'Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks': Pinwheel catches up with the other teams after hauling in a big bluefin tuna
While all the other teams managed to catch at least one Bluefin Tuna and secure their spots on the leaderboard, Pinwheel captained by Tyler McLaughlin was struggling to get their hands on a fish. Tyler desperately began praying to the "tuna gods" as he saw the progress that the other teams were making, while he and his sister Marissa were yet to get their first catch.
The duo finally manages to bait a double catch, and as they got excited about their huge bounty, unfortunately, things didn't work out for them. The fishing reels got intertwined and messed up and their big catch escaped them. Despite feeling low over the prospect of not catching any fish yet, Tyler makes the executive decision to not use the green rod.
The green rod is hung on top of the vessel, with multiple baits tied to it. The usage of rod ensures that at least one fish is caught, due to the presence of several baits. While the Little Shell's team exclusively resorted to the usage of the rod to secure their spot on top of the leaderboard, Tyler didn't want to budge from his usage of the traditional fishing rod.
Later, in his confessional Tyler reveals that over the years he had observed how the fish caught through the rod were of much superior quality and were of a higher value as compared to the ones caught with the help of a stick. So, for that reason, Tyler wanted to continue using the rod. Although the news of other teams proceeding ahead in the competition was getting to him and he began feeling the pressure, he didn't allow himself to be consumed by it.
He encouraged his sister/ crew member Marissa to continue looking for the fish. After some waiting, she once again managed to bait a bluefin tuna. This time around, they managed to catch a huge bluefin tuna. They then hauled it to a buyer, who checked the tuna to ensure that it met the quality standards (fat content, cherry red blood color). Their tuna didn't have much fat but had nice coloring to it. So it fetched then about $4,000 and put them in the running to earn the top spot on the leaderboard.
'Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks' Season 7 airs on Sundays at 9 pm ET on National Geographic.