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Deadliest Catch is back, but one familiar boat is missing. In the season 20 premiere, Captain Jake Anderson received some devastating news about the F/V Saga that jeopardized his chances at a successful crab fishing season. 

The F/V Saga has been repossessed 

Crab fishing is a high-risk endeavor at the best of times. But with the Red King Crab fishery open for the first time in years, Anderson was hopeful that he could make some good money this season. However, a successful haul can’t happen if he doesn’t have a boat. 

“A couple weeks ago, I got a call from my partner saying that the Saga is possibly running out of money. King Crab’s open, and that was going to get us out of the hole, easily,” Anderson explained in the premiere, which aired June 11 on Discovery Channel. “But I had no idea that things were this bad.”

Anderson, the co-owner of the Saga, has sunk nearly everything he has into the 107-foot vessel, which he’s captained since 2015. But as he headed to the dock, he got wind that something was not right. One of his deckhands informed him that there was a repossession note on the boat, to Anderson’s horror and disbelief. 

“I have all my personal money, my kid’s college fund all wrapped up in that. Now there’s a chain on f*cking door,” he said. 

The ‘Deadliest Catch’ star felt ‘like such a fool’ 

Jake Anderson of 'Deadliest Catch' standing on the deck of a fishing boat
Jake Anderson of ‘Deadliest Catch’ on the F/V Titan Explorer | Discovery Channel
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With the start of the fishing season just days away, a frantic Anderson desperately tried to figure out what was going on. But his partner Lenny was MIA. 

“There’s a repossession note on the boat and I don’t understand why,” he said 

Anderson opened up about his situation to his former mentor Captain Sig Hansen of the F/V Northwestern. He learned that there were liens on the boat and the bank now owned the Saga.   

“I just feel like such a fool,” he said.

Anderson admitted that he didn’t keep a close eye on the money side of the Saga’s business. 

“He didn’t mess with the boat, and I didn’t mess with the finances,” Anderson told Hansen.  

That may have been a critical error. In an interview with TV Insider, Anderson said he was still in the dark about exactly what happened with the Saga, and that the legal issues were still being sorted out.  

“Just before I was getting to go red crab fishing, I found out my partner, with all due respect with the legal things going on, we don’t know what he did. I lost my boat,” he explained. 

For now, the Saga’s time on Deadliest Catch appears to have come to an end. But Anderson isn’t going anywhere. In the premiere, Hansen threw him a lifeline and offered him a spot on the Northwestern. And later it the season, it looks like Anderson might return to the captain’s chair on the F/V Titan Explore. A promotional photo for the new season shows him on the deck of that ship, which also appears briefly in the season 20 teaser. 

Deadliest Catch airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Discovery Channel. Episodes also stream on Max.

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