At the end of last week’s episode we saw Derrick raising suspicions of Jake smoking pot while on board. Obviously Jake has had drug issues, but seeing as this was months ago I can’t judge him now for it, plus he had no verifiable proof that he WAS smoking dope on that boat. But this is how we were left going into this episode, which I hope has more of the Northwestern, Time Bandit and Kodiak along with the Cornelia Marie in it. Enough with the new boats for awhile.
Tonight’s episode starts with promise as the intro shows the Northwestern, and it shows the Cornelia….but also the Kodiak for the first time this season!!! Downtrodden a bit at multiple shots of the Seabrooke though, it just doesn’t feel like the same show if we don’t get the vet boats at least a majority of the time. Add to my theory that the two new boats only stayed on the show because Discovery was locked into contract with them when the Northwestern and Time Bandit came back and it sucks. But I still love this show.
We open in Dutch Harbor with, you guessed it, the Seabrooke. 
They’re headed out for blue crabs (dang, blue crab fever this season!). Capt. Campbell awaits his new recruit to replace the wussy prissy deck boss Bob Perky and Greenhorn Kyle. He hired Josh Fulmer, coming from Idaho Falls, Idaho, who hopes not to fail as he’s seen other Greenhorns do. I echo the captain though, this guy has no clue what he’s getting out here. To quote Captain Andy from the Time Bandit, “Until you’ve been out there, you ain’t been out there”. The crew isn’t that enthusiastic about it, and Captain Campbell dryly reads the Greenhorn’s list of qualifications, which includes furniture moving. The skipper likes having someone who’s never done it before thought because he can truly mold the guy from jump-street. This guy is a trip, he started watching anything he could find on Alaskan fishing, sounds like he’s a fan Greenhorn. Skipper tells him not to get overwhelmed, suck it up, deal with it and take the abuse headed his way. He will be mentally broken at some point, I agree, and I also agree that pushing through it determines whether or not he’ll be a fisherman. But I wonder if this is also a mark of a fresh green captain too because would our vet captains hire what sounds like a fan?
Onto the vet boats please!!! We head north now to the Cornelia Marie. The low pots continue and Jake says they are not having as much fun as when his dad was on, it’s weird to look up and not see the “furry headed mullet”. 
Captain Ray is lamenting how excited he was to set these pots and find nothing in them. Steve Ward says they’re averaging a half a crab per pot. The captain says that things aren’t adding up since they’re in a prime spot to catch them, but the crew is also saying there’s a time to give up too and you have to know when to leave. This is where it gets good….Josh heads upstairs to talk to Derrick who says they have to be prepared to catch little for a bit. Josh says Capt. Ray can’t expect them to live up to his standards, and that yelling the way he does isn’t working. Captain Ray, however, says he doesn’t want to share his years of knowledge with a kid strung out on dope who could, a year from now kill someone. He also says at this stage neither Jake or Josh are ready to run a boat, ever. Josh is upset that they’re being told that they have to have a higher level of maturity and is tired due to not having time to himself. Derrick then strikes a hard blow by saying Phil did them a huge disservice by not teaching them to run the boat the five years they were there with him, plus that it’s not a party time. Jake says they’re all stressed, while Derrick says they need a fresh start, and that they need to move on from Phil’s death. Jake confronts him at this point asking why he’s acting like this, but Derrick doesn’t directly confront him on his suspicions of Jake smoking pot…okay, so he can basically trash Phil, as well as trash Jake to Josh but can’t say it to Jake’s face? Why not say that he suspects that Jake was smoking dope right then and there?
We’re back and FINALLY we get the Kodiak!!! 
They seem to be hitting it hard right now, they’re pulling in GINORMOUS crab right now. After two weeks of fishing, Captain Wild Bill has hit the motherland. Last season, remember, he fished for crap really, he had such a run of bad luck but for now his fortune has changed. Wild Bill is elated, and hopes to continue to make it work. But just as they’re going, the crane locks up. Their hydraulic crane is non-responsive. Work on deck stops, as without the hydraulics they can’t haul any gear. Wow, have never seen someone go this deep inside the crane, but deck boss Adam has and they have a leak, a big one I guess. This could mean the end of fishing, but not for these guys! They’re literally pushing the pots across the deck and with gusto. Morale is very high at this point. Leading the charge is Jake, he’s directing the rest of the crew in how to push the pots across deck. They actually seem to be having fun with it.
They’re now trying to tilt the pot over the sorting table and man, it doesn’t look easy at all! I wonder if this enthusiasm will be maintained because these pots are like 700-800 pounds!!! Down goes one crew member though, and that looked rough. It’s Jake, he said “Head on and fifteen….”. Oh look, Wild Bill’s son Zach Larson is back!!! Jake’s fall on the deck took out his back, OUCH!
Oh sweet Jesus, now we’re back on Captain Greenhorn’s boat, Ramblin’ Rose, who’s about to cash in on the first crab of his career. Big whoop, I’m SO SERIOUSLY sick of this boat and this captain. 
Bets are being made on just how much was caught, and Captain Newbie says it’s been a good trip. Remember, this is a wet behind the ears guy who was excited about single digit crab catch. As the offload goes through, they find that their total is grossly off what they thought. It’s bad, very bad actually. They caught 13,000 pounds. ROFLMAO. I don’t want to pound on this guy more than he already is doing to himself, but my god, what a rookie. What I love about this is that pre-season Captain Greenhorn gave an interview talking about how he was going to keep it real on this show and tell it like it is. The crew splits 8,000 for their pain. The best part is the captain literally said “The tank is a lot larger than I thought…”. Seriously, wouldn’t you know how big your tank was? Now he has to catch 56,000 pounds, by order of the owner, for his career to stay.
FINALLY, the Northwestern!!! 
200 pots into their 250 pot grind and the numbers are low. They’re pressed for time as they have less than 24 hours to haul gear and get it set again. Before their offload Sig wants to set a 52 pot reserve o n more fertile grounds. He can’t set them on blanks, obviously, but if this next string doesn’t pay off Sig’s 52 pots on deck go to waste. As the next pot comes up, (like the background music btw) and there ARE crab in it! Go Sig! Go boys! Jake says “Look at that!”. Edgar, in his usual Edgar way, says “Bingo was his name-o”. Sig in his manner says you have to know when to hold them, you zig and zag and they’re right in your face. They’re on to something now. The pots are HUGE at this point. They’ve gone from 8 per pot to 47 per pot. Sig knew it was a big hit or a blank, or it would be, and guess what? He knows how big his tanks are. Now that Sig is finally on the crab, he gives the aspiring captain the chance to pick the town location for their next soak. Jake’s got a goatee!!! He picks a spot, the place he likes and Sig decides to set there. That is COOL, that shows something. He wanted Jake to be a part of it, contributing. Crossing fingers for you Jake! As Sig says, the more you understand the easier it is to get through the day and night. Pay attention Captain Derrick THIS is how you teach someone and guess what, Jake Anderson has addiction problems too. Jake says this could make or break him but if he does good he could actually be a fisherman.
Back to the new boat, Seabrooke. Sigh. This doesn’t bug me as much as the other boat, but this is the SECOND time on this boat this epi. Ahem, Time Bandit anyone? Please?!? They approach their new blue crab grounds and the Fan Greenhorn is coming to the realization that just because you watch it on TV doesn’t mean you’re going to be a fisherman. I love this show with every fiber of my being but there’s no way in hell I could do what they do. The closest I’ll get is Catch Con if I”m lucky. This poor guy, this greenhorn, is being bounced all over deck. The captain’s main concern is the building weather, and he obviously wants to find crab but the main concern is getting the top layer of pots off so he can see the deck. The greenhorn on deck gets a crash course in deck work. I’ll give him props for trying, and asking questions, but he’s so not doing it right, his feet are RIGHT in the bite. He’s so close to be pulled over it’s not even funny.
Back to the Cornelia Marie Josh is refusing to talk to Derrick, he’s FUMING and won’t talk to him unless he gets an apology. In the wheelhouse, Captain Derrick has bigger concerns. The wind’s picked up recently, and to quote Josh, it’s a weird day. A 300 mile arctic storm is moving in on the crab grounds. Blue crab are fragile and can’t survive long in the thanks. Derrick says he doesn’t know if he can survive with these guys and wants a team meeting. Bad call, I’d say. Derrick starts by saying they have had controversy the last couple days but they’re in a bad way weather wise and the crab will die. They might get a reprieve at Saint Matthews though, he wants to set the gear, get the boat squared away since there’s four story breakers coming out them. The crew has to grind to drop the last 20 pots then make a run for St. Matthew’s. There’s hardly any crab in the hold but what they do have they need to keep alive. Once they get to the north side of the island it will be much like a flat calm and by late afternoon they’ve reached that spot. Tensions on deck subside at this point.
Still waiting on the Time Bandit. Back to the Kodiak, however. That’s okay, they weren’t on the first episodes at all. They’re still hitting the numbers, big time. The crew is celebrating these numbers too. Jake, however, had a bad back injury and with it, the hurt is spreading to the rest of the crew. They urge him to take a break if he’s hurting that bad….and one even says that it’s theatrics. Jake refuses to go inside, even as the crew continues to urge him on. Greenhorn Zach Larson, Wild Bill’s son, alerts his father to the situation. Wild Bill says if it takes three guys, do it, but get him out of the fore-peak, out of his gear and into his bunk. It’s pride more than anything keeping Jake there at this point. Zach tells Jake that he needs to go in…..this poor guy looks tore UP. He still isn’t going inside, until after Wild Bill calls out again.
Okay, back to the Seabrooke because they haven’t been shown at all this season. They’re trying to set for blue crab, and Captain Campbell is looking for the one sweet spot. On deck, Fan Greenhorn is still trying to learn the new pace. He’s not earning favors by wearing his hat sideways. But the vet deck isn’t getting points from the skipper either by tying the pots wrong, and not even tying them at some points. That could seriously kill someone. Captain Campbell calls them to the stack to point out how easily someone could have been killed by that mistake. The newbie Greenhorn comes up and says he’s at the point of mental breaking. The Captain calls him out for two hours of work and he’s breaking? The newbie is upset about the hat remark………again, fans of the show should NOT be Greenhorns. I second the captain, if he can’t deal with being called a name he needs to go home or man up. The captain then calls the deckhand who did the name calling, despite the begging of the Greenhorn not to. The Captain does call him out for it, says to show him what needs to be done and leave it at that. Uh oh, that’s not going to sit well. The captain says that’s how we deal with it but the Greenhorn has to be tougher than that. As the greenhorn leaves he says he’s never seen someone want to quit after two hours and the greenhorn hopes he can make it and not fail, has seen so many guys fail (this is from earlier when he got there)….and this is where the episode ends. R.I.P Phil, fair winds.
Discovery Channel, I’m telling you now, if you keep on neglecting our vet guys in favor of the newbies you’re going to have a revolt on your hands bigger than last summer.
Have You Seen Us, Because Our Fans Haven’t Seen Us Much This Season Picture Of The Week:
It’s not Where’s Waldo, It’s where was the Time Bandit this week? 
- posted on 22/05/2013 19:19:01
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