[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Deadliest Catch Season 21]
The October 3 episode of Deadliest Catch was dedicated to Carl “Blind Dog” Gorsegner. Johnathan Hillstrand paid tribute to his former deckhand. The Time Bandit captain initially broke the sad news in a December 31, 2024 post on Facebook that Carl drowned in Steward, Alaska. Jonathan continued on his season under a 72-hour time crunch to fulfill his 20,000 pounds of quota left before heading back to shore. “We’re not the kind of guys to quit,” he declared. This kind of mindset was needed given he had to deal with a low pressure system that brought 30-foot seas. Another problem came when his engine died. A camera showed that his port propeller was wrapped in a polyurethane line. Johnathan didn’t let that stop him as he managed to get things going at 6 knots to avoid overheating.
Jake Anderson was also feeling the heat of a tight deadline with 50,000 pounds of crab left before the mandatory offload. He located Keith Colburn on his navigation and decided to give The Wizard captain a call. Things were going well for him, picking up triple digits in his pots with no competition at the moment. At the time, he had $450,000 worth of bairdi crab in his vessel’s tanks. Although Keith played a bit coy when he spoke with Jake. The Titan Explorer captain wasn’t buying it. Keith had a plan to keep the “bloodhound” Sig Hansen off his tail and wanted Jake to play along. He instructed Jake to beeline it to the east where he will set a decoy string of pots that Sig will think is a good spot for him. Once Keith is comfortable having enough crab on board to meet quota, he’d let Jake clean out from the back. Jake agreed, or so Keith thought. “He is getting fat while everyone else is starving on the streets,” Anderson later said.
Sig Hansen/Deadliest Catch
Sig knew everyone wanted to go home, but there was more work to be done on the the Northwestern. He saw Keith and Jake were poking around. He gave Jake a call to tell him fishing was dropping off with Keith heading down south. Jake ultimately gave his mentor the intel with what Keith was up to. “Is he that paranoid,” Sig asked. Despite Keith saving Jake earlier in the season when his crew were stranded on the Titan Explorer, he felt Keith would do the same thing if he was in his shoes. Sig and Jake look to take their colleague down a peg.
Keith began “Operation Bait Sig Away” by setting decoy pots. He then called his thought-to-be accomplice. “Yeah, I’m not doing any of that,” Jake replied. Keith saw what was happening with Jake and Sig changing direction and turning around. Keith headed back in that direction. “He is trying to use me and give me the scraps at the edge of his plate, but I’m hungry,” Jake said. Sig and Jake would split the north and south halves and drop their gear as fast as they could in Keith’s hotspot.
Keith prepares to fight off this invasion by traveling through the night. Adding insult to injury, an alarm churned on with some problem. There was a cracked circulation pipe discovered from the crab tank. The crew needed to get the pipes flowing again or the crabs would suffocate and die. They managed to replace the flexible hose with two clamps. Keith updated Jake and said he needed a break. Jake decided to pay it forward and give him coordinates.
Despite a double-cross gone bad, Keith generated a 120,000-pound total with $90,000 for each cadet. Meanwhile, Sig finished the season with 110,000 pounds of crab worth $1.8 million. A $91,000 pay day would be provided for each deckhand. Johnathan left off with 100,000 pounds, worth $135,000 for each buccaneer onboard. Jake had a $3 million fall season. “Now I’m a huge step closer to buying the Titan Explorer. Who knows? Maybe I’ll buy The Wizard next.” We’ll see what the future holds for our captains as stranger things have happened.
Deadliest Catch, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel