S14.Special Salt and Steel

[kassygreene]

I'll add a link when Disco puts it up.  And here it is.

Captains share inside accounts of the season's epic final surge and discuss the next generation of leaders; Capt. Wild Bill reveals why he may have fished his last season; Sig relives the terror of being dead in the water.

Edited August 29, 2018 by kassygreene

[walnutqueen]

I thought it was telling that each of the "Old Guard" captains expressed their admiration for Sean, and what he has accomplished at such a young age and with very little preparation compared to most other captains, who learned while moving up the ranks.  He seemed quite verklempt at the praise, too.  Sweet moment.

Although I rag on Jake every chance I get, I've got to admit I liked his sense of humility and sincere wonderment that he's made it to the captain's chair.  The speech he gave to Sig had me as teary-eyed as everyone else at the table.  Damn him!  ;-)

[kassa]

Damn, though, the gut punch of openly saying "I really don't want to lose my family the way you guys did, Bill and Keith."  They handled it well, but yikes.  

I would have liked to have heard how Sean is approaching the relationship/boat-life balance thing.  As I recall, his parents worked on their boat together, so maybe his plan is to look for somebody who wants to play an active role fishing and running the business.  I suppose we could have gotten Josh's take on things, too, but I think his decisions in that department may be a bit less ... carefully thought out.

I loved that Sig reiterated the "save your money" thing. I know that's one aspect Jake really took to heart and has mentioned before -- that you have to mind the BUSINESS, live beneath your means, pay all your bills, get your house paid off, etc., because the large dollar amounts you deal with on a daily basis promote irresponsible binge spending, and too many men end up in poverty having gone through MILLIONS of dollars. He had never had anybody show him how that stuff worked, and Sig did that for him as much as the fishing mentoring.  

[kassygreene]

This save your money thing is something Sig's father did.  He helped crew members save some of their money; I don't remember if he held it physically or helped them bank it out of easy reach, but it is a family concept.  I got this from Sig's book (North by Northwestern), which is a decent read.

[kassa]

Yes, I read that too! Sig was a millionaire when they started the show. In one of the early Rowe-hosted shows he came right out and said he didn't need to fish for money, he just needed to do it because it was his identity. Other captains seemed much closer to the margins.

I remember that Sig's father and later Sig himself used to hold Matt's money (at his request) so that he couldn't blow it (all). That's a generous (and probably often thankless) thing to take on.