Tietje’s Got Something in His Craw

By Pete Robbins


Elite Series rookie Dennis Tietje is taking this hero emulation thing a bit too far.

Those readers who are students of the sport may remember four-time Bassmaster Classic winner Rick Clunn’s pithy quote, “To understand the owl, you must study the mouse.” In other words, to learn more about bass, you need to know the habits of their prey – shad, bluegills and the like. But Tietje has gone to a whole different level: The Roanoke, La., angler has made crawfish his life’s work.

We’re not just talking two or three of the little pinchered suckers in a ten gallon tank. We’re not talking the occasional trip down to the local crick to watch ‘em dart and glide around the rocks. Tietje went a little nuts. He and his brother started a crawfish farm when they were in high school and rapidly went from a half-acre pond up to 10 acres all the way up to 500 acres of the tasty little bass treats a few years ago.

“I’ve been farming all my life,” he said. “Full-time since 1987.” By the end of the last decade, they were harvesting “somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds a year.”

“This will be my first year not doing it,” he added. “But I still own the farm.” There were various factors that came into play in making the decision to give up toiling over the ponds, but the biggest one, of course, was the opportunity to fish at the tour level, a lifetime dream for the two-time Federation Nation Championship contender.

In addition to putting money in his pocket and a bit of food on his plate, crawfish farming prepared Tietje well for the Elite Series in less obvious ways. Whenever the tours stopped at Toledo Bend, his place on the lake became the unofficial welcoming center. You could see OT Fears serving as a welcoming maitre d, Peter T working a boiling 55-gallon drum of craws and some guy with the initials KVD – not just fishing’s greatest angler but also it’s most prodigious eater of crustaceans – stuffing his face in the corner, not talking to anyone, unable to open his mouth wide enough to say “Sexy Shad.”

Based on over a decade of gustatory history with the anglers who are now his peers, you can bet that if Tietje breaks down or need some help this year, there will be more than the usual number of competitors willing to come to his aid.

“All you need to do is mention the word ‘crawfish’ and it draws attention whether you meant to or not,” Tietje said. So even though he’s out of the farming business, off to pursue little green fish, Tietje wants to keep the wheels greased. Accordingly, he’ll use his Godfather-like crawfish connections to sponsor a crawfish boil at one of the tour stops this year, probably in Alabama.

He’s eaten them every way under the sun, from a pre-dawn breakfast to a late night snack, and asked to describe how to cook ‘em Tietje gives a Forrest Gump like rambling dissertation, but cooking, like fishing, always comes back to the basics.

“I don’t think you can beat ‘em boiled,” he said.

Other than the social benefits of his former trade, will his farming past help him on the water? He believes it will.

“I would say I know more about them than the average angler,” he said. “The biggest part is the coloring, when it changes and what makes it change. I’ve seen it personally every day. For example, when there are hot colors at certain times on Toledo Bend, they’re hot for a reason.”

So what are his key colors? Inquiring minds want to know.

“Green pumpkin is number one,” he said. “I also like watermelon and red shad. Black and blue, too. I can’t say how many times I’ve seen that, but I have.”

While he uses a lot of different soft plastics to account for varying conditions, his “number one, go-to” is the Zoom Ultra Vibe Craw. It’s not currently available in a shade called “mouse,” but maybe Tietje and Clunn can get together and come up with something sufficiently delectable.