‘Deadliest Catch’: Keith Colburn Faces Vessel Catastrophe That Could Derail His Season

Captain Johnathan Hillstrand recalled a vivid dream of a crab hotspot he found during the June 5 episode of Deadliest Catch. He worked to turn that vision into reality, but it could turn into a nightmare due to a trawler.

Nearby, Sig Hansen felt the pressure to deliver and found pushing his team may come at a price. The latest installment of the Discovery Channel hit also caught up with Keith Colburn. The Wizard head endured dangerous conditions, but problems with his vessel as well. Does it derail the season? 

Read on to find out how these three dealt with their latest challenges. 

Johnathan Hillstrand & Sig Hansen

Johnathan discovered a dragger inching closer into his territory. These fishermen have been known to tow their trawl net across the seafloor, which damage gear set by the Time Bandit. With it being such a high traffic area nets the size of two football fields bring big problems as Johnathan prepared to haul 40 pots. However, he remained undeterred and confident in seeing his vision on what he believed to be fruitful grounds realized. The dragger told him one of his gear may have been snagged. “You better do your best to avoid it,” Johnathan warned. This fell on deaf ears. Down already $40,000 in gear at this moment with the potential of losing six-figure catches could be devastating to his business. He spotted the Northwestern and radioed Sig. 

With all his own eggs in one basket, also had a lot to lose if these draggers continued. He was in the shallower spot at the same canyon as Johnathan. Sig was pushing his crew with 120 pots out. The pressure cooker environment saw his son-in-law Clark Pederson get caught with a crane. Sig was a man down at the moment. By the time Johnathan called Sig, he had already lost 11 pots with the dragger not backing down. 

“It doesn’t seem like this guy wants to play nice,” Johnathan concluded. He enlisted Sig as a fellow David to take down his Goliath. Sig agreed to work together with $150,000 of combined gear and potentially millions on the line if they don’t eliminate the threat. They each deployed pots along with extra buoys to create what would look like an impenetrable wall to send the dragger away. Their plan worked with the dragger turning around out of the space. The efforts pay off with each getting some nice returns in their pots.

Keith Colburn 

Discovery Channel

It seemed like Keith had been snake bit on his latest travels with bad weather and rough seas not making things any easier. He warned the crew to “get ready for battle” aboard The Wizard as Mother Nature was no joke. He had 200 pots down hoping to deliver as 380,000 pounds of quota needed to be caught over the next three weeks left in the fall season. No Bairdi appeared in his pots. Making matters worse, Keith got word of water pouring into the boat’s engine room. His engineer Joe Serpas worked with the team feverishly to locate the problem. They used tarp and duct tape to help try to alleviate the mess, but the water wouldn’t stop. One bad wave could mean the crew be left in the dark permanently. 

Keith asked Joe to bide him some time with these problems for 12 hours to get enough time to venture out of the crowded waters. They couldn’t keep the hatch secure with what Joe described as “Niagara Falls.” Keith continued to have his guys set gear while also pulling up deck boards and attempting to fix the hatch, find the leak. They also faced the threat of catastrophic issues to The Wizard thanks to the water potentially damaging the fuel system. Crabs were filling the pots, but the wavers were unrelenting. If conditions got worse, it meant putting a halt on hauling gear.  “We just need to keep grinding away,” Keith said. Adding, “Crabs cure all wounds.”

Though in this situation, that wasn’t exactly true. Joe thought there was a hole somewhere to the point it was getting unmanageable. Keith, frustrated as he was finally getting big crab numbers, had no choice but to stop and trek toward town. We’ll have to wait until next week to find out how this impacts his season. 

Deadliest Catch, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel