Noah just got taken out.
-Argh. -Oh!
[crew shouts indistinctly]
Frickin' waves are pushing me off-course.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Watch out, watch out!
Holy [bleep]
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Oh!
Y'all OK?
[bleep]
This is pushing the envelope a little close.
[crew] Going over.
[crew clamoring]
-Watch out, watch out. -Watch out!
Argh!
Yeah, this is pretty bad.
Damn it!
All right, let's go up to the north.
[bleep]
Yeah, Roger.
Now, this is not how we want to be setting with the waves
coming from right here.
Whoa!
-[bleep] -Oh.
To the north, we can buck into it.
That way, I can keep the guys protected all the time.
Bring him inside.
[exhales sharply]
Hey, Todd, how you doing?
Had a toothache for the last, like, three days.
Yeah.
Now it's down all the way into my jaw and down into my neck
and into my ear. -All right.
I'm going to go grab antibiotics.
Yeah.
I have a stash of everything out here because you don't
know what's gonna happen.
All right, so I have the amoxicillin
that the dentist gave me last winter.
So yeah, one, three times a day
with 1,000 milligrams of Tylenol.
This should kick it down.
Hopefully, these crab are going north,
and Todd's tooth will be okay.
180 miles northwest
on the opilio grounds...
[satellite phone ringing]
[Johnathan speaking]
You're breaking up, Spam.
Tell your mom and dad I said hi.
[cackles]
Oh, my gosh.
...aboard theTime Bandit.
[crew] Get some, baby, get some.
Woo-hoo!
[Johnathan] We're way up north up here, man.
It's going to be 72 fathoms out here.
It's a pretty flat bank here, but hopefully there's a sliver
of crab here we can put a tank on.
Nearly two weeks into his first opilio trip in two years,
Captain Johnathan Hillstrand....
...with wife Heather by his side, hauls a 40-pot string,
looking to fill his 100,000-pound live well with
a wallet-busting $500,000 of opilio.
[crew] Come on, baby, give us some love!
Coming up!
Come on, crabbies!
[crew cheering]
Yeah!
There's crab in it. -[crew] Let's go, baby!
Uh, is it nice crab or is it ugly crab?
[crew chatters indistinctly]
[crew] There it is, look what I've got for us!
Okay, can we get a count on it?
Oh yeah.
There's a little bit of bait left, not much.
[exciting music playing]
-Yeah, baby! -Yeah, baby!
177 on the 19-hour.
[crew] Yeah, whoo!
Well, let's see what this one looks like.
[crew] Ha-ha!
-Hell, yeah. -Welcome aboard, boys.
Yeah!
Yep, it's totally gone, the bait's gone.
-Argh! -Ugh!
Not good.
-Full-stack it. -Roger!
Sand fleas are ravenous, man.
They eat 30 pounds of cod in, like, eight hours.
It's gone, bones.
Chop, chop.
[grunts]
If we had three and four cod on this, I could have had
250, 300.
[suspenseful music playing]
If we can get 5-or-6,000 pounds, then I'll have enough cod
to do the rest of the trip.
What?
Not so bad.
I know.
That's why we don't shave our arms out here.
We don't shave our legs out here,
because you get ingrown hair on the boat.
None of us shave our armpits.
-That's why. -Okay.
You'll be okay, you'll be okay.
You'll be okay, babe, you'll be okay.
You'll be just fine.
I got to tell the guys, though.
-Okay, good. -Ready.
It's coming over.
Hey, everyone, come up here.
Heather's going to tell you guys something.
Roger.
Holy [bleep]
Heather?
Come take a look.
It's a [bleep] huge cyst under her arm.
Oh, mama. Oh, no.
-It's bad. -Mama bear's hurt.
Oh, man, I hope you're not going to get infection.
I had to share. Sorry, guys.
She'll be okay. He'll fix you, honey.
Okay, what could go wrong? I'm not saying that.
What could go wrong now?
Ay-yi-yi.
250 miles northwest,
aboard theNorthwestern.
We're here, it's right up to the line.
Let's see what we can do here a second time around.
This is where we saw the best sign.
Nine days after intercepting a northbound opilio school,
Captain Sig Hansen scours the Russian/U.S. border,
eager to clean up the remainder of the biomass
before the fleet moves in.
Do you think I could maybe get in the chair
and give this haul a try?
With Sophia "Bob" Nielsen eager to drop the training
in her captain-in-training moniker.
Right now, we've got the weather just coming
45 on the starboard side.
I just...
I think I better just do it myself, okay?
Yeah. No, I get it.
-All right, pots on the bow. -[crew] Here we go.
[dissonant music playing]
Hopefully this is good.
Oh, boy.
Well, there's life in it.
It's enough to cover the door anyways.
Nice, big, clean opies
I'd like to see a little more volume.
Yes, yes.
This looks a little better now.
Some good stuff right here.
[Bob] Looks a little sort-y.
There's a lot more going out than going in the tank,
that's for sure.
Well, that first one had less numbers, but I feel like
the majority of them went into the tank.
Either way we go, it's a risk, so
we'll just keep hauling.
Give it some thought.
[yawns]
You look like you can catch up on some beauty sleep.
You look like [bleep] right about now. [laughs]
[snorts]
No, no offense.
No offense, but you look and sound like [bleep]
Dirtbag.
Whoa.
Watch out, watch out, watch out!
-[waves crashing] -Oh!
Watch out, watch out, watch out!
-[waves crashing] -Oh!
Holy...
[groans]
Is he all right?
[bleep]
Ugh.
[Sig] [bleep] damn it.
Sometimes when you have weather like this, there's just
no good way to set.
-Where'd you get it? -Right there.
Where the lump is?
I don't know, It's not that bad.
It knocked the wind out of me a little bit.
Are you dizzy?
-What? -Are you dizzy?
No, it's on me, I'm sorry, Clark, it's on me.
-That's all good. -That's all my fault.
-It happens. -No, it shouldn't happen.
Just watch yourself.
Roger.
-Good? -Yeah.
The one thing I was afraid you were going to do, I did.
That's what I get for not paying attention.
I'm glad you're in the chair and not me.
Yeah.
Trust me, you'll get your time when I really need it.
You'll get your time, just be ready.
435 miles southeast,
on the bairdi grounds.
[Todd] So, like, this morning, I was, like, in tears it was so bad.
I can feel it.
It feels like there's a string attached from my tooth
down into my neck.
Look at this [bleep] thing.
Oh!
Ooh.
Yeah.
Aboard theAleutian Lady.
All right,
Let's get geared up and let's start hauling.
-All right. -All right, let's do it.
Now with Todd's tooth, I got to make sure the inflammation is
going down and that the antibiotics are kicking in.
It's going to be a long-ass day.
And that's going to be a big tell
what he can and can't do,
because it's going to be go-time.
I'm hoping
we'll put on 25,000 pounds every day.
I never would have set this string here,
but with the weather,
I didn't have any other option.
All right, guys.
Come on!
[crew shouts indistinctly]
Let's see what we got.
[crew cheering]
Well, damn, there's some crab in there.
-Whoo! -Yeah, baby.
-Oh, yeah.
Woo-hoo!
-Yeah, baby. -Yeah, dude.
Hell yeah.
[crew clamoring]
Eggs and bacon.
Pretty damn good, pretty damn good.
Woo-hoo-hoo!
This is epic fishing.
All right, guys.
It's a little rough, you know.
I'm trying to go as fast as I possibly can go.
Todd's way ahead where I thought we would be right now,
but the tooth has got me worried, because
on this boat, it takes all of us.
And if one aspect of it is not clicking,
it makes all of us struggle.
Hopefully, it'll just keep going.
170 miles northwest...
[waves crashing]
She's got this big cyst.
I mean, it started with an ingrown hair.
It's pretty bad.
So we got to keep our eye on it, make sure
everything's good.
...aboard theTime Bandit.
Hey, guys, get ready.
Roger!
Hauling cod pots.
I have no choice.
The sand fleas are chewing up our bait in our pots so fast
that they're only fishing for about 12 hours, 8 to 12 hours.
-Watch out. -Argh!
We have to have our cod, or we can't catch crab.
-Oh, yeah! -Oh, yeah!
[Heather] Ugh!
Well, I'm so sorry, Heather.
Ugh!
[Heather groans]
Oh my god, it's going to hurt.
Hey Neil, do you have those black gloves?
I'll do it right now.
Turn on the lights, Neil.
This is love. This is pure love.
I need paper towels to drain in.
I'm a doctor.
I'm going to pop her, or lance it.
OK.
-We're done messing with it. -It's not sterilized.
Thar's not sterilized. It is, I sterilized it.
-I put alcohol in it. -You sterilized it?
-Yeah. -Did you breathe on it?
No.
Come on, come on.
You can do this, honey.
Get that [bleep] away from me.
I'm just gonna barely touch it.
-Oh, my God, this is terrible. -Oh God, oh God, oh God.
-Ready? -[yelps]
Okay, here, I'm just gonna squeeze it.
-Just gonna squeeze it. -Ugh!
Oh, my God, this is so hard. It's a cyst.
[screaming]
[screams echoing]
[Heather screaming]
-Aah! -I'm sorry, honey.
-OK, I got some out. -Feels like I got shot or something.
Agh!
OK, it's coming, it's popped.
Hey, I got it popped.
OK, we're done.
-Oh my god. -I love you.
-[sobbing] -Sorry. [kisses]
I'm sorry, honey.
I'm so sorry.
OK, I won't do that to you again.
All right, man. That was tough to do.
Take her into the clinic.
...Freddy.
Whoa, look at that.
We got to stick these cod pots on.
We really need to get these aboard
as fast as we can.
[crew] Why not?
Ka-pow!
[Johnathan] And then we're going to head back up
to the spot where we found some crab.
God bless America, God bless the Time Bandit.
160 miles southeast.
on the bairdi grounds.
Aboard theAleutian Lady.
All right, I got to go check on Todd, see how he's doing.
How are you feeling?
I'd rather break a bone than have tooth pain.
Yeah, it sucks.
Unbearable this morning.
It just, like, shuts everything off.
I can't think of anything but the tooth pain.
All right, well, let me try to get a hold of the clinic.
We'll bring you over there to get looked at.
OK.
Going to town sucks.
I'm looking at 50 hours being wasted.
But I'm worried he has something more than
just an infection.
It's better to get it looked at than to risk something
happening out at sea.
Hopefully these crab are still here,
and we'll deal with it when we come back.
430 miles northwest...
So what's your plan of attack?
Where are you wanting to set?
Aboard theNorthwestern.
[Sig] When we went through this area, we had a lot of,
you know, mixed crab.
I mean, it was a big sort,
but seemed like there was some numbers,
and then the other end seemed a little cleaner, but I just
don't have, I mean, it's -- -Wouldn't it make more sense
to go for the clean fishing?
[serene music playing]
Look, you know, if it's just a thin layer,
you pick them up right away.
If you want to have responsibility and do it,
then go ahead, I'm good with it.
Do you mind if I get in the chair and set the gear then?
Can I take full responsibility?
Yeah, well, have at it.
Alrighty, guys, Bob's at the wheel right now.
get ready to set.
We'll see if Bob is up to the challenge.
Well, just remember, this is a different boat.
When you start taking them over the bow, you're going to feel it.
-OK.
So we'll just go slow to start with,
and do the best you can.
Alrighty, guys, set it when you're ready.
-Roger. -OK, first pot going over.
Going over!
Whoo!
Yeah!
-All righty, number J-73. -373.
Second pot going over.
[buzzing]
[crew shouting indistinctly]
[bleep]
[crew] Argh!
Sneak up on you?
You're giving them a shower.
They're getting wet, so be easy on them.
Not a lot of speed.
Going over!
Watch out, watch out, watch out.
[bleep]
Watch out, watch out.
[crew shouting indistinctly]
Watch out, watch out, watch out.
[bleep]
Watch out, watch out!
[crew shouting indistinctly]
[waves crashing]
Yeah, good.
[sighs]
Back it down a little.
Should I just take it out of gear and --
No, no, you want to have control.
You know what I mean?
You're the one who's controlling the roll,
the speed, all that stuff.
-Prop down. -Nice and easy.
[crew] Going over!
And bring her back up.
Good.
[crew] Going over!
-How we doing back there? -Oh, the guys are fine.
Doing good.
-Would you be a dear? -You want coffee?
No, [bleep] with you.
If you want coffee, you can have your mug.
I'm not going to put my lips on that gross thing.
[Sig chuckles]
[Sig] What about your old man?
Did you ever fish with him,
with bairdi or anything like that?
Uh, no.
My dad passed away when I was pretty young.
He, uh, died of a heart attack shortly after my 13th birthday.
Oh.
I wasn't as young as you when my father passed away,
but I'm sure, you know,
he would have been glad to see you out on the Bering Sea doing
what you're doing, don't you think?
Yeah.
[crew speaking indistinctly]
I don't know, for some reason, when you're kind of born into it,
it becomes like a responsibility.
You feel that it is, in a way.
It's something that you want to carry on.
I was the only child of my father's.
I was his legacy.
I am the one that's got to keep his name alive.
So we're invested.
Hopefully we hit some crab.
No pressure.
260 miles southeast
Just squeeze it hard, squeeze it.
You can do it, squeeze it!
Squeeze it, honey.
Get that pus out.
[grunts]
Mother [bleep]
[Neil] You want to squeeze it, that's not doing nothing.
-Oh, god. -Did you squeeze it?
On the Time Bandit.
So Heather's got this big cyst.
I mean, there's definitely a bad, bad juju going on.
We've just gone back to the spot where we found some crab.
We have the cod fish to finally work.
Roger!
Go ahead, guys.
[crew] Going over!
Now we're going to get these pots off.
And, uh...
[crew] Holy [bleep]
Going over!
Hey, we've got some [bleep] weather here.
It's just come up so fast and hard.
It's just falling bullets.
It's blowing 40.
The waves are catching up quick.
Yeah, this is going to be dangerous, dude.
This is dangerous.
Going over.
-Watch out. -Watch out, watch out!
[Johnathan speaking]
-Watch out! -Watch out, watch out!
Argh!
Roger!
Man, you guys are badass, but be careful.
[crew] Going over!
We've done some major damage here.
So I hope we're on some crab.
We've baited these heavy.
That's all I can hope for.
God bless the Time Bandit.
I love you, Heather.
Ay-yi-yi.
390 miles southeast
In Dutch Harbor.
Want to say goodbye to your teeth?
-No, I'm glad they're gone. -OK.
Dude.
So which ones did they pull out?
The broken one, and then my wisdom tooth.
So both of them on the same side.
Yeah, yeah.
I got gauze in it now, look.
Ooh.
-Yum. -Yeah.
Just make sure no smoking, no sucking through a straw.
Just be careful.
We don't got to worry about it as long as you take care of it.
Yep.
We'll get back.
Get out and start hauling gear.
Heck yeah.
640 miles northwest,
on the opilio grounds.
Pick a name.
What would you like to name your string?
Uh, well, it's my first Opie string I ever set,
so I call it the rookie string.
OK, I get it.
Rookie.
Aboard theNorthwestern.
All right, guys.
Okay.
You want to give this a try?
I would love to.
Okay.
So you got to come around wide, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Am I cutting that too close right here?
A little bit.
Back off on the throttle, hard over to starboard.
[propeller whirring]
-All the way. -All the way.
All the way.
There we go.
Ugh.
[bleep]
Right now, you're really pulling on it, you know?
Do you feel it?
I can't.
I don't have a feel for maneuvering this boat.
-Head out window. -Head out window.
-Oh, yeah. -A lot of tension.
-You see it? -Yes, it is.
Back off.
As soon as they land it, then you put it in gear.
OK.
Let's see what kind of luck you got.
[intense music playing]
Come on, baby, come on, baby.
Here we go.
-Whoo! -Oh, yeah!
Boom!
Yeah, that's a pretty good pot.
There we go, I knew there was crab up here.
Yeah, buddy!
Should I just take it out of gear and --
No, no, we --
They're working on the pots, so you want to have control.
-Yeah! -All right, hey!
Whoo!
Well, that looks like a pretty good pot.
We like those numbers.
There we go, good job, hot rod.
There's our next bag right there.
-You see it? -Good.
Okay, that's right.
[Bob] It's in the block.
Coming on board.
-Yeah! -Whoo!
Hold up, bring it up!
I mean, I could probably bring the weather off the guys.
-Good job. -[sighs]
-Baby steps. -You take your baby steps.
[Sig chuckles]
Come on, baby!
[crew] Coming up.
-Come on, baby! -Whoo, yeah!
-Trucker, trucker, trucker! -[crew cheering]
Oh yeah!
[crew cheering]
That's why we baited them up heavy.
See the difference?
-Whoo! -Hell, yeah.
Welcome aboard, boys!
Heck yeah, baby!
You know, I got to run 12 hours.
I got to take Heather to the clinic.
I don't want to infect it any more than it is.
I love you, Heather.
OK, let's go.
Giddy up.
[crew shouting indistinctly]
All right, first pot in the block, here we go.
Come on, baby.
We're back out to the grounds.
Todd was able to get his teeth extracted.
Hopefully these crab are still here.
Let's see what we got.
-[crew cheering] -Oh, yeah
This is awesome.
This is exactly what I want right here.
-Whoo! -Woo-hoo!
It's all falling into place now.
I think we're moving right along.
-This is awesome. -Money in the bank, baby!
-Back in the groove. -Crab count, 2-4-5, 245.
Keep it coming.
[crew clamoring]
-Yeah! -Whoo!
-Yeah! -Oh, yeah.
I like it.
Nice, big, clean opies.
249.
[crew] Oh ho-ho-ho!
-This is very good fishing on this end here.
It's really nice.
[crew cheering]
Your old man would be so proud of you right now.
You're going to make me cry.