The Time Bandit found ice over their grounds. The window for fishing may be shut again by the ice pack. They were working to get their 25 pots out from under the ice. After struggling to get the first pot up they only had a small catch. More meager pot numbers kept coming over the rail. Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand started bickering in the wheelhouse.  Johnathan decided to take his frustration out by shooting some ice off the boat with a 12 gauge shot gun.

The Northwestern went very south hoping for some life. They came up on their first pot since being back out fishing and again they found huge numbers. They must use better bait because they always hit homeruns. With piles of crabs coming onto the boat Sig had to stack his pots on the boat and run. The ice report gave Sig bad news and he decided to take the safe route. As the weather picked up the boat started to experience mechanical problems. Edgar noticed the change right away and then found that one of the tanks that is supposed to be empty was full of water. It was a very scary discovery and they immediately pumped it down.  It is one of the leading reasons that fishing boats sink. The pump was not working so Edgar had to run to fix the problem. Edgar saved the boat by opening the tank and finding the problem.

The Ramblin’ Rose continued to haul very big crab numbers. The crew was very excited and it was bitter sweet for Captain Elliot Neese. He continued to lament his problems back at home with his ex girlfriend Val. A court date looms as he fishes on great grounds. Elliot decided the court date was more important than filling the boat and he ordered the crew to stack pots and run for town. The crew was very upset by the selfish decision. Elliot called in for his court date from Dutch Harbor and the crew talked about Elliot. The judge agreed with Elliot’s ex Valerie and put in a long term protection order against him. Elliot was very upset with the process, but he was granted permission to talk and see his kids. Elliot decided to put the mess behind him and go back to sea to fish crab. Elliot reached his ground just to get news that the ice flow was going to get to bad to fish. Elliot had to tell his crew about the ice and how his trip home screwed everything up.

The Wizard returned to fishing after going into harbor for repairs and a quick off load. When they went back out they found ice everywhere and Keith was having trouble deciding where to set his gear. Keith made the decision to wake up his crew and set his gear quickly on grounds sure to be covered in ice in 16-20 hours. The Wizard then dumped the gear tightly packed together dodging sporadic ice. It was a very big gamble and Keith’s brother Monte was very uncomfortable with the decision. Monte was driving the boat towards the first of the strings set in ice and found heavy ice everywhere. Keith had 100 pots under the ice flow and he should have listened to his brother. The crew noticed some huge chunks of ice floating by and they went on a rescue mission for each pot. Keith was rewarded with very good fishing, but the main objective was to save the pots. Keith had to call off the hunt for the day because much of his gear was covered with too much ice. He decided to cut his losses and leave the grounds. They were lucky to get all but 8 pots back from the ice flow.

The Kodiak was on the lookout for the hot fishing they saw before the 3 week vacation from fishing.  The crabs were obviously very hungry as the Kodak’s pots were stuffed with beautiful big crabs. Wild Bill was very happy about the production, but he also had to move away from the great fishing because the ice was coming. Bill’s son Zach decided to try his hand at the hydro controls which impressed Bill alot. Zach struggled with the hydraulics
job and Bill became impatient and pissed off. He even started to berate his son over the intercom. Zach gave back the jokes to Bill and they shared a nice father-son chuckle.