275 miles southeast on the 110-foot Brena A.
The end is in sight here for my first season in the wheelhouse, and uh, good fishing, but they’re moving in.
I was once all by myself, and now there’s boats coming into my area.

Seven and a half weeks into his inaugural season, first-time captain Shawn Dwire brings on full pots of bairdi.
♪ Music ♪

Good thing I got you on AR.
But his hot spot has become a mob scene.
Everyone’s battling over the same pile of crab.
I think I found it first, but it doesn’t really matter if I’m getting set on top of.
We’re going to stack them.
♪ Music ♪

I think I’ve got a little bit of an edge compared to all the boats around me because I’ve been here the longest.
I know the crab are coming from that direction, and we’re going to go over here and probably stack up marching this way.
So I’m going to shift my whole pile of gear west, get ahead of them, keep everyone else away from my crab.

With his ground overrun, the rookie skipper plays his final card.
They just got to stay ahead of these guys for a little while longer, and they’ll be getting what’s left over.
Moving his gear to the head of the crab school, leaving the drags for the fleet.

There’s a lot of guys moved into the neighborhood here in the last few days, so we need to really hustle to get out of here before it’s all gone.
Got to get these things on board quickly and easily.

With Brit being gone, the boys are really getting put to the test down there with the four-man deck.
So teams got to stay strong.
We got to make sure we finish this thing out.

Down a deckhand, every crewman must be at peak performance for Shawn to execute his plan.
They wanted a four-man deck, and now’s their time to prove it to me that this was the good decision to make.

What are you waiting for?
Slow.
Got to be faster than that, man.
You can only do so much.
You got to get those things over faster.
I mean, that was 45 seconds.
That’s on you.
That’s all your responsibility.
I know.

These guys have been working hard as a four-man deck, but guys are getting a little complacent towards the end of the trip here.
They’re tired.
Their process is all—no.
You’ve got four people at the table, you’re counting like 60 crab, they’re not getting back to their positions in time.
What’s taking so long?
Speed up.

Not slowing down just three pots an hour so that they can do everything one at a time.
You can lose the game right in the fourth quarter.
You can lose your season right here, right now, anytime, anywhere.
So you just don’t stop at the end.
Why give up?

We are just coming up on bairdi grounds on the Brena A.
It’s two in the morning.
Wake up, come out here, think I’m all by myself.
Nope, not the case.
Lots of boats out here now.

After moving 50 miles away from the pack to find fresh grounds, there’s blips on the radar, pots next to mine, Captain Shawn Dwire wakes to find the pack has followed them.
They’re just pouring in.
There’s one after another.
And I know that as soon as they get in here, they call all their buddies.
There’s going to be even more boats in here.
So we got to get them quickly.

Just a few hours ahead of his competition.
Time to wake everybody up.
Get going.

Shawn presses his crew into action.
Time to get up.
Get rolling.
There’s guys working all around us.
We just can’t slow down.
Don’t waste any time out there.
Let’s do it.
♪ Music ♪

I’ll wake up here in a minute.
Welcome and Wally, those boys are tired.
I know they are.
But I pretty much gambled my parents’ business to get this boat out here.
There’s a lot on the line.

As the numbers stand right now, we’ve only got 15,000 pounds left to catch or something like that.
Nice fresh start.
But with any fresh start, you just don’t know what’s going to happen.
Hopefully that 15 or 20K is in the gear.

If it’s not, it looks good.
It’s awesome.
Yeah.
Wow.
It’s a good-looking pot.
It looks really good.
Crab in the trap.
Sick.

A lot of crab going in that tank.
All I can hear is ting-ting crab going in the hopper.
It’s a good sound.

Two, four, two.
That’s awesome.
Yeah.
Money coming over the rail.
Another one.
Help us.
I’m nailing it.
Two-thirty-seven.

With numbers like this, man, we’re not stopping.
We got to grind on these things.
You can set it back.
You guys know my policy.
Put them on the boat as fast as possible.

The skipper sets directly back on the school below.
We got to get these things, get them before the next guy does, to scoop up his remaining quota before the fleet beats him to it.
We got to fill these tanks.
They are not going to fill me now.

Yeah.
Oh yeah.
We like to hear that.
That’s like a trick.
♪ Music ♪

We’re doing well.
Nice.
Our production level has just gone way up.
The other day we hauled six pots an hour.
Now I’m getting them at twelve pots an hour.
That’s progression right there.

That’s what we’re doing.
We’re grinding away.
Not bad for a four-man crew.
Start strong.
Finish strong.
That’s what we’re doing.
It’s not over yet, but we’re getting closer.