Deadliest Catch: Did Johnathan Hillstrand Retire? Yes, Until This Changed His Mind
Johnathan Hillstrand is a man of contradictions. He's been known to get into bar fights, but he also seems like a softie deep down; he even penned children's books inspired by his grandkids. He's just as happy on a fishing vessel — a place he's spent decades of his life — as he is on the back of a Harley-Davidson.
Those whims are evident to anyone who has watched "Deadliest Catch," where Hillstrand has been a key figure since Season 2. After a 37-year career, Hillstrand retired following the end of Season 13. At the time, he seemed happy to trade his time at sea for another love — auto racing. "I'm used to driving a 113-foot boat at 8 knots," he said in the season finale as he stepped into a muscle car. "Now I'm in a 16-foot car doing 118 in 600 feet. Making up for lost time." He ended his "Deadliest Catch" tenure with a bang, netting a record-breaking haul for the crew of the Time Bandit in 2017.
It didn't take long for the siren song of the sea to call out to him, and just a few years later, Hillstrand put his retirement on pause to return for Season 16. According to Hillstrand, he returned in order to retain his fishing quota, also known as captain's share. "Captain's shares, they'll take 'em from you if you don't use them every couple of years, so I had to come back out," Hillstrand explained to Stuff. In other words, Hillstrand hadn't yet hit the ceiling of how much he was legally allowed to catch as determined by the Alaska state government.
Hillstrand was also lured back to sea due to rumored sky-high prices resulting from an increased demand for seafood. "Russia changed their marketing strategy," Jake Anderson said in the Season 16 premiere. "That means there's gonna be skyrocketing prices."
Hillstrand had extra quota to burn
Johnathan Hillstrand's Season 16 return to "Deadliest Catch" was captured in stylish fashion. "I want to capitalize on the money that's going to be made this season," Jake Anderson continued in the season premiere. "So what I did was, I thought out of the box. I hired someone that's, um, very unique. He's not known for the most orthodox way of doing things. He's a Bering Sea pirate." Enter Hillstrand riding towards the F/V Saga as Iggy Pop's "The Passenger" blares in the background.
Hillstrand brought his expertise, as well as his aforementioned extra quota. But for the longtime captain, it was hard shrinking to second-in-command. "It was sort of hard not to micromanage," he said in the same interview with Stuff. "We go through a lot. It's crazy what happens out there."
The former captain also brought a small army of Hillstrands with him, including his brother Neal, his nephew Philip, and his wife Heather. "I have to admit, I missed being out here," Hillstrand said in the episode. "And I'm back."
Hillstrand may have undergone some post-captainhood growing pains, but he was happy to have Anderson at his side. Another captain, he said, would have been a non-starter. Initially, the producers wanted him to team up with "Wild" Bill Wichrowski on the F/V Summer Bay, but Hillstrand refused. He told Stuff, "No, you couldn't give me enough money to go out with Wild Bill so I went out with Jake Anderson."