[man] yo-yo. Anybody on it?
[whistling]
wizard, wizard. Wizard on board.
[jake] anybody pick me up? It's jake.
[keith] what's the deal, man? I have seen nothing.
But I've had a hell of a lot of duds.
[narrator] one week into the 2020 king crab season...
[keith] I came over here when I was at 38 and 163.05.
You know, everybody's trying their hardest,
the best they can right now, but we've got
half the boats tied up, which means that the other half
has to catch all the quota that's out there.
[narrator] with covid restrictions,
sidelining 31 of 82 registered vessels.
[anchor] the longer the crab takes to catch,
the higher the chance the state shuts down king and bairdi.
[narrator] the remaining bering sea crabbers
race to catch the entire five million pound king and bairdi quota
at a fraction of their strength.
If we don't catch all the quota,
especially as a fleet, fishing game might assume
that it was too difficult to catch, 'cause there's not a lot of crab out here left,
but that's not the case.
There is a lot of crab out here.
[narrator] fail to land it all and federal environmental law
will ban crabbing for two years.
We have to sustain this fishery, work together.
[narrator] to succeed, captains must fish united.
We all agreed to work together,
but I don't know if you can trust his intel.
[narrator] or fail divided.
I'm not allowing a russian guy tell me what to do in american waters.
-Open up, helm's up. -Hold on!
Power out and get the [bleep] out of here!
-I can't stop, you idiot. -Hang on!
Power up, you [bleep] moron!
[crash]
[narrator] 243 miles north east of dutch harbor.
On the time bandit.
[man speaking indistinctly over radio]
no, we're not, but how far east do you have to go to get things turning better
and how shallow?
[narrator] and partner boat, the cornelia marie.
[casey] posted the 41 and it was getting better,
but don't go below the 42 aft line
or everything peters out.
[man] yeah, baby!
[johnathan] okay, buddy. Thanks.
[casey] all right.
[johnathan] we just grabbed our pots.
We're gonna slam them right here in the hot portion.
[man] hey, watch out, I'll be flying this [bleep] up.
[man] oh, yeah. We've got this. We got it, bro.
It's harris. Josh is on the crane now.
[johnathan] captain is out on deck, which is good for morale.
[man yelling]
[narrator] pressing their two captain advantage,
johnathan hillstrand and josh harris...
[johnathan] hey now, mr. Harris, you're throwing shots next.
Yee-ha!
[narrator] ...Work around the clock on deck and in the house.
[casey] we're working with hillstrand and josh,
we'll be able to hunt them down for sure.
[narrator] playing their slice of the fleet-wide quota
with captain casey mcmanus
and keep the crabbing ban at bay.
Make a long story short,
still don't like my head, don't remember too much,
but I came here to fish, not sit on the boat.
Just back out on deck now.
[casey] these here are just absolutely smoking it.
[johnathan] if we don't catch this quota,
they could shut the fleet down,
so, hopefully, it all works out together.
[cheering] yeah, baby.
[man talking over radio]
[johnathan] oh, no. Oh, no.
There's a bunch of draggers here.
[man talking over radio]
oh, hey. I'm going to set some gear down,
is that going to be safe down here?
These [bleep] guys russians?
For king crab.
You drag over there?
He told me I can't set no gear here.
Hey, josh, I need you up here, man.
I've got to make a decision here.
[narrator] a crabber's nightmare.
The time bandit grounds are overrun with vessels
targeting bottom fish.
These ships comb or drag the sea floor with nets,
nets that threaten to ensnare and sever crab pots.
What's going on, big dog?
[johnathan] hey, man, these draggers coming down on us.
Look at them all. This is the 57 line.
Draggers cannot come down into this, below this line.
But I got a school of crab right here.
This guy's telling me I can't fish where our crab are.
I'm not allowing a russian guy
tell me what to do in american waters.
I've got to tell casey.
[keith over radio]
oh, the [bleep] draggers?
-[johnathan] that's right. -Dude, I'm seeing them too.
They're everywhere. I'm just watching them dip down on my plotter here.
[keith over radio]
[casey] legally he can't tell us we can't fish there.
If our gear's in the water, we're actively fishing.
He has to avoid it.
Uh. Hey, I've got an idea.
[johnathan] let's flank them.
[laughing]
flank them. Go all the way around.
We're going to block this guy off.
[casey] sounds good. I'm seeing it turn north.
A little boxing out here.
[narrator] johnathan's plan, sneak north of the draggers
where the crab on trending,
and set a veritable minefield of pots,
drawing a line in the ocean
and forcing their foes to fish elsewhere.
Hey, if you see me disappear on ias here,
I'm going to turn it off for a little bit
and I'm going to sneak on the north side of it.
I'll slow down so it looks like I'm a trawler. They'll have no idea who I am.
[laughing] that's badass.
I like it. I like it.
In the words of john paul jones.
Words of john paul jones. "we have not yet begun to fight!"
[narrator] 55 miles southwest...
[man] oh, baby!
[narrator] ...On the wizard.
[man] whoa!
Come on, baby.
Whoa!
[keith] I'm out here on the 164 line. It's not been the best start.
But we're still working on cleaning up
a little bit of the mess from that opening set.
[man] give us some luck!
[keith] all right, guys.
Let's see some action here. Let's see some action.
[man] what do we got?
Oh!
Oh! Come on! Look!
Not looking good right now.
[keith] we made a pact at the bering about trying to fish together.
I guess it's a seven-boat alliance.
But junior has the ias off,
so I'm not sure what he's up to.
[narrator] despite a fleet agreement
to work together, captain keith colburn
finds one boat is conspicuously silent.
[keith] junior's got us intel.
I'll give you the current information
that I have if you give me some quota.
Asking me to give him a bunch of crab
and they trade for information out here.
And I told him no,
and then he called my boat a rust bucket,
and then he said I couldn't catch the amount of crab I had.
There is the original start point.
I'm not seeing his boat, but he's lurking.
Where is junior?
I've got a hunch he knows something.
[scott] working together where it's sig, me, johnathan,
keith, wild bill. I just... I don't see it.
We tried it, but so far, it's been a bust.
No crab.
[scott talking over radio]
[man 2 talking over radio]
we've seen that crab, you know,
when we were cod fishing here a few weeks ago.
Secret little place that I call the port hiding trenches.
[narrator] using information from a pre-season cod trip,
captain scott campbell jr. Checks pots
in his own secret corner of the bering sea.
[man] what we got? What do we got?
All right, here we go. First pot coming up.
[man] we got crab!
[cheering]
[scott] oh, yeah.
[tony] look at this!
-That's exactly what you want to see. -Yeah!
There is some crab on this trench.
[scott] it's still there.
I have to get our gear dialed in, get it slammed in here.
Holy moly, what a relief.
Oh, yeah. I love big crab like this.
You know you're going home pretty soon
after this once we fill up.
[phone ringing]
[scott] hello.
[keith] junior.
Keith, wizard. How are you doing?
Oh, not too bad. I got all my gear set, just, uh, you know...
Playing the game. What's up?
[keith] um...
Uh...
I'm not sure what... Have you put any thought
into how to try corral this crab?
Do you want to try and work together and pinch them?
All I need to know right now
is just ballpark where you are.
-And that-- -[scott] well, you know, keith,
I tried to share information
-and that sparked your interest. -How about just keep it--
I mean, it's fine. I get it. I mean, I don't have time to mess around, keith.
Bottom line is in trade I need some quota.
[keith] all I need to know right now is just ballpark where you are.
-And that... -Well, you know, keith, I tried to share information
-and that sparked your interest. -How about just keep it--
I mean, it's fine. I get it. I mean, I don't have time to mess around, keith.
Bottom line is in trade I need some quota.
Yeah. Yeah.
[man] no good.
No, we got totally burned.
Um. Yeah, all right, whatever.
-[keith] I'm in. -Okay.
-All right. That sounds good. -[scott] I think if we start squeezing towards each other,
and then, you know, if you take the west side,
I'll take the east side. Just try and box 'em in.
You know what? Absolutely.
[narrator] junior's plan, have keith set gear opposite his own
to find the edge and then both press in
towards the center of the biomass.
[scott] okay, well, let's meet up tomorrow.
I'm gonna get going here so I'll talk to you later.
-[keith] all right. -All right, bye.
[keith] I'm hoping that his little floppy disk
actually had real information.
I mean, my level of trust for junior is so marginal.
But... There's too much at stake this year.
I really hope this works.
[narrator] 65 miles northeast,
on the northwestern.
[screaming]
[tony] ah!
Oh, my god! Horrible.
-[man] oh, no. -[sig] numbers have dwindled.
Boats are moving in and crab do move.
There's a lot more gear in the area.
[narrator] picked clean by a hungry fleet.
-[man] oh, no! -[sig] not a hot spot.
Oh, my gosh.
[narrator] captain sig hanson and daughter mandy's early lead on the sombrero
goes from thriving to threadbare.
[nick] really not much to say.
No crab.
[sig] well, mandy, we can't live in the past.
I really thought we were gonna have some crab here,
but that was like a, not even a two average.
-That sucked. -It sucked.
[sig] I think we should pick it up and get out of here.
You want to take it?
[mandy speaking]
yeah, it's about three quarter mile.
See if there's any luck in you.
Yeah, we definitely don't want to stay here
so we need to get a move on and find some new grounds.
I hope jake gets on good fishing.
Jake owes me a little bit of favor at this point.
Maybe I'll give him a call.
[man] get it, son. Get it!
[cheering]
[man] look at that.
[jake] yeah!
I've been tracking this school for a few days heading west.
[man talking]
[jake] a lot of numbers and a lot of money.
[whistling]
[mandy] are you there, jake?
[whistling]
[jake] change the channel.
Dandy out here. How is it going?
[mandy] yeah, you know.
We're basically hauling blanks here
so I was hoping you could return the favor
and help us out a little bit.
Yeah, mandy.
We're on some pretty awesome fishing.
[jake] probably, say, 35 average plus on these strings.
West of the sombrero where we were in the gullies.
Oh, okay. Okay. I see you.
-[mandy] I mean... -You trust me?
I trust you, buddy, I just gotta make sure
that it's worth the old man's time.
Sig trusts you, there shouldn't be a problem.
All right, jake. I appreciate it, I'll talk to you later.
[sig] jake? You're awfully gossipy these days.
[sighs]
[grunts] I'm gonna spill it.
Now, what were you guys talking about again?
[mandy] he was just telling me how he was doing on the west.
-You know, he started with 35... -[sig] I don't know.
I mean, we all agreed to work together,
and I get that, mandy, but remember, you know,
it depends on who you're getting information from.
Is jake a guy that you think is trustworthy
and/or knowledgeable?
I mean, I don't know if you can trust his intel.
[jake] I messed up.
If I give you advice and you're not gonna take it,
there's no point.
I looked at your bait and there was a bunch of squid in one.
[bleep]
you gotta get the basics down like bait.
A lot of guys say, "oh, I'm getting a 50 average."
well, they might've had one pot, but then they sit there
and brag on the thing, "oh, I've got fifties."
he's not going to lie to me.
Then follow your gut if that's what you want.
[sig] pick a direction and we'll go.
And, uh, if we bomb, then that's on you too. So...
-West it is. -[sig] all right, west it is.
[man talking over radio]
oh, right on.
Let me get this pot in the black and we'll start going, okay?
[man over radio]
[narrator] on the wizard.
[keith] as soon as I get my bait there full of fish,
I am gonna try work with junior
but he's gotta step up and actually make an effort,
to be honest.
[narrator] before boxing in the crab
with his enemy turned ally,
captain keith replenishes supplies.
But not like stuffing it.
Picking up some bait. Frozen herring.
[narrator] with an at-sea transfer from a nearby vessel.
[man talking over radio]
sounds good.
Stand by, deploy, I'll fly by at home
and then you guys retrieve it.
[man over radio]
are you circling me on this one?
Are you circling on this... Are you circling on this one?
[keith] hello. Hello!
Do not circle me right now!
Dude, I'm gonna [bleep] hit you!
What the [bleep] are you doing?
Power out! Power out! Power out! Now!
[man] heads up!
Power out and get the [bleep] out of here!
I can't stop, you idiot! Power out, you [bleep] moron!
[crash]
I can't stop, you idiot! Power out!
You [bleep] moron!
[crash]
okay, guys. Check the bow. Check the bow.
Power out, power out and go hard to port.
Go straight ahead and hard to port.
Power it ahead full!
[keith] okay, now get on deck immediately.
We'll go do damage control on the bow.
[bleep]
[tony] definitely, felt a little shake,
but I don't know how hard it hit.
Hopefully, all is good.
[indistinct chatter]
[man] anchor hit right there.
There's a little bit of chipped metal.
I have no idea what you were thinking.
Did you have an engine failure?
I mean, what happened?
I mean, what the [bleep] occurred
to have you try and cut right in front of this boat
that's doing four and a half knots?
[scott over radio]
[keith] all right, enough of that.
Check your boat for damage, I hope you're okay over there.
I'm checking my boat for damage as we speak.
All right, let's go and take a look
at what's going on up there.
I've had enough screaming in one moment
to last me for the rest of my life.
[man] this right here is our collision void,
so in the event that we collide with a boat,
kinda like what just happened, this fully enclosed space.
This'll take on water opposed to the rest of the vessel.
[man speaking]
yes.
[man speaking]
good.
[keith] nothing below decks?
-No. -[keith] okay.
[man 2 speaking]
so one part of that anchor, the big part...
Right? That must've hit his wave wall.
[man] yeah. Looks like we hit him with the anchor
and then it kinda sort of corralled off and then nicked him up here.
[narrator] the wizard's anchor
acted as a crumple zone, absorbing the impact
and sparing the wizard's aging steel from puncture.
Guy's [bleep] lucky, because if it would've been
just a little bit different and we hit him right in the stem,
we may have sliced right through the [bleep].
[keith] I'm going to call him back.
All right.
There really is no damage on this vessel.
[man talking over radio]
[keith] all right.
We dodged a bullet because there's minimal damage.
Now we get the bait to throw in these pots.
I'm just going to try and put this boat
on a decent course.
And, uh, work with junior
to see if we can corral this crab.
Let's get busy and get to work.
I know you guys, are friends and you're close,
but you can't just act on blind faith.
-[man] let's do it! -Is that it?
Jake's not gonna screw us. There's no reason for him to lie to us,
-it's drying up here anyways. -I'm not concerned about jake lying to us. I get that,
but I'm more worried about the information I'm getting.
[mandy] I think you're fine wanting to trust who you want to trust.
You just don't like it when I'm the one making the call.
Well, you're at the wheel, so it's up to you.
[mandy] if this string pulls what we need
then it'll be a wrap on king crab season,
we can head off...
[man] whoa!
Better be right.
[men talking over radio]
I'm going to come from the east.
Your boat's coming from the west
and we're going to set our gear two-tenths apart.
There'll be no place for him to drag. These russians are going to be out of here soon.
[johnathan] okay, are you in position, buddy?
Yeah. Getting ready to set here, guys.
Okay, guys. Let's stop.
[man] here we go!
Yeah!
[scott] these guys don't want to play nice.
He's gonna be all sorts of pissed off,
but I don't care.
All right, boys. We're going to work with the wizard here.
Here we go.
[man] going over!
All right, keith. So here's the deal,
when you're in the low trenches there,
I mean, it's really good.
Roger that.
[man] yeah!
We're just trying to box the crab in.
[scott] I've got all my gear where I know there's crab.
Two boats can work it, but we're both gonna be,
both be covering our own asses,
I can promise you that.
[keith] I think johnathan coined the phrase a few years back
because he and I were at odds with each other.
Was that it takes a lot more energy
to hate someone than it does to like someone.
And I'm just worn out playing games with junior.
To be honest, I really hope this works.
So, junior, don't lie to me.
[sig] okay, mandolina.
This is the one that's out west there.
You seem to have a lot of faith in your buddy.
I'll show you the crab, just give me a moment.
[narrator] after mandy pulled the trigger
on a tip from jake,
captain sig pulls up on her set out west.
[sig] I'm still skeptical.
If they miss, this could cost us a lot of time.
Okay.
Here it is.
[man yelling]
I don't know, man. We'll see what you did.
Let me know what you think
after we haul the string.
[sig] is there life?
[man] oh, yeah.
Oh, no!
That's not good.
[man talking over radio]
nope, that's not cutting it.
That won't work. We have four.
I don't know if his information was real.
I don't know if his information
was on a timely fashion, that's the problem.
You don't know if it was in the now.
But if it was from one of your friends,
you'd be all over it.
My friends know what they're doing.
[mandy] I got faith in jake.
-I think it's going to hit. -Yeah?
Clark, she just said you're gonna have to work harder, not smarter.
[clark] that's not the way to do it.
[sig laughing]
[man] there might be a couple more in.
[man talking over radio]
I can see there's some big ones in there.
[man talking over radio]
-[man] eighteen. -[mandy] see?
It's slowly picking up. At least it's something.
You know, that's a big difference.
[sig] and you are down in the gully right know.
But we'll see.
How does it look?
[man] oh, it's way better.
-They're big! -See? There they are.
Real big?
[man talking over radio]
[man] they're big. Looks like a lot of keepers.
That's what I'm talking about.
Sometimes, you just get lucky.
[man talking over radio]
six-nine, feeling fine.
[man over radio]
not too shabby.
[sig] that's great.
But we've got a long way to go before we get to up here.
Hope it holds.
There it is, guys. Coming up.
[man] this is it.
All we can hope is that junior and I
have corralled these crabs.
I don't know, in the past I've had issues
with junior, big issues.
[keith] we fight about every crab we can find.
Let's see if we can work together for the first time.
We need you!
[keith] there's a lot more at play here.
Bottom line is this,
I'm paying a lot of quota for crab.
[narrator] after swapping some of his own bairdi quota
for junior's king intel,
captain keith discovers if he has crab or if he's just been had.
[keith] it's the moment of truth.
I'll know real fast if this partnership unravels.
I'll know instantly if he's not being honest.
Oh, man.
[man] well, that ain't good.
[sighs in exasperation] crap!
[man] not good.
Well, nothing but small crab.
[man] four crab in that pot.
Oh, no.
[keith] you know what? I think I'm going to give junior a call here.
I wanna see what he's up to.
I mean, if he's trying to pull a double cross on me
on this alliance, then we have a serious problem.
[phone ringing]
[cheering]
[man] oh, yeah.
What we're looking for, right there.
[man] come on, baby. Get down.
[cheering]
[scott] yeah!
[phone ringing]
wow. [chuckles]
[phone ringing]
he's ignoring me. That's an insult from junior.
[phone ringing]
[scott] oh, yeah. Riders. Oh, yeah.
[phone ringing]
[keith] all right. Well, this is bad for us.
This has to be a prank.
Junior's been completely dishonest
about [bleep] anything leading into this [bleep]
[bleep] [bleep] partnership.
This thing's rusting away. I don't think
-you can catch that quota. -Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, hey.
[keith] he insulted my boat before this season.
Came on here, dangling a little disk drive,
asked me to give him a bunch of crab
in trade for information out here.
He's never been straight up once ever in his career.
He's setting gear back
and he just told me there was no crab.
A little white lie never hurt nothing.
He's got a lot of [bleep] nerve.
[man] no tangle.
I'm just [bleep] tired of junior.
[narrator] this week on salty takes.
No, I was in russian waters once
and I had a battleship chasing me.
All of a sudden, I only hear russian on the radio
and I see this russian battleship come out of the fog.
I look at the international chart and I go [bleep].
I'm exactly eight miles from russian waters.
They saw a shallow over us,
and they started lowering down the boats
to get me and then the governor ted stevens
calls us and says, "do not stop."
another boat was just taken that year by russians
and they had to go to court naked
and they had to sign russian paperwork
and they just took their boat,
they didn't get their boat back.
And so I punch it again and then as soon as I got
over the line my legs are shaking, dude.
Shaking for hours after. I was so scared.
So I came back like 12 hours later,
trying to get my pots a start and all of a sudden, there's three ships.
So 19 pots I'll never get back that are still in russia.
They're still my pots, but they're in russia.
Man, you can't make this [bleep] up.
[narrator] johnathan was in russian waters illegally?
Look, I don't know anything, I'm just the narrator.
Do not subpoena me.
[keith] he's ignoring me.
He's got a lot of [bleep] nerve.
[man] no tangle.
I'm just [bleep] tired of junior.
I'm [bleep] tired of junior.
I'm [bleep] tired of the bull [bleep].
Here's another junior knife in my back.
[bleep] that [bleep].
He's never been honest with me once,
and he's not being honest now.
You know?
[man] it's not moving!
There you go.
There's some numbers here.
[sighs]
[keith] that looks a little better.
[man] pretty good pot.
Pretty good pot.
How are we doing on the count?
[man over radio]
20?
[keith] I wasn't expecting that big a number.
[cheering]
come on, come on, come on.
[man] oh, it looks pretty [bleep] good!
Wow! Bang, bang.
This is cool crab.
All right? This is serious fishing right here.
[man] yeah!
[man over radio]
[keith] quite a lot.
[narrator] despite keith's slow start...
That's nice. It's exactly what we needed.
[narrator] ...Junior's pre-season data
proves to be on the money.
Hey, keith, you got me?
[keith over radio]
[scott] pretty good right now. I'm seeing the crab.
[keith] I'm seeing the same.
We're locked and loaded here.
But, you know, let's not make this a habit
because I still dislike you, okay?
[laughing]
[man] hell yeah, look at all these keepers!
These kind of numbers I'll be stacking out here,
probably another ten hours.
All right. Junior, good luck.
[scott] all right, see ya.
Last time I was over on his boat, it was so rusty,
so I'm writing a little love note for keith,
to let him know I'm thinking of him
and let's send him a little token of my love.
Aerosol can of rust killer and corrosion block.
I'll tie it to one of his pots.
I'll just rib him a little bit.
I know how keith loves to be messed with, so...
[laughing]
[narrator] 86 miles west.
[in russian accent] don't put pots down, or it'll drag you over.
[laughing]
[narrator] on the time bandit.
[man] this russian guy is just trying to bow us, push is out,
but the time bandit does not back down.
Okay, guys, let's see what's in the first one here.
You guys ready to do this?
[casey] I'm soaking just north of the dragger
so with any luck, we'll see if they have
some crab on them, see if we outsmarted these guys.
He's trying to tell me that we can't fish here?
I'm saying, "you're wrong. Here we are.
Bigger than life. In your face, mr. Russian."
no backing down on the time bandit.
No backing down.
[johnathan] come on, dude.
[bleep]
[man] yeah, baby!
Look at that pot, holy moly.
[man] welcome to the time bandit.
[laughing]
is there paper bags around here to breathe into it?
I think I might puke out of excitement.
Oh, my god!
[josh] are you kidding me?
[man] yeah, look at that pot!
[johnathan] holy moly.
Yeah!
Yeah! Look at that, dude.
[casey] nailed them.
[cheering]
-didn't see that coming. -Yeah.
[johnathan] the old crab land.
Let's open another [bleep] pot.
Let's open another pot right here.
How do you even compete with this?
[casey] great my man, oh, my god!
[horn blaring]
[laughing]
[mandy] looking good, jake.
[jake] oh, man! What's up? Yeah!
[horn blares]
oh, my god!
Somebody wasn't lying.
-Yeah, right? -We hit, jake. We hit.
[sig] nice job, jake. Well done.
No, I was really excited to help.
[jake] it worked out both ways.
I think I have to suck up my pride on this one.
[mandy] I hate to say it, but I told you so.
[laughing]
♪ well, I bite my tongue one time ♪
♪ two times, three times, maybe four ♪
[mandy] last pot, play along.
[cheering]
♪ don't want to get to the point ♪
♪ where I have a tongue no more ♪
[all chattering]
♪ can't blow me down ♪
♪ you can't blow me down ♪
[mandy] that's a wrap. Get on the bearing.
All right, boys, that's it.
[man] yeah!
[man yelling]
down to crown crab with keith there, so let's get the chains on,
let's get the hell outta here.
Man, I left you a little surprise for helping me out,
I appreciate it, buddy.
Hey, boss. Look what we got.
[keith] I already know where this is coming from.
This is from junior.
He's giving me [bleep] about my boat being a rust bucket.
"keith, thinking of you, junior."
what an ass, what an ass.
Okay, casey. That russian is just right down there in front of us here
so let's mark our territory, man.
Three, two, one, light 'em up!
Whoo-hoo!
[casey] let them fly.
Oh, yeah!
[yelling indistinctly] u.S. Territory!
[laughing] fire them up, baby!
[casey] that should send a message right there.
Chase the russian away.
[johnathan] u.S.A.
Yeah, baby!
Don't tell me where I can't fish.
[horn]
a little hug here.
[music playing]