Rising Stars: Meet Brandon Stanton of bad axe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Stanton.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I come from a long line of fishermen in my family, and ever since I was a young child either my father or grandfather Has had me out on the Saginaw Bay. whether it be ice fishing or open water fishing that’s what I grew up doing just about every weekend. Fishing has been pretty much instilled into my life and runs in my blood. When I was in my mid 20s I would get laid off every winter from my regular job and I would ice fish. Ice fishing is my passion that’s what I’m really known for and I figured what better way to make extra money than to go get my captains license and guide ice fishing trips. when I started doing this there was only myself and one other ice fishing guide on the east side of the Saginaw Bay. I’d done that for a few years before I was contacted by professional fisherman Mark Martin to teach ice fishing at his ice fishing schools around the state. I still teach at the ice fishing schools, i’m going on 15 years with Mark Martin and his vacation fishing school. Now here’s where the story snowballs, hanging around mark I got to meet a lot of the professional anglers that were on the professional walleye tour. A lot of the pros on the tour are guides, and I was guiding open water on Saginaw Bay but not full time. These pros eventually talked me into fishing a couple of different pro walleye tours which I believe really helped my business. you learn so much from these pros that make you a better angler it was a no brainer to finally go full time As a fishing guide, charter captain. Also fishing the Pro Tours for a few years and picking up corporate sponsorships really got my name out to the public. I have been very fortunate in my career to have such a huge following I don’t have to advertise that much. Of course fishing professionally comes along with some perks such as TV shows and a lot of written articles. I no longer fished the tournament tours anymore but my guide business is very strong.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a long and hard road getting to where I’m at in my career. Some of the challenges I faced Just starting out was building a clientele list, Dealing with Mother Nature Is the biggest hurdle that any guide has to face. The weather is a huge factor in this game. The weather dictates everything. Like whether you cancel a trip or not and there are some months that you might only get 5 trips in. That’s not enough to make payments so you have to really conserve money from a good month to carry over a bad month. I’m speaking as a full time guide not a part-time guide with another job. Another obstacle is social media. Social media can be your friend and book a lot of trips for you, at the same time it can also be your worst enemy. It has really glamorized the fishing industry and everybody and their brother has a dream to be a charter captain now. A large percentage of new charter captains fall to the wayside Because of the challenges involved. a lot of the new captains undercut prices, don’t realize how much travel is involved and being gone from home, A new walleye boat is going to cost you $130,000 roughly and you can’t pay for that just guiding on the weekends. Travel is another obstacle, To be a full tie guide you can’t do it on just one body of water for one season. you have to work 365 days a year to make it. I spend one month in Ohio, another month in Detroit, and then I come back home to fish my home waters. being away from your family Is another hurdle for me. The last hurdle is Equipment and breakdowns. I’m always buying brand new equipment and the reason for that is warranty in case of a breakdown. And it’s all about safety, on the water. New equipment is less prone to breakdowns and when people book a charter they will definitely book with a captain that has the equipment to get them in and out safely.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a fishing guide/ charter captain I take people fishing for money. I strive to give my clientele the best Experience possible. I want it to be fun, relaxing, and the best possible fishing adventure they could have. I think what sets me apart from a lot of the other captains is I actually make my clients do all the fishing. I’m talking about setting lines, hooking up planer boards, and picking their own lures that are going to work best for the scenario we’re in. I would look at myself as more of a teacher than a charter captain. When my clients leave one of my trips they can jump on their own boat and know exactly what to do to catch fish. When I was younger I was on a salmon charter Out of Ludington and the captain would not let us set lines or anything like that. But that’s what I grew up doing and I was a little disappointed in the charter, My clientele get the full experience they get to fish like they are basically renting a boat. They seem to really enjoy the trip a lot more when they’ve done everything themselves to catch the fish that they have. What I’m actually most known for is ice fishing. that’s what I do the majority of my tv shows on, all the magazines that do the articles on me are a majority of ice fishing. Ice fishing is my passion And I think that’s why I’m so successful with my ice fishing business Because people see the focus I have on it. Ice fishing is the hardest charters that I do but definitely the most fulfilling. A lot of people put their safety in my hands and trust me to get them in and out of Saginaw Bay. I think that says a lot about a person when 250 people a year trust you like that. I also take a lot of pride in my community. I try to benefit my community with what I do because they have supported me in my journey as a pro fisherman. I try to do a lot of different things for the kids in our area. I started a corporate fishing tourney to benefit our parks, I brought in other famous fisherman to do fishing seminars and that benefited our school autism programs, and a lot of kids fishing seminars to get kids into the outdoors. Another thing that I’m most proud of is my wife Lisa, I know a lot of wives that wouldn’t even let their husband take a chance on a business like that let alone give them the support they need to become successful. This year there has been talks of being nominated for the North American freshwater Hall of Fame in the guide category. we already hold a tile on the wall in the museum with our name on it but I would say being nominated would be the icing on the cake. that would top my career and I would probably start looking towards fishing retirement.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
First of all my wife Lisa makes me the happiest. she is my voice of reason and definitely my support whether it be technical or a crutch. Being a fishing guide also makes me happy, I guess knowing what I do makes other people happy. I also cherish any day that I have off of work that I can lay around on the couch with my dog and watch some TV with my wife.

Pricing:

• Most trips average $550. that’s for 4 people on the boat
• . most trips ice fishing averaged $250 per person and that is everything included from heat and shanties rods, reels and bait. we also provide transportation in and out on the Saginaw Bay

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.teamgunsmokesportfishing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teamgunsmokesportfishing
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teamgunsmokesportfishing
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@teamgunsmokesportfishing