Das Boat

To kick off Das Boat Northeast, Ryan Callaghan joins Joe Cermele in his home state of New Jersey to chase down striped bass—one of the most economically important fish in the region. But before they get after them, they’ve got to put the finishing touches on our 1973 Mako, which took months to turn from a pile of rotten fiberglass into a seaworthy vessel.

In this episode, Captain Frank Crescitelli and MeatEater’s own Chef Jean-Paul Bourgeois get down and dirty in New Jersey’s iconic Barnegat Bay. While their focus is exploring what happened to the once flourishing weakfish population, they also spend time digging for clams, seining grass shrimp, and soaking greasy chicken parts for delicious blue crabs.

While cobia are prolific in the South, their annual fleeting visit to Chesapeake Bay is a much anticipated event. In this episode, YouTube stars Jay Siemans and Bri Andrassy outfit Das Boat for sightcasting to these brutal fighters while getting a crash course in the conservation efforts keeping the northern cobia run in check.

Washington DC is known for fishy business, but not like this. Chef Kevin Gillespie joins accomplished kayak angler Kristine Fischer to hunt down invasive blue catfish and the hated snakehead in the Potomac River and its surrounding swamps. They’ll find out how detrimental these fish really are to the environment, as well as how they taste.

Bowfin are a native species that rarely get the love they deserve. In this episode, bass phenom Oliver Ngy teams up with fly legend Blane Chocklett on Lake Champlain to get deep in the weeds on the importance of bowfin in the ecosystem. They’ll also test their mettle against what can be a challenging fish that punishes tackle and fights to the death.

In the Das Boat Northeast finale, Joe Cermele takes the helm again, this time on Lake Erie with hot shot walleye captain Ross Robertson. After outfitting their craft for the precision trolling that scores giant summer walleyes, these old friends get a lesson in what makes this famous walleye fishery tick, and what ticks the rod tip when you trade walleye lures for hot dogs.