The DTB Podcast, Presented by Bless Your Heart Nonprofit Corporation · The DTB Podcast

S3E2 - Aaron Pierce with Four Horsemen Tackle and Guide Service

·41 min·2 clips

The Boom Boom Shrimp took two years of molds and testing to glide like a real shrimp.

Jarae Jean-Bonjaro fills in as host and welcomes Aaron Pierce. The conversation starts with family roots, hometown geography, and the question of how a down-the-bayou kid ends up doing work that touches both fishing and coastal restoration. Aaron names his parents, Lynn and Ann Pierce, his wife Dana, and his two daughters, Berkeley and Bren, then traces his path from Cut-Off to Salafouche High, Louisiana Tech, and LSU, where he earned a degree in ag business and a master's in oceanography. That mix matters. The interview leans into the practical side of wanting work he could love rather than work he only tolerated, and he links that idea to making tackle and guiding decisions around what actually works in the water. Function comes first. The show lingers on the difference between gear that catches fishermen and gear that catches fish, and that line becomes a plainspoken thesis for how Aaron thinks about work. Utility beats hype. From there, the talk opens up into the fishing life he grew up around, including hunting and fishing with his dad and grandfather, the camp behind Golden Meadow, and the early years spent taking out visiting friends on little marsh trips in an 18-foot boat. The marsh shaped him. He talks about getting started as a guide and realizing he could make some money on the side doing trips like that, which fits the interview's patient, unhurried rhythm. Nothing here feels rushed. The conversation moves naturally into family history, including his grandfather Lee Ontario, the stories attached to him, and the fact that he was the first director at South Lafourche-Levy District and has floodgates named after him. That part lands. The host treats those details as lived local history, not trivia, and the tone stays warm while the subject stays serious. It never turns clinical. The episode also keeps the community angle close, with the back-and-forth framing Aaron as someone who understands both the water and the people who depend on it. That balance gives the discussion its shape. Near the end, the episode circles back to the things that anchor the show: community language, coastal identity, work that matters, and the small pleasures that keep a conversation human. Even the closing music question fits that mood. By the time Aaron says the first song that comes to mind is "Brown Eyed Girl," the episode has already done what it set out to do, which is make the listener feel like they have spent time with someone who knows the water, knows the coast, and knows why both deserve care.

As heard by us

A down-the-bayou conversation about fishing, coastal erosion, and the family roots behind both.

Aaron Pierce comes through as someone who knows the water, the work, and the cost of watching a coast change. As a Cut-Off native with ties to tackle, guiding, and coastal restoration, he gives the conversation a grounded feel that never slips into polish for its own sake.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a bayou-rooted talk about fishing, coastal erosion, and a lifetime around the marsh, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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