Ep 108. The Bait: Miracle on Ice

In this episode of The Bait, all eyes are looking way north to Captain Keith Coburn and the Wizard. With the ice cap gone and the northern grounds open for the first time in years, Captain Keith gambled that�??s where he�??d find the crab. But he�??s fishing alone and way out of Coast Guard range. In fact, he�??s fishing so far north, all he hears on his radio is Russian. He�??s battling the worst the Bering sea has to offer and he�??s not sure his gamble will pay off. As he puts it, �??The Bering Sea set a trap for me and I fell right into it.�?� But it�??s not all doom and drama. In a funny segment, we join Keith as he gets a Russian language lesson where he learns the very useful phrase, �??Get out of my wheelhouse.�?�

Josh Harris is back in the hot seat with an admission to make. In episode 205, Josh professed a lot of confidence, but now, with some fishing under his belt, Josh confesses, �??Come to find out crab fishing is actually really hard.�?�

In a welcome surprise, journalist Geraldo Rivera crashes the party. The captains are surprised and delighted to see him. Geraldo is an accomplished sailor, so he and the captains have a lot to talk about. He calls Deadliest Catch one of the few �??real�?� reality shows on television.

With injuries as common as waves across the fleet, the crews have to be frontier doctors for each other. Mike Fourtner, who is an EMT, has a fascinating report from the Fourtner Fan Cave about frontier medicine techniques on the boats.

A lot is happening on the Northwestern, starting with a serious emergency. In the middle of big seas, the boat loses its steering and starts drifting helplessly. Edgar steps up and fixes the problem to Sig�??s great relief. That leads to fun studio segment in which the captains celebrate Edgar�??s McGyver-esque genius. But we�??re just getting going. That�??s followed by taped segment shot aboard the NW in which we see that Edgar is not only brilliant at fixing things, he�??s also an inventor. And what, you may wonder, did he invent: an automatic hook launcher. Then in a serious turn, we go back to the studio where Edgar talks to Bill about a visit Edgar made to fellow recovering addict, Elliot Neese.

And, of course, no episode of The Bait would be complete without Best of Catch. This episode�??s category is injuries.