Wicked Tuna

Here we go.

On this episode of Wicked Tuna...

Red sky in the morning, sailor, take warning.

When bad weather...

We got to get out of here. Look at it.

This wind is crazy.

Slams the fishing grounds...

We got a monsoon.

The fleet...

Hold on! Hold on!

Goes for broke.

We're on, we're on!

But...

It's a very, very dangerous job.

Will it come at a cost?

This is Wicked Tuna.

Holy (bleep). That was close.

At the start of week eight of fishing,

last season's lowest producing boat,

Fish Hawk, is in the top spot for the first time ever.

But they have just a narrow lead over the young duo on Pinwheel and

longtime top earner, Dot Com.

Meanwhile, Wicked Pissah and Hard Merchandise lag behind the pack.

MAN (over radio): The National Weather Service in Taunton has issued a

Special Marine Warning

for coastal waters east of Ipswich Bay.

Doppler radar indicated dangerous winds in excess of 50 knots.

(bleep), (bleep).

MAN (over radio): Heavy rainfall and frequent lightning.

-Terrible thunderstorms. -Really, coming our way? -Uh-hmm.

MAN (over radio): Prepare for low visibility.

This is tuna weather in this rough (bleep).

A lot of times, you get problems in rough weather.

We got 24 hours before a big storm is gonna hit the fishing grounds.

The forecasters say it's gonna blow up to 50 knots and seas up to ten-foot.

For our tiny tuna boats, that's massive.

I didn't know it was gonna blow like that tomorrow.

I've been a fisherman my whole life and I've been stuck out in bad storms and

it's not a good thing.

I mean, you have to respect Mother Nature and you have to anticipate

and prepare for the worst.

This (bleep) sucks.

There's just so many scary things that can happen.

A lot of people out here, like, do this on weekends and stuff and they think

it's like glorified catching a fish.

It's really not, is it?

No, it's like it.

It's a very, very, very, very dangerous job.

I've seen what happens out here when you push your luck and it isn't pretty.

Add in wind, lightning, waves, it's a recipe for disaster.

That's why I lose my mind when if someone can get hurt I get so nervous and so scared.

Oh my Lord.

Fishing is a dangerous job even in good conditions.

You go overboard in rough weather, you could be miles away from the boat in minutes.

You're gonna drown and you're gonna die.

It's very, very dangerous.

But this is what we got, this is what we do.

We don't have much time to catch these fish so we got to make every minute count.

Batten down the hatches.

We're fishermen.

We got to fish through it.

It's a very close race at the top of the leaderboard.

We're in second place behind the Fish Hawk, but Dot Com

is right behind us in third,

so we need to make every day count no matter what the weather's like.

We're gonna go out there, we're gonna get the job done.

Supposed to blow, they're saying gusts up to 50 possibly 60 knots.

What a morning this is gonna be.

Pretty nasty out here.

I'm currently in third place so we need to be out.

When it's rough out, that means the tuna are gonna bite.

If it's blowing, we're going.

Hopefully we all catch fish, make some money, and everybody gets home safely.

When you got a job to do, you got to take risks.

Boy, I don't know what to do.

Anytime I make a bad decision, I put my crew's lives at risk, so ultimately,

it's coming back to me to decide.

Do we ride this out, or do we go in?

I think we should go out, TJ.

TJ made the call last year to not go fishing during that storm because

he was being cautious.

TIM (over phone): How you gonna catch 'em at the dock?

You see this giant purple storm coming?

TIM (over phone): TJ, listen to me, if you feel it's not worth it,

then you're really not cut out to be a bluefin tuna fisherman.

-I didn't agree with that decision then and I wouldn't agree with that

decision now either.

Oh, man.

Look it, TJ's boat doesn't even move.

My boat is the smallest boat in the fleet, so it's really tough to battle six and

eight-foot seas, but we're in fifth place.

So we need to battle the weather as long as we can.

You guys (bleep) kidding me?

Your boat is wider than mine is long.

Oh, man.

The rough weather is coming,

but right now the lead is so close that we're gonna have to

do whatever it takes to try and regain that spot.

We're only $6,000 away.

That's one bend of the rod, some meat on deck, and next thing you know

we're back in the top spot.

I'm not gonna let a storm slow us down.

All right, we're staying out.

Let's do this.

-It's great to see TJ not backing down from this storm.

We need to stay focused and keep fishing.

This kind of sucks.

It's not too rough now, but we do got a big low pressure coming and

a lot of times though, that can trigger good fishing.

If there's any fish here, they should be biting.

Even though the fishing could be good, you got to be on your game because

if you mess around, you could die.

It's not easy.

Nobody said it was gonna be easy.

We can't waste time. Put out the rods.

-Huh? -Put out the rods. -Yup.

-The skies are blue for now, but we got a big storm that's gonna hit the tuna grounds

tomorrow afternoon and it will affect fishing for about two days,

so we need to catch something quick.

Big mark.

We're marking. We're marking.

He's right at 120. A couple fish swimming around.

They came right up to 50 feet looking at the weights.

I didn't catch anything last week so we need to put some meat on the deck,

but every minute that goes by means bigger waves and more trouble.

Sometimes you'll mark 200 or 300 fish in a day and not get a bite and

then at times you'll mark one and get a bite.

We had a mark down deep at 25.

It sounds like this storm could be a beast,

so we need to catch something right away so we can get off the water.

Oh, yeah, we're on, whoo.

-Whoo, baby, whoo. Not a cloud in sight.

-Whoo. -Whoo, got one on here.

-Whoo, how do you like me now, boys?

-I need to get my other lines in.

It's a really big fish,

he's out on top, he's screaming, taking a lot of line.

This is what you do it for.

The weather's gonna turn for the worst in a couple hours and we're

just trying to get a bite.

We're just waiting our turn.

We're hoping to have one come by and bite our hook.

We're on, here we go, yeah!

Not yet, not yet.

-We're in the anchor, so I got to go around the anchor, I think.

Loosen up on the drag a little.

The last thing I need right now is to lose the fish in that anchor line.

He's going for the anchor line!

Look out.

Easy.

-Backing down on this one, trying to close the gap.

Yeah, baby!

-There's a lot of lobster traps around here and we don't wanna get caught

in one of them.

We wanna stay as close to the fish as possible.

Don't stay up on top of him.

He can get himself wrapped in one of these pots and it's game over.

We want game over on the back of the boat, not game over broken line.

-Lift the rod up out of the rod holder.

Unclip it, un...

I am.

-All right, I got it out. Now you're free.

We are so lucky, dude.

-Very good. -Little bastard.

Get in my anchor, will ya?

-Then he went screaming into the anchor line, Paul pulled his magic,

and now we're fighting a good fish.

Reel, reel, reel.

Watch out!

You okay, Ricky?

-Yeah, I'm, I am soaked. -You're an animal.

The fish is out there, Ricky's battling there with him.

I'm running around like a crazy man, trying to get everything clear,

anchor lines.

Big fish.

-Just got to get out of this little bit of an obstacle here.

We got this lobster gear right here, really worried about it,

don't wanna lose the fish in the lobster gear,

it's gonna back right by it.

That's how close our fish was?

-Yeah, they got Rasta gear though, dude.

Check it out!

-That is Rasta gear. -Whoo. -You're our lucky buoy.

-Right by the Rasta gear! -Look at that Rasta gear! -Hey! How we doing?

Dude, we got this Rasta gear.

Thank God it had good vibes,

it didn't cut us off, our fish swam right by it.

Thank God. Peace.

-Hold on. Hold on. Big waves! Hold on, easy does it.

This is what we were worried about.

We got one on the line and I can barely keep the boat under control.

Trying to keep it into him.

He's going down!

-Deep color. -There he is, dude, 100 yards.

Yeah baby, whoo, this is awesome.

-Ugh, come on, ugh. -Chafed him.

T, can you get me some leaders?

-Yup. -I'll start rigging right now.

-I'm always mad when we lose fish, but it's part of the job.

We just got to focus on getting the hooks back in the water and catching