INTERVIEW: Capt. Wild Bill, star of ‘Deadliest Catch,’ on his scariest moment at sea

The great Bering Sea is an unusual place for a person’s 9 to 5, but that’s exactly where “Wild” Bill Wichrowski sets up each crab season. Of course, his days are a little longer than 9 to 5.

Wichrowski is one of the captains profiled on Deadliest Catch’s new season; he’s actually been a mainstay for a few years. The fact that he’s on the reality series at all is a bit of a surprise. The captain originally turned down the TV offer to stay focused on his sports fishing business. But now he’s back on the Bering Sea with camera crews in tow.

Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Wichrowski about his travels and tribulations.

Thinking back on the many years you’ve spent in the Bering Sea, is there one trip or experience that ranks as the most dangerous?

The most afraid for my life I’ve ever been was transiting a boat to Seattle in 85-90 knot winds with gusts to 120 knots. The boat broached coming down the back side of a wave where the wheelhouse windows were in water. One main engine quit and we lost the generator, so we were without power until I could start another generator. Scariest 15 minutes of my life.

There’s a criticism that reality television is not exactly “reality,” but Deadliest Catch seems like the real deal. When viewers watch the show, are they getting an accurate picture of life as a commercial fisherman?

“Deadliest Catch” is the real deal. There are fixed cameras, plus a producer and a camera operator, onboard each of our fishing vessels. They document pretty much every minute, starting from the time we prep to leave the harbor through our final offload. So, yes, it’s as accurate a picture of life as a commercial fisherman as you will ever get short of being out at sea with us. Of course, there are thousands of hours of footage that are edited down to the episodes that eventually air, so viewers obviously don’t see everything. But what you do see is real.

Where did the name Wild Bill come from?

The nickname “Wild” Bill originated in high school and stuck. Looking back, it probably should have been “Stupid” Bill. Some stunts I pulled were climbing between two moving cars on a freeway… diving through ice and swimming the length of a pool and breaking out at other end. And there were a lot of fights back in the day.

What can fans expect in this new season of Deadliest Catch?

Brutal weather, rough seas, ice, mechanical problems, tension within crews, injuries, drama – everything people have come to expect from the show and more. No two crab seasons are ever the same because Mother Nature is the wild card.

This season I’m running a different boat, the F/V Cape Caution. She hadn’t been used to fish crab since the derby days, so getting her ready was a challenge. My son, Zack Larson, returns as my deckhand. Plus, there’s another father/son team on the Cape Caution crew: Kerby Mitchell (engineer) and Mike Mitchell (greenhorn), so that’s interesting on a few levels. My deck boss, Nick McGlashan, is the son of an old buddy of mine, so we have an intergeneration thing happening on our boat this season.