What To Know
- Jake Anderson and Keith Colburn form a temporary alliance to share fishing intel and later team up to drive away rival trawlers threatening their crab pots.
- Sig Hansen faces multiple setbacks on the Northwestern, including crew injuries and equipment failures, but manages to secure crucial repairs and continue the crab haul.
- Rick Shelford assists a distressed vessel and battles extreme cold, ultimately suffering crab losses due to freezing conditions but hopes to recover from the setback.
[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Deadliest Catch Season 21]
Keith Colburn is still feeling it on Deadliest Catch after a 25-foot swell sent him kidney-first into the galley counter. During the October 24 back-to-back episodes of the Discovery Channel hit, The Wizard captain soldiered on looking to catch 100,000 pounds of bairdi before heading back to town to seek medical care. However, he hadn’t seen much action in his current spot. Elsewhere, Jake Anderson was experiencing much of the same results. He felt the pressure knowing he could potentially lose his job and chances at purchasing the Titan Explorer if he doesn’t deliver. Failure wasn’t an option.
Jake and Keith agreed to share intel with each other. The two sides contemplated if their respective sides could be trusted. Almost immediately after the conversation, Jake’s fortunes turned around with a 134-crab pot. He then hit the jackpot on another that added 180, which got him regretting making that call to Keith. “I think I screwed up. I don’t need a partner for this. I need more pots.” Jake declared. He debated his next move and what to tell Keith, worried he’d take over the area.
Keith Colburn/Discovery Channel
If that wasn’t enough to worry about, deckhand Andres messed up his arm. It bruised pretty badly where his bicep swelled up. Jake had no choice but to set course back to town. Jake alerted Keith about the situation and revealed the crab hot spot. In appreciation, Keith told Jake he’d spot check his gear and get things tightened up for him while away. “I jumped in bed with the monster…Hopefully he plays nice,” Jake said.
Andres was dropped off to see an orthopedic surgeon. Keith followed through on his promise to Jake. Keith saw his numbers go up, but he also wanted to leave some room for Jake. Just as things were going in the right direction, Keith spotted a trawler in the vicinity. The fishing boat could do damage to their gear in the water. A standoff emerged as Keith contacted Jake. The two plan to work together to chase out the trawler from their territory.
Jake noticed the 300-foot trawler as he arrived at the scene with nets that could destroy his and Keith’s gear. Keith noticed more boats coming in, so possibly a fleet of them could follow. They contemplated their next move. Jake mentioned he had a few ideas, but that would “land us in jail really quick.” Keith thought they could set some gear tight just below where the trawler was, and maybe it would chase them away. He described it as a “cluster minefield,” 10 pots to a mile overlapping. The hope is the trawler would run into the “cluster bomb” of empty gear they set. The trawler didn’t hit their initial trap, but another went through during the second time. The trawlers turned around. With the enemy out of their territory, they could get back to work. Keith went back to Dutch Harbor to see a doctor and find out how bad his back is.
Sig Hansen and Clark Pederson (Discovery Channel)
Time was running out for Sig Hansen with an offload of opilio due in a couple of days. “Every hour is critical,” Sig said. This week the Northwestern captain faced a series of unfortunate events. His son-in-law Clark Pederson was hit in the chin on deck with a line. “Hopefully his jaw isn’t broken,” Sig said with concern. Despite the bloody injury, he kept going as things could have been worse. The waves continued to pick up as they ventured deeper into the waters. Sig circled around the pots, which meant the crew had to be extra careful and watch the rails. An alarm sounded. Checking the engine room, the crew discovered a crab pump was down. This was used to keep the precious product alive. Sig radioed Captain Svein Langaker aboard the Keta to see if they had a spare they could use. He did. The two agreed to meet.
Sig received the crab pump shaft part they needed from the fellow veteran captain. The installation took some time, especially to get done right. If the repair didn’t work, they’d need to rush to town without fulfilling quota. Numbers weren’t good from the pots at first in the section they were in, but eventually showed signs of life. But is it enough? The returns started to increase in the midst of violent waves. An alarm sounded, and Sig lost his engine power. Clark rushed to see what happened. They worked to change out the filter as the fuel wasn’t getting any pressure.. The fix worked for now, but the potential of bad fuel remained. The focus was back on getting enough crab to head back for the offload in one piece.
Rick Shelford had one of the biggest quotas of the season and was hoping his gamble paid off. He was setting up prospect strings when he received a distress call from Todd, the captain of the American Lady. Their auxiliary was fried and the generator died. With the crew drifting in the middle of nowhere, Rick made the sacrifice to go look for them and help. He was finally able to locate the vessel in the dark and send them injectors and other equipment to get their lights back onboard. Todd was thankful for Rick’s generosity. Perhaps this would give him the good karma needed to make up for lost ground.
The ice became a definite issue with temperatures reaching as low as -15 degrees Fahrenheit. He went so far north the vessel was near Russian waters. Rick rolled the dice on a more remote location. He needed pots off the boat as quickly as possible in these blistering conditions. The crew was feeling it, but they started to set the pots and see if the risk provided reward. It did….kind of. The crabs were frozen. The mission went from hunting to saving each crab caught. He hoped to get them in tanks before they froze and die. Rick decided to go “old school” by having bins to collect the crabs with the crew immediately hosing them, and then manually sort through the catches to keep them alive. Unfortunately, there was a lot of dead loss. It could have been a lot worse in Rick’s eyes. Now he had to make it up and recover some loss.
Deadliest Catch, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel