Podcast: FV-Tuna.com Capt. Dave Carraro previews Wicked Tuna Outer Banks season finale

Capt. Dave Carraro [photo courtesy FV-Tuna.com]

The season finale of the hit series Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks debuts on National Geographic on Sunday, October 18 at 8:30 p.m. with a 90-minute episode.

Capt. Dave Carraro has been a mainstay and a fan favorite on National Geographic’s hit series, Wicked Tuna, which chronicles the lives of commercial bluefin tuna fishermen in America’s oldest seaport – Gloucester, Massachusettes.

He is the legendary captain of the FV-Tuna.com, and has an unprecedented five wins on Wicked Tuna. Carraro’s repeated success and highly competitive nature sometimes put him at odds with the rest of the fleet, but he is notoriously more interested in catching fish than making friends.

Carraro is a northern New Jersey native who grew up fishing in the waters near home but who moved to Gloucester almost 20 years ago, when the bluefin population around New Jersey began to wane.

In addition to being a captain and boat owner, he’s a professional airline pilot.

But to Carraro, flying is a job — a means of subsidizing his true passion in life. “I would have not become a pilot if I couldn’t fish,” he explains. “Fishing is my priority. If I had to choose between the two, I would quit flying rather than quit fishing.”

To Carraro, the most challenging part of being a fisherman is sleep deprivation.

“We just don’t sleep. We’re out there for three, four days at a time, and we’re awake for most of that. It seems like even when you get a chance to lie down for a nap, that’s when you hook up. Or when the weather’s rough and you have to shut down the operation, you still don’t get to sleep, because you get tossed around in the bunk.”

Being able to function at a high level even when exhausted, he says, is what differentiates the professional fisherman from the amateur.

“You get your second wind, and you feel like Superman,” he says. “You know that when you come in, you’re going to get a chance to sleep. But sometimes, when you do hit the bunk, you’re so excited that you don’t want to.”

This season, Carraro joined the fleet of the hit spinoff Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks for the first time, traveling to the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center to compete head-to-head with Captain Greg Mayer of the Fishin’ Frenzy, the winningest captain on the Outer Banks version of the series.

Captain Dave was our guest Thursday morning on OBX Today on News Talk 92.3 WZPR. Click the player below to listen:

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About Sam Walker 1512 Articles
Sam Walker was news director for OBXToday.com, Beach 104, 99.1 The Sound, Big 94.5 WCMS and Z 92.3 from August 2011 to March 2022.