Deadliest Catch's Cameras Missed Out On A Colburn Vs. Hillstrand Bar Fight
Discovery's "Deadliest Catch" is well known for documenting nearly everything that goes on aboard the crab fishing vessels that work within the Bering Sea — including the fights between crew members. Amid the tumultuous and isolating conditions of the ocean, it's very easy for tensions to rise beyond the point of no return, and many crew members have gotten into small fights or scraps over the years.
Speaking to FOX 11 Los Angeles in 2015, "Deadliest Catch" stars Keith Colburn and Johnathan Hillstrand revealed that the cameras once missed a bar fight between the Hillstrand crew and the Colburn crew, with family members on both sides taking a beating. "Our crews have fought in bar rooms, and my brother broke a guitar over his brother's head," Hillstrand said, pointing to Colburn. "The camera guys were so unhappy with themselves they didn't get this fight."
Hillstrand went on to say that he and Colburn have grown very close since this initial bar brawl, comparing their relationship to the kind where you "get into a fight and turn out to be best friends." Although it's a shame that fans never saw this dramatic bar fight within the series, Hillstrand's comments make it seem like it was one of the most aggressive fights in series history, especially when considering the broken guitar.
The fight would have been the largest in series history, if the cameras were rolling
Fans have seen plenty of extreme fist fights and physical altercations over the years. A few notable examples include the violent fight between Matt Bradley and Jake Anderson, which was caused by an argument over hydraulics and forced Jake to leave the ship, and another incident in which a "Greenhorn" sailor and a veteran deckhand got into a physical altercation after only catching three crabs.
Perhaps the most infamous scuffle in series history occurred between longtime deckhand Freddy Maugatai and another Greenhorn sailor named Dane Tebo, which once again resulted in the expulsion of a crew member. Available on Discovery's official YouTube channel, the cameras once again show up late to the action, with Maugatai claiming to have been sucker punched and Tebo claiming his actions were a result of constant harassment from the older deckhand.
More frequent than these fights are the shouting matches, aggressive shoves, and frequent verbal abuse levied across the ship whenever somebody isn't doing their job properly. While the cameras certainly capture plenty of these smaller disagreements, it's safe to say that this full-on bar brawl that Keith Colburn and Johnathan Hillstrand talk about would have been the most prolific fight in the show's history had it been caught on camera.