Swords: Life on the Line
Upcoming episodes
May 11th
600a
Foreign Relations
Unwilling to surrender, Chompers and the Big Eye rough it out on the Grand Banks with crew morale at an all-time low, an empty fish hold, low fuel levels, and a diminishing food supply. In addition to their list of ever-growing setbacks the boat is also out of bait. Chomps sends out a desperate email in search of help and it’s Linda to the rescue. But, as the story for the Big Eye goes, with every let up there is a letdown. Just as the Big Eye starts to pull in fish, they realize they are tangled up with a Japanese long liner. Though Hurricane Igor turned up the water causing dismal fishing, Scotty and the Eagle Eye II are still picking away at a season on the Grand Banks. With bad fishing reports flooding the radio, any hope of making a paycheck is slowly fading away. Feeling optimistic, Scotty sets in the hurricane tattered waters and hauls back. The captain’s optimism pays off instantly as a double marker is on the line, but the high hopes of the crew are soon dashed as they find themselves tangled with the rival fleet. Frustrated, Scotty turns the Eagle Eye II away from the Grand Banks fishing grounds for the season. On the Hannah Boden, Captain Linda is determined to put a trip on the boat and become the fleet’s top earner for the first time in 15 years. Before the crew drops their 40 miles of mainline, Linda steams towards Chompers’ to answer a distress call to transfer crucial supplies. The next morning, Linda and her crew are hoping to be on the fish after a successful offload. Unfortunately, they run into the same rival boat that has been setting and hauling across the rest of the fleets gear. Though they are away from the chaos on the Grand Banks, the Frances Anne crew finds themselves dealing with their own set of unique problems on Georges Bank. As they make it out to the fishing grounds for their second trip of the season, the captain and crew are looking to top the fish hold and head in—but they are stopped when the boats autopilot malfunctions.
May 11th
700a
Bested, Battered, and Broke
Forced to throw in the towel and leave the Grand Banks, Scotty and the crew of the Eagle Eye II head in to New Bedford to offload their second trip and steam for Georges Bank to finish their season. After striking out on the Grand Banks, Scotty and his crew are hoping that Georges will produce the paycheck they all are looking for. A stellar haulback welcomes the Eagle Eye II to Georges Bank as hook after hook brings the scent of money to the deck. The search for swordfish continues on the Hannah Boden as Captain Greenlaw refuses to leave until she is absolutely sure the fish are gone. Though Linda is optimistic that the fish are there, her crew thinks otherwise. To boost morale and keep things upbeat, Linda engages in a competition with her engineer Johnny Brewer—the loser of the show down has to eat blue dog for dinner. After being set back by a busted autopilot, Captain Slick and the Frances Anne are headed back to Georges to finish their season strong. As they leave Barnegat Light, the boat’s autopilot malfunctions once again, forcing the captain to turn the boat around and head back for the dock. Once they reach land, boat owner Rick is able to get the vessel to hold a steady course and the Frances Anne is able to head back out again to finish out their season. Chompers and the Big Eye decide to follow Scotty’s lead and turn south to Georges Bank. Out of fuel, Chomps is forced to stop in Sambro, Nova Scotia, putting them even further behind the rest of the fleet. To add to their misery, the Big Eye is greeted by 15-foot waves and winds up to 60 knots as they approach the dock. Once the boat is refueled, Chompers sets course for Georges Bank. On the way, Woody and Chomps pay their final goodbye to their father.
May 11th
800a
Dead in the Water
Still hoping that there are fish in the hurricane mixed waters, Captain Linda orders her crew to set out another 40 miles of mainline on the deserted Grand Banks. After being out to sea for weeks and seeing little to no fish, the crew’s hopes of making a decent paycheck are slowly dwindling away. Finally, Linda decides to turn the lights out on the Grand Banks and head south to the coastal waters. Scotty and the Eagle Eye II are hoping up to come up big on Georges Bank. It’s a full moon and that means good fishing…they hope. It is just what the crew needs to fill their wallets, and it’s just what the captain needs to hold his reputation as the fleet’s top earner. As the crew starts to haul up their gear, they are surprised by what is on the line—tuna after tuna are coming on deck. Each fish means a bigger paycheck and a happier crew. The crew of the Frances Anne is having the same success as the Eagle Eye II. After losing valuable fishing days with a busted autopilot, Slick is looking to make up for lost time by taking full advantage of the full moon. The haulback begins and fish after fish are piling up on the deck of the Frances Anne…there’s just one problem… Butters. The night before, Butters failed to defrost enough bait, which means they had to fish less gear. The more gear a boat fishes, the higher their catch rate. No hooks, no fish—more hooks, more fish. Just as Chompers and the Big Eye arrive at the fishing grounds, a distress call comes into the wheelhouse. A fellow long lining fishing vessel is dead in the water, and Chompers, (being no stranger to needing help) follows the fishermen’s code and tows the vessel to safety in New Bedford. Desperate to get his season back on track, Chomps steams the Big Eye back to the fishing grounds. Frustrated by being behind the eight ball all season, the captain decides to set out...without the help of his crewmen.
May 18th
600a
Lost Hope and Last Chances
After a 1200-mile steam south from the Grand Banks, Linda and the Hannah Boden have finally reached Georges Bank. Looking to get in on the good fishing, Captain Linda calls for the help of Scotty but is ignored. Instead of communicating with Scotty over the radio, Linda spots the Eagle Eye II in the distance and sets within 3 miles of their gear. The next day brings nothing but tangles, no fish, and an autopilot malfunction. On the Eagle Eye II, Captain Scotty and his crew are looking to continue their run of good fishing, but instead find themselves tangled with the Hannah Boden. When gear is tangled it means there are no fish on the line. Despite being frustrated, Scotty sets another 40 miles of mainline in the same area. After a season of letting the big ones get away, Scotty and his crew find themselves pulling in a giant blue fin tuna—exactly what they needed to recover from the previous day’s nightmare. Captain Slick and the Frances Anne are keeping a low profile in order to keep their productive piece of water a secret from the rest of the fleet. Their secret spot has been producing and morale is high, but there’s one problem: Butters. Captain Slick has been dealing with Butters’ rookie mistakes all season and now Butters only has a few more days to prove he is worthy to be a long line fisherman. Morale on the Big Eye has reached an all-time low. They’ve set gear dozens of times and have seen no fish. Deckhands John and Matt worry about the families they have back home and are dealing with going home with nothing to show after fishing for two months. In hopes to bring morale up, Matt makes the captain’s favorite dinner of ribs, but even that doesn’t help as Chomps discovers the oven door slamming and has a meltdown.
May 18th
700a
The Final Gamble
The Big Eye has suffered its worst season yet, and bringing in only 11,000 pounds of fish for two months of fishing has left crew morale at an all-time low. Chomps decides to call it a season for the Big Eye and when the news reaches the crew, morale is boosted but not for long. Instead of steaming 60 miles to his home port in Wanchese, North Carolina, the captain decides to put his boat and crew in harm’s way to chase a better fish price 350 miles north. The Hannah Boden fights to finish their season strong, but they are held up with mechanical issues. The hours spent trying to fix the autopilot allowed the sharks to eat what small catch they had on the line. With everything seemingly working against them, Captain Linda turns the boat and steams for her home port of Portland, Maine to offload their final trip of the season. The fleet’s top earner, Scotty, has also suffered through the worst season of his career. Poor fishing on the Grand Banks forced the Eagle Eye II to finish their season up down south at Georges Bank. The Georges moon brought tuna after tuna onto the deck of the Eagle Eye II, but now the fish have disappeared, and Scotty is left with no choice but to call it a season. The captain’s decision to finish the season off on Georges Bank pays off and each deckhand goes home with 33 grand. With a decent trip aboard, Captain Slick has his crew set out once again. The crew knows they have a nice payday in the fish hold, but they are after a great one. The haulback begins, and the hooks start coming up when Slick realizes the fish have left and it’s time to call it a season. With heads held high, the Frances Anne returns to Barnegat Light, New Jersey to offload. Though slowed up by an injury, a busted autopilot, and a greenhorn, Captain Slick was able to fish his way to the top spot catching a total of 50,800 pounds.
May 18th
800a
Grand Banks or Bust
As the fall swordfishing season descends on the Grand Banks, boats along the Atlantic Coast head out into high seas, facing brutal weather and long hours to bring in the swordfish. On the Eagle Eye II, Captain Scotty Drabinowicz is eager to maintain his reputation as one of the fleet’s top captains. But his season is off to a bad start when he’s crowded out of his favorite fishing spot and forced to find a new place to fish. Captain Chris “Chompers” Hansen is also desperate to get the Big Eye to sea. Crew injuries and delays have stuck Chompers with a $50,000 bill before he’s even left the dock. Already under the gun to catch twice as much fish, Chompers is heading to the Grand Banks in the fleet’s smallest boat with three crewmembers he’s never worked with, and one greenhorn that’s never even been swordfishing. Captain Linda Greenlaw returns to reclaim her status as a legendary swordfisherman with a new boat, the Bjorn II. After a poor performance last season, Captain Greenlaw vows to retire from swordfishing if she can’t bring in the fish this year. But before she’s even left the harbor, disaster strikes when the boat runs aground and the crew starts to wonder if Captain Greenlaw still has what it takes.
May 25th
600a
Deckhands Down
Captain Slick arrives to the fishing grounds only to find out he is in second position and not exactly where he wanted to be. After a hurried set out, the crew on the Frances Anne experiences an exhausting first haul back. Even though the rough day turned out to be a solid first set, the captain is less than happy about his young gun crew and is not afraid to express it. The seas are high and so are the tensions on the Bjorn II. After a morning of colossal waves and monster fish the crew soon realizes that this is not lobstering. After a man goes down, Captain Linda quickly orders another off the deck. With two men down can the renowned sword fisherman reclaim her title? On the Eagle Eye II, Captain Scotty knows that he will not have another 10,000-pound day but he is testing the waters and using his experience to plot out his next move. After sharing information with Captain Linda and the Bjorn II, Scotty and his crew catch a slew of blue dogs but keep shark tagger, Lisa Natanson, busy. The Eagle Eye II wonders if this wave of less than stellar sets has to do with the bad luck that the Bjorn II has been having. The fishing vessel Big Eye has finally made it to the Grand Banks fishing grounds and the captain is chomping at the bit to set out. With a greenhorn and the rest of the crew older than himself Captain Chris is cautiously optimistic about how their first trip will go. After an average catch and beeper buoy mayhem aboard, Chris is wondering if his decision to go to the Grand Banks was a good one.
May 25th
700a
Turf War
The luck has changed on the Frances Anne. After a week of great fishing, Captain Kleme and his crew of 20-somethings are all sharked up. When they’re not pulling in blue sharks what they do catch is nothing but shark bait. To make matters worse, Slick’s lead deckhand, Lemmy Eastburn, neglects his duties and lets the boat’s fish hold fill with water putting the boat’s 50,000 catch and his job at risk. After a season and a half without turning a profit Captain Linda on the Bjorn II turns it around. She continues to work with the fleet’s top earner, Captain Scotty on the Eagle Eye II. As the dream team of Scotty and Linda continue to pack their holds with fish, they hope the rest of the fleet won’t get wise to their numbers and try to muscle in on their water. The seasoned crew aboard the Eagle Eye II battle the elements beyond the capacity of their gear. Stormy seas part the mainline with a backlash that knocks veteran deckhand Tommy Fox to the ground. Meanwhile, last season the fiberglass-hulled, Big Eye suffered damage due to the harsh Grand Banks weather. This season Captain Chompers pushes his crew and his boat to their limits so he can get off the Grand Banks before fall weather picks up. He’ll cross anything in his path to get what he wants – even another boat’s gear. Finally, chaos ensues when another long line captain muscles his way into Scotty and Linda’s prime piece of water. Scotty manages to defend his turf, but Linda may not be so fortunate. Against all odds, Chompers manages to fill his boat, but he’s got a 1000-mile steam and a storm the size of Texas standing between him and home.
May 25th
800a
Overloaded and Into the Storm
On what could be the last day of the fall season for Captain Linda and her crew, Mother Nature has set a high price for swordfish. Violent seas toss Captain and crew about as they race to fill the hold with some of the biggest fish Captain Linda has ever seen. By the end of a bruising day, Linda and the crew of the Bjorn II are headed for Newfoundland and their first offload of the season. Slow fishing has the crew of the Eagle Eye II on edge when deckhand Darryl Wallace loses what could be the only big money fish of the day. Moods improve with the fishing as a twenty-thousand-dollar bluefin tuna is hauled aboard. With the valuable fish packed away in the hold, Captain Scotty and the crew brave rough weather to set the gear again. With a boat full of Grand Banks swords, Captain Chompers and the crew of the little southern boat, Big Eye, are in the middle of a thousand mile steam to New Bedford. Low on fuel, Captain Chompers has no choice but to push through the heart of a strengthening storm the size of Texas. At the dock, a fiery offload blow up leaves Chompers a man down. Despite a run of bad blood between Captain Chris Kleme and deckhand Lemmy Eastburn, all is forgiven amid an epic run of great fishing. By the end of the trip, Captain Slick and the crew of the Frances Anne have the fish hold stuffed and are packing fish anywhere they can find space. With what could be the biggest trip ever on board, the Frances Anne’s young gun crew has secured coastal bragging rights.