The strangest catch: Fans of Discovery Channel show gather in Seattle

Skippers Sig Hansen, Phil Harris and the testosterone-charged Bering Sea crab fishermen from the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" will drop anchor in Seattle Saturday for CatchCon, the first convention for this pop-culture phenomenon.

If you didn't know about CatchCon until now, then:

1. You are already out of luck — it's sold out. And ...

2. "Deadliest Catch" loyalists wouldn't consider you a hard-core fan, anyway.

Fans of the "Deadliest Catch" look at CatchCon as their Trekkie convention, with die-hards coming from as far as Wisconsin, Maryland and Florida. It's one of the hottest tickets in town.

On March 24, the Discovery Channel revealed to a few fan sites that the skippers, many of whom live in Seattle, would talk about their sea adventures, lead boat tours and sign autographs at a free convention for their fans.

Word spread through cyberspace. By next morning, 500 fans registered, the maximum capacity, with another 600 wait-listed, a Discovery Channel spokesman said.

For weeks, organizers didn't reveal CatchCon would be held at the Bell Harbor International Center, for crowd-control purposes.

One of the lucky CatchCon ticket holders, Melissa Lobach, of Reading, Pa., is such a fan that she discusses each episode with her girlfriend on Skype between commercials.

"It's a very masculine show, but a bunch of my girlfriends and I love [it]. There is inner-rooted psychological stuff — the relationship between people, the dedication to their work and going out and dealing with fear and living on the edge," Lobach said.

Drawing 3 million viewers weekly, "Deadliest Catch" features fishermen working in the frigid Bering Sea, catching opilio and king crab while fighting gale-force winds, 20-foot waves and even literally each other.

Like "Ice Road Truckers" and "Ax Men," "Deadliest Catch" is part of the he-man genre, where for your viewing pleasure, there are close-ups of fishermen biting the heads of herrings and men spieling lines such as: "I always had a dream that I would die out here" — this from a raspy-voiced Harris, who had been spitting up blood for 48 hours.

Or fisherman Johnathan Hillstrand, who got a nasty gash above his nose from a swinging steel hook and instead of receiving aid was told, "If you are not bleeding, you are not working."

But "Deadliest Catch" isn't just some alpha-male romp, fans say. They see a show with a profound and underrated story arc, with themes of father-and-son relationships, man vs. nature and allusions to "Moby-Dick" and "The Old Man and the Sea."

One of the show's stars, skipper Hansen, thinks fans "live vicariously through us" because they have "nine-to-five jobs in cubicles."

It's Season 5, but Hansen, a Shorewood High grad, still remains stunned that fans would walk around the Ballard shipyard and nearby bars and ask where his boat Northwestern is docked.

"People are always creeping around," said Hansen, who hides his fishing boat now. "It's kind of flattering, but weird."

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com