*This is a guide for starting at Season 1 to catch the most crab as possible as quickly as possible*

Dont set more than 4 pots
-the crew will stop collecting after pot 4 and you will have to
throw the hook yourself on pot 5 onward.

Don't use the "northwestern" style boat.
-it is full of game ending glitches and bugs, use at your own risk

Choose a fishing location as close to Dutch as possible to save fuel (see more info below on fishing locations)

Buy at store:

Buy these items at the beginning of Season 1 before you leave Dutch,
3, buoys, 3 pots, 3 hooks, 4 cans of repair spray, 4 pot repair kits, 10 bait
-DON'T buy any totes, they never break or get lost, you start with 1 already, you NEVER need to buy these
-Season 1 first trip you should leave Dutch with ~12,000 gallons of fuel, after the first 1-2 trips you should be leaving with it maxed out at 18, or atleast about 15,000 gallons.

-buy more hooks, repair spray, pot repair kits and bait every time you go to Dutch, eventually your economy will be so good (usually by the end of the 1st season) you can max buy all of this whenever you want, but just to get out of port and maximize your efficiency, the above is all you need to start.

Upgrades:

Level 1 trade discount
Level 1 add 1 crew member (don't hire more than 2 crew-members, see why below)
Level 1 harder, better faster
--Then max out Crab price boost, and repair spray boost (skilled oiler)
--Another good upgrade is Eco-sailing to extend your fuel resources, once again its not needed though
Max these in that order.

*You can crush each season with 1-2 crew-members doing all the tasks, you don't have to rush to upgrade and hire 4 guys. 1-2 is all you really need. The less crew you have the less bugs or glitches you run into. 1-2 runs really consistently and your not going to see a huge increase in your efficiency with 4, 2 is the best.

*With 2 crew-members and fully upgrading the crew crab sorting and crew speed boosting upgrades are the quickest way to max $$$$$, you'll get around 15 crab sorted per 10 seconds when fully maxed. Sorting crab takes the longest, you'll see why maxing this out is important. 2 man crew with fully maxed speed upgrade and collect and store 4 pots in ~3:30 minutes, with the 2 man crew you'll see minimal bugs, crew sticking etc.

All the other upgrades are pointless unless you are going for achievements or for fun, but they aren't even much fun honestly lol

Vessel upgrades:

These are all pretty pointless and you absolutely do not need to invest any money here at all to crush every season. If your going to invest any money at all go with the motor upgrade for speed.
The rest of the upgrades are just for fun or achievements.

Fishing:

-Pick a spot at 55m-100m, 3-4C and muddy or sandy. Don't go rocky. You can go as low as 2.5C but I wouldn't chance it, find a spot with the above parameters and you'll get good crab.
-Set a string of 4, set for 12 hours.
--When setting pots, set the crew to set pots, then stay in the same direction on gear 1, this will give the best distance between pots for collecting and fishing
-Set again in the SAME spot, repeat until you need fuel, run out of bait, need repair items or space for crab.
--Every 5-6 strings, repair all your equipment (don't forget pots too)
After each collection, wait and let your crew sort the crab.

You should be catching around 80-100 crab per pot in a good spot, if your catching far less (unlikely), go somewhere else and try again.
Catching 250-400 in a string is solid, stay in that spot.

Don't worry about giving your crew rest, there is no mechanic in the game requiring them to get rest so just like the real fisherman, they never rest.

Then just fish that same spot the whole season and you win every time.

Save the game often, I usually save after every set and collect or after visiting dutch.
-the game has a great deal of bugs and glitches, so I wouldn't trust long periods without saving.

If you run out of money you lose, always have $15k-$20k after buying and upgrades just in case.

If you get caught in a storm, face the nose of your boat into the
waves that are coming toward you and set the boat to 1 or 2 gear.