Sig Hansen and Johnathan Hillstrand Unite for a High-Risk Adventure in the Wild West Bering Sea

Don’t underestimate Captain Sig Hansen’s crab radar.

Deadliest Catch season 21 finds the fan-favorite skipper teaming up with Captain Johnathan Hillstrand aboard the Time Bandit to the furthest reaches of the Bering Sea in search of monster red king crab.

The unlikely pairing came about last October, when rumors swirled that an abundance of crab awaited in the waters off Adak Island, which is part of the distant Andreanof Islands in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain.

“I keep thinking it was so interesting that we joined forces,” Sig tells Entertainment Weekly of his collaboration with Johnathan, which began in the premiere episode that aired Aug. 1. “Twenty, 30 years ago, that wasn’t gonna happen. You’re too competitive. And now we’re like these old guys that are teaming up. So for me, that was just a lot of fun.”

Heading so far west was also a sail down memory lane for Sig, who fished the remote area with his father years ago. In addition, it was also an opportunity to say “I told you so” to his daughter, Mandy Hansen, and her husband, Clark Pederson.

“We were as far west as you legally could for the Bering Sea fishery,” Sig says. “Getting out close to Adak is a moment back in time for me. And those crab that we caught back then with my father and fishing in that area was a lot of fun.”

Sig continues, “I’ve always told Mandy and my son-in-law about what it was like out there back in the day, and the type of crab, the difference between the crab that are way out west versus the ones that you get normally in the Eastern Bering Sea. And, you know, it’s almost like they didn’t believe me, like, ‘these monsters don’t exist,’ and then you get out there and lo and behold, daddy’s right.”

With Sig on the Time Bandit with Johnathan, Mandy captains the Northwestern on her own for the first time in season 21. For Sig, it was a reminder of his past working with his dad, and that “everything’s repetitive.”

“It just made me so proud that she was making her own decision,” he says. “I don’t think she was letting anybody talk her into doing anything. And to me, that’s what it takes to run a boat and to be the boss, you know, whether it’s right or whether it was wrong. You just have to be the one to make that tough choice sometimes. And she did. And she does. And she showed it. And I wasn’t there to hold her hand. So I think it’s great.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Sig teases that the journey west was a success — albeit not without risks.

“I don’t regret going out there,” he says. “I can say that we found enormous crab. And I can say that it brought back a lot of good memories… But it is a dangerous place.”

Deadliest Catch airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery Channel.