NORTH BEND, Ore. - It's the job that Corey Eisenbarth loves to do, and it hasn't bothered him that he's been able to do that job in relative obscurity for most of his life.

But that may all change after he spent a season on one of Discovery Channel's hit TV shows, 'Deadliest Catch.'

"I know the guys that are on the show. I've been fishing with them and have been friends of them for years. They offered me a job to go on the boat so I could be on the show with them," said Eisenbarth.

Eisenbarth grew up in Lakeside and attended North Bend High School, but has lived and worked in Alaska as a commercial crab fisherman off and on for close to 26 years.

"I like the freedom of it," he said. "It's not like you're punching the clock and up against a bunch of regulations. We're left up to our own devices and that's what I love."

This past winter, he joined the crew of the Cornelia Marie, one of the vessels featured on the hit TV show. He said he can't believe how popular his profession has become.

"It seems strange to me that all of the sudden people have taken a real interest to it," he said. "But now that I'm getting a little notoriety for it, that doesn't bother me to have people say, 'how cool you're a fisherman.' "

So is crabbing in the Bering Sea really as scary as it's made to look on TV?

"You know reality TV isn't really reality and it's made out to be scarier than it is," he said. "Of course, whenever you're dealing with Mother Nature in general, boats do sink. But it's really not that dangerous. They dramatize it really good."

Eisenbarth said since being on the show, not much has changed for him. And even though it was a fun experience, he's not sure he wants to do it again. But he said it is nice to be looked at in a new light.

"No one blinked an eye about it for 25 years and now it's like, 'oh my God, you're a commercial fisherman, how can you do it?' " he said.