Its just chilly out here this morning.
I haven't had... haven't had my coffee yet, so.
Well, my little brother's flying in
from, petersburgh today.
A pretty hellacious storm that whipped through
and, he was supposed to be here yesterday,
but, weather would not allow it.
So, I'm hoping he's on his way back.
It's been a handful of years
since I've seen my little brother.
Yeah, that's him.
Port protection is extremely remote.
You have to really want to get out here,
because it's just hard to do.
You have to get on an airplane or take a boat,
and at any point in time,
the weather can turn and you might not get here
or you might not get out of here.
We were both raised here
from, you know, the time we were born
up into our late teens.
We spent most of our time out in the forest
or rowing around in boats and fishing
and, building forts
and, you know, generally terrorizing each other.
Come here, give me a hug.
My back.
I'm not doing that.
This place imprints itself on you.
You can go away for as long as you want
but this place is always here,
and he's still a part of this place, definitely.
How'd the water look out there?
It's glassy.
Glassy?
Well, it was around there.
- That's not glassy. - Get out.
And this is the guy I've been looking for.
Yeah.
See you all the time.
- Hey. - Hey.
Man. It's good.
It's like it's been... it's kind of a whirlwind.
Yeah?
It's been going on seven years
since I've seen my youngest son.
Certainly, the biggest hurdle is just the sheer distance,
you know, you have to travel to get here.
Especially if you live in Tacoma, Washington.
The float plane ride in was okay?
The flight in was, pretty bumpy, pretty bumpy.
So, it, like, warms my heart
that he made an effort to come up and visit.
Give... give me another hug, man.
Good to see you.
I thought you said you gained weight, you look just fine.
Well, wait till I take the shirt off.
Layers.
Yeah.
Really looking forward
to spending some time with the old man,
seeing Matt, getting back, connecting with my roots.
Yeah, just... I'm glad to be home.
Okay, curly, I'm gonna get down first.
I'm gonna get the first fish.
All right, we're just about on him here.
Junior, he's all ready.
You know, I wanna get a fish before you do.
That was bottom that come up a little bit.
I need the first one.
I have to beat curly.
Dang!
I got it!
Sorry, curly.
- You got one? - Yes.
- Nice! - Woo!
Crabs like fresh bait.
It's that time of year again, shellfish season.
And today, I'm catching bait for crabs.
Oop, oop, oop!
I caught a fish, damn it, and he's fighting mad!
And then, curly caught one too.
Aw, his is bigger,
but I got a ling COD on here, curly.
The summer months' poisonous algae
gets into the clams and the shellfish,
and it can make you real sick or even kill you,
so this is the last chance you get to do it.
It's go time.
There's one. Look at that monster.
This is a good spot to set these crab pots.
Hopefully, we can load up on the crab.
You need a lot of bait to keep 'em interested
and keep them coming in.
Oop, oop, oop, oop!
We're on fire, Mary.
He don't wanna come up.
Oop, man! Good lord!
I was saying before, this is lab islands, right?
I like coming out here personally
just 'cause it is damn beautiful.
There's a few basic skills for living in port protection
that everybody should have.
Getting your own firewood is definitely one of those,
you know, identifying logs.
Before we do that though,
we're gonna go do some beach combing
and see what's out there.
You're looking at more island out there.
If you gonna be living out here and beach combing,
this is the place you gotta come.
Beach combing for me is really important, you know,
acquire things that make your life better.
You get awesome driftwood and line.
That's something that, you know,
is a very valuable skill out here.
This is a natural piece of wood.
This probably came off
something that was, you know, cut by man, but.
I just like to show Veronica
anything I can to help her be successful
and be able to stay.
If I can make a... a breadboard
or a cutting board out of it.
Okay, I'm looking for uniquely shaped driftwood.
Auntie litzi has these amazing pieces of driftwood
that she's carefully procured from the... the beach gods.
This is a piece of driftwood
with a unique hole in it.
Growing up, I saw auntie litzi raising her boys in the woods.
And seeing the way that she lived her life
and how content she was,
even though she was dying young,
gave me a huge shift in perspective.
I went home for a month, and I quit my job,
and I moved to Alaska.
And it feels like a pretty awesome tradition
that I get to be a part of,
and I'm very appreciative.
Look at this person in the wood!
I'm so excited about this.
- It's a hard ball. - What?
It's buoy hard ball.
Okay, is it better than the soft ones, then?
We make planters out of these.
Like, cut this out
and you plant things in it and hang it.
Pretty awesome.
I haven't seen one like that before.
I dunno how you get this outta here,
but this is nice!
He found a big line
and it's really nice and we're gonna... dig it out.
We might've gotten ourselves into a bit of a...
- Pickle? - Pickle here.
You know, my dad never paid for line.
As a kid, we'd just crawl around the logs
and rip it out, untangle it, and bring it home.
Like, that was a huge thing.
There it is.
- We got it? - We got it.
I'm just gonna get it out of here.
My god, I'm sweating.
All right, well, let's keep looking,
see what we see down the beach a ways?
Okay, so I figure if we want to catch the tides right,
we should probably drop that skate first.
Today's gonna be a good day,
I'm going fishing with my two sons.
We're gonna make every attempt to maybe draw up a king salmon
or catch some rock fish.
You know, this is my, small fish gear.
I like these little hooks
'cause I don't like catching big barn doors.
I mean, yeah.
The smaller fish is better anyway.
They all get dry and... flaky when they're too big.
My brother, we're different in a lot of ways.
- Here's your fish, sir. - Thank you.
I decided to stick here in Alaska.
Kelly, he... he made a clean break.
He didn't want to do the stuff that we do out here,
for the most part,
so he... he chose a different life.
But, it's good to... good to have come back.
Here, let me get this last one.
Go for it.
It feels... watch those spikes.
I know, I know.
I'm grabbing like that
with this... with my fingertips.
My brother and I fished quite a bit as children.
Yeah, the last time I remember fishing with him,
I was maybe 14 or 15, catching Dolly varden
out of my little row boat with him.
Well, that's that.
I guess we,
we just let her soak for a couple hours
and then come back and check it.
Let's go try to catch a couple of rock fish.
The world out here, you know, the rain and the moisture,
is just constantly breaking things down.
And it's a constant struggle to keep up on a float house.
I got a question, do I have in my eye?
I can't tell, but...
- Got it. - Thank you.
A float house is really an inaccurate term;
a sink house is definitely more accurate.
You always gotta be doing improvements to things.
Ooh, that thing's real wiggly.
The back float safety logs are getting worn out
and just water-logged,
so we need to replace that old log,
and we need to put a new log on
and strap new cable around it.
I'm going in the water today,
I just have, like, a distinct feeling about it.
- I just like... - great.
The safety log really just holds in all the other logs
so that they don't want to just spread apart,
and then we lose all our logs.
So it's really important to have those safety logs on the ends.
If you just don't do anything about it, it'll break apart,
things will just start, kind of, busting apart.
Like, sleepless nights
I'm... I'm just over the sleepless nights.
This strap on? Ew, that's a huge spider.
Ew, ew, it's got a huge back on it.
Kill it. Kill it, quick.
Its right next to your bedroom,
you know that's the next place it's headed.
- Did you get it? - Yup.
All right.
All right, last one,
and then, we can start strapping on this new one here.
Even though there's nothing on this float,
we really wanna repair it and make it good to go
because we got big plans for it.
In the future, I want to actually build a whole new house and float,
and so we have big dreams for the place
and, this is, kind of, the start of all that.
It's just, you know, one step begets another.
Hey, you be careful.
Here, come here, Breanna.
Can you hang on to this for me?
Right there.
Every time you're working on your house,
you know, you always have some concerns, you know?
Especially since my house is on the water,
I'm always, you know, a little worried something can go wrong.
You know, it's always a new experience messing with floats.
Things can get catawampus quick.
Big staple is splitting this log.
Yeah..
That thing cracking right there, I don't know what to do.
, that really sucked!
So I'm thinking that maybe if I keep wrapping and keep going
you know, it'll get better as we go down here.
And I'll try to, like, kind of, stagger the staples at different directions
so I'm not going the same way.
Well, let's see how this works?
Want to see how this works?
These pants keep getting smaller in the wash, man!
One thing I gotta say about that damn washing machine I built,
it definitely makes your clothes shrink.
I don't know why.
Happened right after the holiday season, I think.
I would definitely say
that, putting a safety log on a float
is an essential skill to have
if you're gonna be living on the water.
The safety log, basically, keeps the float together in a storm
and it allows it not to come apart.
This is going swimmingly.
Okay, I don't know. I never know.
We have to, clean out between the logs
and make sure that we can get that cable in the right spot,
make sure everything's nice and skookum.
And then, take a Jack and start cranking up on the cable
and sucking everything down nice and tight,
pulling the logs up to the safety log,
stapling 'em down,
making sure everything is tight and right
when we... when we're done.
All right. Sweet!
There's my butt crack again.
I have no butt, and I'm sorry.
You need some suspenders, that's what you need.
Suspenders.
All we gotta do is wait for Troy to get here
and lift up the house and we'll be set.
- Like, really set! - Yeah, we will.
One of the great things about having Troy around the bay
is that he knows how to get in the water and dive.
And so, I did a little bit of milling for him last year,
and so he's gonna come back and return that favor
by diving under my house with some barrels
and he's gonna fill 'em up with air,
and that will push them back up.
Hell yeah! I'm pumped.
That's a nice size...!
It went up his nose, man.
What do you think?
We got plenty of bait, that's for darn sure.
Well, let's get out there so we get the traps set.
You got a bit of driftwood in your beard, Carl.
- Do I? - Catch all kinds of stuff with that thing.
I'm a Gill-netter,
I'm always trapping stuff in there.
All kinds of good here.
Wow.
Grab that, throw it in the skiff.
Okay.
Hey, bud.
What's up, guys?
What a nice,
plethora of barrels.
Squibb and I just put, barrels
underneath one of the buildings
over in... in town over there just the other day,
so that's fairly fresh.
We're... we're sure it works.
If we get a lot of barrels under there,
this will add quite a bit of time to our floats.
- Sweet! - Yeah.
Well, let's, let's add some years to it?
Yeah, let's do that!
You're gonna let your thumb ride the drag.
- Free spool. - Okay.
You're gonna walk it right over here
and you're gonna put it right back in the pole holder.
This is slightly more complicated than I remember.
Basically, we're gonna make every attempt
to catch some fish for my son, Kelly.
Let that thing slide all the way back.
- There you go. - Yep. All right.
We'll see how much he's retained over the years.
He never really, you know, seriously fished.
He was more of a musician from the get-go.
But, we'll... we'll see
if he can get back on his bicycle.
Try not to get hung up on the rope there.
Well, pass the pole under the rope.
If possible. Here, I'll help you.
Yeah, my arms ain't that long.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's just, kind of, you want to watch the wire.
If you see a piece of pop weed in it,
you wanna take care of it.
Like, on a good day, like, in a couple of hours,
with just two hooks in the water,
you can catch, like, 60 fish.
Yeah.
Well, there was a fish on.
He's this little guy.
All right. Hey, it's the new rig.
You know what you're doing.
Gonna pull that one in?
Yeah, go ahead and pull the center one in.
Yeah, there's something on there.
That's good.
That's a nice sucker fish right there.
Look at that.
If you're gonna come up here,
you might as well enjoy,
you know, the fruits of this part of the world.
Did I get tangled up on that line now?
No, you have not.
You're good, you're good, you're good. Just reel.
Right there.
He's not much smaller than the first one,
but get about 10 more and we'll be in the chips.
About 10 more. Fish and chips.
Well, cool. Nobody's in here yet, curly.
I don't see a buoy.
Yeah, the commercial season hasn't quite opened.
It's great to get here before they get here.
Get this first pot ready here.
We can do that. We have the technology.
Well, we're gonna go crabbing
and before long, the commercial boats are gonna be in there.
After that, you ain't gonna get nothing.
Never know where these crabs are gonna be, you know?
It's kinda 40, 50 feet of water usually.
Good lord.
That is a crabby, tasty treat there.
I'm just gonna pitch this over
right here.
Down she goes.
My! That's, that's the bottom.
There is a little shot of line
right where junior's left foot is.
Junior's left foot.
Behind that marked buoy.
Yes, Roger that.
It's got your egg.
You're kidding.
That thing just fricken... damn!
Are you kidding me?
We just lost a pot due to a rotten buoy line.
That sucks.
'Cause I can't get another trap till I go to town.
- The whole thing... - rotten.
That much line.
Well. It's rotten.
That's what I get for not checking my rope and.
Damn it!
I guess you don't need that shot of line now.
No.
Junior!
Now I'm down one pot
and I can't get any more pots for a couple more months,
and by then, crab season will be over.
So it's gonna hurt my chances
of catching enough crabs for the winter.
Well, here we go.
All right.
Lucky pot, lucky pot, lucky pot.
That's kind of a prime example of mother nature at its finest.
It'll take it away from you in a hurry.
We just lost probably a 150, 200-dollar pot.
Not only is it expensive to replace,
that pot could've caught probably a dozen crab or better.
Well, there's the last one!
The deep pot.
Then we go clamming after that.
Cool! Time to move.
All right.
Well, let's go get some clams.
Yes!
That's gonna catch us lots of many sandwiches.
One for junior too!
All right, dad.
Go ahead just... just a little bit resistance,
and somebody drive the damn boat!
What do we got, a fish?
We... we... we got a fish?
Go ahead and take her out of gear, please.
Skipper was asleep at the wheel.
My goodness!
I think there might be something on that one now too.
On one... which one?
The one on the... left side.
- Port. - Port, yeah, I know.
Not doing half bad, dad.
We're... we're catching some nice... some nice big ones.
It's funny, when the children leave home
and... and get out in the world...
And we got another one coming.
It's pretty easy to lose track of time.
And if you're not in Alaska,
you might as well be on the moon.
But then, you see 'em
when they're... they're both approaching 40,
they're healthy, and they're smart as whips,
it actually makes a person feel good.
It's working!
Somebody did a good job.
I think the village that they were raised in
pretty much speaks for itself.
I think we've got,
enough on board now for a huge feed.
Toss 'em in the cooler.
Thank you, little fishies.
You look great, man.
No, yeah, like I said.
A real diver?
Yeah, like a pro, man.
Like the you see in magazines.
You wanna push me?
I'm sure you've always wanted to push me.
Yeah, kinda.
Recently did a similar job with squibb
where we put barrels under a float
to lift it and prevent it from rolling.
I'm gonna try and bring that same concept
to more of the community.
You want another one?
- You wanna second barrel? - Yeah.
Here you go.
Is that a merman?
A merman!
It's a merman.
A merman!
So I have a sneaking suspicion
that all the wood really close to home
has already been taken.
But this might not be a bad spot
to walk real quick just to check out.
I don't know.
Morgan's working at the store,
so it's a good time for me to take Veronica out
and, show her how to get a log off the beach.
And I think I got a pretty good place to check.
And let's see.
Toss our anchor out too, I guess.
I'd say beach logging is an important skill to have.
You can still find good firewood out there.
And you got a peavey and a shot of line,
you can get through the winter.
Kinda smells like.
Does not smell great.
Some wood smells kinda like a dirty diaper.
You can burn anything.
Honestly, you can if you dry it out.
But there are some things you can do
to improve the odds of getting something
that's gonna be good firewood.
That's spruce.
- You smell that smell? - Ooh!
Yeah, that's the first one that I've actually smelled.
It's kind of piney almost?
That's a good piece of spruce right there.
I like that.
Carl is an amazing teacher.
He is so patient.
Even though he's younger than me,
he's almost like a big brother,
'cause he knows all this stuff that I don't know.
You see all these cracks,
- how they're picking up gravel? - Yup.
That'll destroy your saw.
- Aw. - That being said,
you let this roll around in the water.
When you get to the beach, just try and peel it, you know?
But if you started, you know, back here somewhere,
- you get 10 rounds out of it. - Okay.
That'll be a nice little pile of wood.
It's been a dream of mine
to figure out how to have a completely sustainable home,
like, you don't have to connect to the city's electric,
you don't have to connect to the water,
you got your own water catchment system.
Well, dang, Carl!
Wee! It's moving.
You did that single-handedly!
Okay, let's pull any rollers we got,
move 'em up again.
This has been a dream of mine,
and something I've obsessed about
for a long time.
And learning these skills are Paramount.
You wanna try pushing it or should we peavey it?
It's always funner when you do it by hand, you know?
I'm testing my muscle strength!
All right.
God.
Go!
Yeah!
Go, baby, go!
There it is.
Almost.
Push!
Okay, she's in the water.
Woo-hoo! We did it!
Full blast!
We're at the last barrel right here, man.
Placing this thing.
Hopefully, that's the last little bit of lift we need here.
One of the first things you learn in... in scuba diving
is to always have a dive buddy,
always have somebody down there with you.
Up here, that has proven difficult.
So it's only me in the water out there
so I need to be cognizant of everything going around me.
You know, it's kinda all on me once I'm under there,
so it's really, really important
that, you know, that I stay safe and I don't die.
Well, hopefully, this last barrel
- is gonna make it count. - Yup.
- I'm hoping so. - I think so.
We can hear him down there breathing.
I'm sure it's dark, cold, and lonely down there.
We're running low on daylight and we're running low on air,
and so, I'm hoping he can get it all done
in the Nick of time.
The... the top buttress thing is leaking like crazy.
I can see bubbles flying out
just as fast as they're going in.
Okay.
Do you want me to take the wrench down,
see if I can tighten it anymore?
Yeah, you can try that.
All right, hope this works, man!
Woo! I'm ready to get some clams, man.
I've been sitting way too long.
Our weapons.
We might get a snack out of here.
Yeah.
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh.
I'm looking for clam holes.
Ooh.
Ooh! There's a whopper.
And... Son of a gun!
I've got the mother lode over here.
There's another one.
My god.
Big butter. Woo-hoo!
Two. Two! Meat in the pot.
Every one I grab has got a clam in there.
We gotta kill some time
while our crab pots are soaking,
so we're pretty fortunate
to be able to scratch up some steamers.
I like steamed clams, man. I add lots of garlic.
I think it's fine, at least like it.
Lotta good memories going out clamming, I'll tell you that.
My family, you know, we used to get butters and steamers.
The funnest part for me as a kid
was just going there, you know,
getting to go the beach.
I love clams though.
My hole went dry, man!
Time to go check them crab pots.
Yeah, this is pretty good.
I don't have any white wine, man.
It's hard for me to tell where I'm at
- once I'm under there. - Yeah, I bet.
It's really dark and horrible visibility.
I'm sure it is.
I can't tell where I'm putting 'em,
but hopefully.
That's a very fancy pipe, sir.
Yeah, it's going if you want some.
Man, don't mind if I do now.
Five degrees, pull.
Yeah.
Oookey-do key.
Pots have been soaking for a while,
and hopefully, we'll score some crab.
All right, Mary, I think you can get in.
This shallow, you think?
- Go ahead. - Okay.
Thank you.
Come on, jun, up front.
He might be all right where he is now.
Okay.
Hell, hopefully, we got crabs, man.
Hope so.
Tide's going out really, really fast.
I'm not sure I have any idea
how to get this log on to the beach.
So we just pull in,
let the mo... let the momentum kinda do a "u" and
- we'll just pull up to the beach. - Okay.
And try not to let it hit your outboard when you pull up.
Once we got in there,
you know, the skiff's out of the way,
then we just pull it up and let the tide go out.
- Well, you make it sound simple enough. - It's quite simple.
I can see a hundred ways I could do that incorrectly.
You'll be fine.
I'm not... I won't think about that.
Yeah.
We'll burn that bridge when we get to it.
My god, Carl!
You just lifted it up!
Don't always have to... be busting our asses,
sometimes, you just, you know, a nice leisure trip.
It was... warmed my heart to see my youngest boy.
It's, hard to put into words.
We got a little guy.
He's a... a real little guy though.
- Five pounds. - No. We're
we're gonna let that guy go.
It's hard for me when I get into fishing mode
to like, not to push as hard as I can.
But I want to get a good chunk of meat
for the young lad to take home.
And, hopefully, they can enjoy that.
We got something. There's a little buddy.
And I guess, technically, we are allowed
to retain some of these guys when you're doing it,
subsistence too,
- but he's a little small. - Yeah.
You want me to hook... unhook him?
I'm gonna sit here and supervise
because I'm legally prohibited from participating,
as a Washington resident.
So, I'm just gonna try to, you know,
enjoy the time that we have together.
My dad watching me,
so, of course, I can't just do it.
Well, I have a hard time
unhooking anything with a gaff hook.
One of the things I miss terribly
living down in the lower 48
is the food that I grew up with.
Look at that little guy.
I just wanna bring back something with me from home.
- I'll do. - Go, be free!
You see something?
Yeah, we got one coming up.
Okay.
It's got a nice size looking Halibut.
He looks like a good eating, keeping fish.
All right, well, you need a hand?
Well, he's like a...!
Hell, yeah!
That's what we're looking for.
Yeah.
You guys are doing great.
Pull him up. There you go.
Look at that teeth... perfectly timed blow.
Come here.
Bring him back and bleed him.
Yeah, I wish I could help.
Well, you are helping.
Well, Kelly, you're not going home empty-handed,
you got at least a
- that's a nice fish. - Yeah.
There isn't anywhere else like this in the world.
I'm... I'm seeing it's a 30-pounder now after picking it up.
I miss it terribly up here
and, I don't regret leaving,
but I do regret not coming home
as often as I could've.
- Whoa! - What's next?
What do we wanna do next, guys?
- Well... - I think we need to go,
fillet these guys out.
- And get 'em in the freezer. - Okay.
Sounds good.
Maybe, maybe have a beer.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
None of that hurts my feelings.
Yeah.
I've got blood on my new pants.
Just when you think you're done.
Here you go.
Well, I guess that, last barrel
has a loose, cap at the top,
and so it's leaking air which is letting water in.
And so, Troy's going down there with a bung wrench
and gonna tighten it up a little bit,
and see if he can get it to seal.
Nothing's easy underwater.
It's absolutely physically exhausting work.
It's going on down there.
As I'm pressing on that wrench,
it's just moving me
instead of moving the actual bung cap.
So that's a little frustrating.
I'm trying to get my legs up and wrap 'em around the barrel.
Get my other arm wrapped around the barrel
and use the bung wrench with one hand.
But, I think we'll make do.
That looks good.
- It worked? - Yeah.
- Success! - It looks good.
Sweet! It looks like it's working.
- Yup, it... - hell, I feel it working!
That slant went away.
Troy actually managed to get
all the barrels under the house today,
which is an amazing feat.
He, did it with all the air that he had.
And, I think everything worked out just right.
It was just kind of a Nick of the time thing,
but we got it done.
How's it looking?
Dude, I mean,
I'm seeing parts of my float I've never seen before.
This is like... this is crazy dude. Wow.
Yeah, this is like, whoa, better than I expected.
Dude, this is crazy. I owe you now again, big time.
I mean, like, big time, big time.
A hot shower will... will be payback enough.
Yeah. I got one of those ready for you.
We even got a pizza cooked up, some coffee.
Get you all primed up, man.
You want to try out the electric chainsaw on this, I assume?
Yeah, well, since it's so big,
- is it okay to cut that side first? - Yeah.
If you start seeing sparks, stop and back out.
- Look at what's there. - All right.
So, yeah. There you go.
Veronica has the energy,
the willingness, the drive to try things,
but she's also not jumping in without looking.
She's taking her time and being cautious
when it's called for,
so I think that's, the hallmark
of someone that's gonna be successful here.
Holy. All right.
Let's see what we're working with.
I love the idea of taking what nature has provided
and then turn it into something useful like heat
and keeping someone warm for the winter.
Nice looking wood, really.
I sound like a big dork, but no,
I'm really excited about the firewood.
- Pulled in my first beach log. - Yeah?
With Carl's assistance and his peavey.
What do you say about letting me cut,
like, at least one round with the gas powered?
Yeah, that's fine.
Yeah!
Personally, I think that Veronica's gonna be very successful here.
All right, be very, very careful.
And watch that trigger.
But one of the biggest things that she's got to learn
is that no matter, you know, how long you've been out here
and how long you've done the same chore,
it just takes one tiny little oversight
and, yeah, it can really put a damper on your year.
Ooh, careful!
Remember to let off the gas before you pull the saw out,
'cause if you touch anything or that chain bumps something,
it hops off of there, yeah, it'll you up.
So you wanna just keep going with your saw on that end
and I'll start down here then?
Yeah, I mean, I need the training.
I am very grateful to Carl and Morgan
for sharing their time with me and their knowledge.
And I might not be real good at any particular thing right now...
Wow, that... that's exciting.
It's kinda fun, isn't it?
But the growth I'm experiencing as a person,
it feels immense.
All right. Let's cut, like, one round's worth.
Okay.
To take up to the house,
and then we'll have enough wood to make dinner.
Get hot, sounds good.
The hard way.
Yeah, Morgan!
Don't get me.
Here's our first pot.
I can coil rope.
Hopefully, we're loaded with crab.
Yeah!
I want my sandwich, man.
Well, I see lots of kelp on our pot.
Whoa.
Is it full?
Holy moly!
- It looks like we... - We got one. - One.
Kind of gnarly.
See what he is.
It's a male.
He's not a real big one, but he's legal.
Well, he's got a leg or two missing.
Boy, he looks like he went through hell.
He sure does, something had a hold of him
and, yeah, we'll eat him.
Well, there's one.
We each got a... a skinny sandwich.
Right.
A half of sandwich each maybe.
Hopefully, these other ones are climbing with 'em.
Right.
I'm hoping that we got pots full of legal, male dungeness crab.
You cannot buy this stuff in the fish market
the way we get it, it is so fresh.
I dunno. I got weight.
Got the slack out now.
Please, please, please, please, please.
What the hell?
, there ain't nothing in there,
even got all the bait.
Yeah, it did.
Cleaned it right up.
Damn it! I figured these things were gonna be full.
I did too.
But I always got high hopes, you know?
Yeah, I don't know if there's sand fleas down there or what, but...
Who knows?
Onward to the next one.
Please, please, please.
Yeah, this is the... even one more would be nice.
The final, final here.
The final, final of all final.
What do we got? What do we got, curly?
Woo!
There it is.
All right, here we go.
Down to one pot.
What did we get?
Here we go!
Any color?
Nothing.
Nothing but a bunch of dang kelp.
Daaamn!
And this slime all over the place.
Damn!
Just don't seem to be any in the area here.
No bait, no nothing.
What the hell? Something's down there.
Place must be loaded with sand fleas or something
to eat all our bait up like that.
Damn it!
Sand fleas are little, tiny sea creatures,
and they will just annihilate your bait.
They're so tiny,
when you pick your pots up, they just wash out.
They're definitely the culprit.
Well, that sucks.
Yeah, it does.
Hey, we still got steamed clams to eat.
Yes, indeed. I'm kinda hungry.
Well, I'd say, that's a nice accumulation
- for just one afternoon's... - Yeah. - ...Catch.
We've done better, but we've certainly done a lot worse.
Yeah, and the problem is when... when you do better,
then you got that much more work to do.
Nice fish. This is the... my favorite size right here,
just because you can pick it up.
The fillets aren't dry.
Guess I'll start working on the rock fish.
I think this trip for my little brother
was really important to my father actually.
He hasn't seen Kelly out here in a long time,
and I think it meant quite a bit for him
to get him out here
and, spend some time with these folks.
Well, the next time you come up, you're gonna come up longer
- and you're gonna get to do this yourself. - Yeah.
- So, this is stupid, you being gone for... - yeah.
Seems like a thousand years I haven't seen you.
Yeah, I know, I know.
I moved away 15 years ago,
and I've only had a chance to make it back twice.
You want to try your hand at one of these puppies?
Yeah! Yeah.
You know, it's my first time coming out here
in almost 10 years, so, you know.
I am the same age my dad was
when I was just a little kid running around,
so it just puts a lot of things into perspective.
I just want to spend as much time with him as I can.
I almost don't know if I want to go back.
I'd say it's time for some fish tacos, dude.
I didn't realize how much of a city girl I was
until I moved out here.
I actually thought I was
maybe a little more hands-on than most people,
but, boy, there's so much to learn out here,
and it's been an interesting journey.
Troy did amazing.
I feel so much relief
knowing that we've got these barrels under our float now
and we don't have to worry about it
in winter storms.
We don't have to feel like
we're gonna sink or bash apart.
I couldn't be, like, more happy.
Thanks again, Troy.
Yeah, thank you so much.
Yeah, this has added years to our float
and it's just, you know,
it's a good... good feeling on the inside.
Yeah, you bet, guys.
Well, that's a pot-full.
Clammy boy.
You know, it's kinda like we've opened the door,
spring is here, we can get back out and do stuff.
Put that lid on there, cook 'em up quicker.
Yeah. Otherwise, they'll take forever.
I take pride in my home and my community,
and if you have that, you can thrive here.
Bummer, we couldn't get crabs,
but at least we got some clams.
I got no complaints.
Me either.
So what am I looking at here, Kelly?
What is this salsa?
That is a salsa verde. It's got
it'll blow my brains out?
It should be kinda, like... like medium.
The older I get, the more the people that I love
are... are no longer walking around on this planet.
And I think it's... it's important to realize now
that there's a good chance
that any time you say goodbye to somebody,
it might be the last time you see 'em.
I found some stuff.
Memorabilia.
So, it's important to,
to reach out to your family, you know?
Tell your... tell your folks you love 'em.
- There you guys are. - Yeah.
And, and try to spend that time, you know,
because it... it gets thinner and thinner
as the years go on.
That's me.
That's you. Your brother.
Hopefully, we'll be seeing him sooner than later.
Captioned by point.360