Boca fisherman nets reality series
Commercial spearfishing can be a lot like catching hell: rough seas. Bossy captains. Decompression illness. Prowling sharks.
The job is no day at the beach, said Boca Raton’s Paul Varian, who stars in the new reality series “Catching Hell,” debuting June 1 on TheWeather Channel.
During 10 episodes, the series captures highs and lows of his craft, following crews on three commercial boats as they scrounge the bottom of the Gulf for prized grouper, snapper and hogfish to hawk at Florida restaurants.
As early as the first episode, the challenges and dangers become clear — from navigating between shipwrecks and coral structures to visibility to dealing with one of the ocean’s most dangerous predators.
“I’m not scared of the shark that I see. I’mscaredof the one that is behind me,” Varian, 35, says on the show, as he dodges a hammerhead shark that swipes one of his groupers. “Sharks, they’re the playground bully.”
Varian began professionally diving for fish at age 18 aboard a friend’s boat in Boca.“He stuck a tankonmy back and stuck a pole in my hand and said, ‘Don’t come uptoo fast,’ ” recalledVarian, who caught a hogfish and two lobsters on that first try.
“All I ever wanted to be was a commercial fisherman,” he said.“WhenIwas a boy, I toldmy parents Iwant to grow up and catch fish and sell them to people.”
These days, Varian captains his own commercialand charter boat, the “Sophia Rose,” named after his9-year-old daughter. Under his Boca Raton-based company, Varian Charters, he uses his 27-foot boat for spearfishing, lobster trapping and taking fellowscuba divers out onweekends.
“When it’s ‘Take your kid to work day,’ we go fishing,” Varian said. “She comes out on the boat with me. … The setting iswaymore exciting.”
But for the show, shot in Hudson, north of Clearwater, Varian worked aboard the “Just Shoot Me,” which along with the “Suzy B” and the “Laura Jean” ventured 80 to 100 miles off Florida’s west coast for trips that lasted a few days. The show was shot during three months last fall, with production wrapping by Thanksgiving.
Besides Hudson, cast members hail from other parts of Florida, including Siesta Key, Tampa, Sarasota and Jacksonville.
About four years ago, Varian suffered a diving accident that almost left him paralyzed. He developed an air bubble in his spinal cord, which caused a temporary loss of sensation in his legs, he said.
He didn’t dive for a year and had to fish the old-fashioned way, using a rod and reel aboard his boat.
Despite the risks, Varian remains passionate about his craft and enjoys losing himself in the silence of the big ocean blue.
“My descent is the most exciting time,” he said. “Everything in the world swims by. Every time I go down, I amlike, wow.”