Deadliest Catch's Biggest Catch Almost Killed the Crew

The long-running Discovery Channel series has built its reputation on showing exactly how brutal the Alaskan crab fishing industry can be. Between the freezing chaos of the Bering Sea and the ticking clock of seasonal quotas, the show has made a spectacle out of near-misses, gear failures, and storms that look like something out of a disaster movie.

Since its debut in 2005, Deadliest Catch has racked up both an Emmy collection and a body count. More than a few of its featured fishermen have died either on the job or shortly after, adding an undercurrent of real-world stakes to what could've easily been just another reality show. But even by the show's standards, one catch in particular pushed the boundaries of profit and survival — and it nearly got an entire crew killed.

The Gamble That Paid Off — And Almost Didn't

In 2017, during the show's thirteenth season, Captain Johnathan Hillstrand of the F/V Time Bandit was gearing up for retirement. But instead of playing it safe, Hillstrand decided to go out swinging.

He and his crew set their course more than 600 miles west of their usual waters — straight toward the perilous Russian coastline.

It was a ballsy move even by Hillstrand's standards. The Russian coast isn't just a change of scenery; it's a high-risk gamble loaded with unpredictable weather, territorial waters, and the threat of being completely cut off from rescue. But the reward was immediate. The very first pot the Time Bandit pulled held a staggering 440 opilio crabs, which translated to around $13,000 from a single haul. As they kept fishing, the pots only got heavier — one was reported to contain an absurd 670 crabs, a figure that dwarfed typical catches on the show.

Hillstrand's hunch wasn't just a success — it was historic. His crew set a new benchmark for the largest haul Deadliest Catch had ever filmed. The payday was massive, the kind of windfall that makes or breaks a fishing season.

The Cost of Chasing Records

But that record-breaking haul came with strings attached. The Bering Sea — especially near the Russian coast — doesn't let anyone win without a fight. As the crew pushed deeper into the jackpot zone, the weather took a sudden and nasty turn. A severe storm was barreling in, forcing the Time Bandit to cut their success short and flee before the entire crew was swallowed by the sea.

Captain Hillstrand later admitted that the timing was razor-thin. If they'd stayed even a little longer, the ship and everyone on board could've easily been lost. This wasn't just a narrative flourish for TV — commercial crab fishing remains one of the deadliest professions in the world, with fatality rates that dwarf nearly every other occupation.

Hillstrand himself once said of the profession,

"You don't have to be crazy to do this job — but it helps."