Bonnet Head Sharks

Today we were fishing at the North Jetty Port Aransas catching lots of small bonnet head sharks on shrimp and menhaden. We caught some small undersized reds, broke off several nice ones, clients couldn't get them in. Water is really clear, lots of bait jumping, and finally a break from the big wind we have been having. Caught one oversized red 31 in.

Lost Reds

Went out Sunday the weather was bad ,high winds kept me from fishing the flats .Raining really close to us but not on us. I was running the Flipper Boat for Dolphin Docks in Port Aransas. We tried anchoring in the Aransas Channel ,like 20 other boats . We did manage a few whiting some sand trout, one small rat red .We hooked up 3 big fish ,probably oversized reds .Two were lost because of someone trying to set the hook half way through the fight and getting slack in the line. The other was lost when it dove into the rocks and broke off. Then went to fishing at the ferries .Caught some whiting and sand trout .Not much excitement there except some one saw a huge red fish and calmly asked what is this big red looking fish swimming next to the boat? Apparently I forgot to tell them we are supposed to catch those. Anyways it was a hard day fishing .

Rockport Spring Fling 08

I was in the Rockport Spring Fling media event last Monday and Tuesday this was my second year for this.This was no tournament but Brad and I really owned the show. This was 15 guides in Rockport ,last year 30.Everybody was struggling to get a bite on live bait ,not us.I had Peggy York (women in the outdoors),Dennis Smith,his wife Diana{Luresafty Wrap},and John Stuart {Scent Shop Manufacturing}.We caught lots of small reds and trout .Then we went after big trout ,John caught a 7lb ,28"monster trout on a Berkley jerk shad ,that i gave everybody.I had a nice 24" red and Dennis had several keeper trout.We all had a blast as I aggravated them as best I could .When we got to the boat ramp at 2;00 the Parks and wildlife was doing creel surveys .They said they had only seen 3 fish brought in so far till we came along. The survey man got excited and told John to go get that fish mounted ,and could not believe they were all caught on artificial lures.
At the dinner that night there was a guide bragging they took an air boat into the back lakes an got 9 rat reds ,only 1 was 31' nice fish but I knew i could do better.The next day I had Dennis Smith only in my boat ,his wife went shopping.I also drew T.J. Greeley for the second time in a row.I had this jerk last year .He stood me up and went filming somewhere else with somebody Else's boat in tow.I also had Burk Elliot {Gulf Coast Fisherman} who also bailed out on me saying he was sick.
So it was just me and Dennis fishing .We got to our spot it was dead calm and hard to catch anything ,but we did manage a few small red and trout .Dennis got a nice 22' trout on a corkie until my son Brad called me. He told me to get to the south jetty ASAP.He had already caught several keeper reds and several over-sized reds in a 4 hour trip.The biggest was 43" 37lbs.I ran the trip in 15 min. within 5 min.I already hooked up a nice 27 3/4 '' red.we fished for about 30 min then went on to other holes for monster reds.As i went to them they were all fouled up by drilling rigs and huge ship waves.As I rounded the way back to the boat ramp I had several more spots to make some easy catches but Dennis wanted to go in early. i loaded up the boat as Dennis made a fast dash to somewhere else.
When we me later for lunch at Charlotte Plummer's ,Brad met me there and already Had some monster photos printed up.I Had to convince Larry Bozka that brad had actually caught those big reds and verify it by looking at his clothing .Larry finally belied us when he looked at brads digital camera and saw the date.Anyways I have enclosed some pics for you.

OOPPS I made a blog

Let me introduce myself, I am Master Merchant Marine officer Captain Douglas Wade Stanford, a lowly saltwater fishing guide. Together with my unattached handsome son Brad we are Pirates of the Bay Charters. No water is too deep or too shallow to for us to fish.
We have our own boats and we drive boats for Dolphin Docks in Port Aransas. I also freelance for other boat owners as well.
My wonderful wife of 26 years Sherrel ,and my GORGEOUS daughter Kacie{she looks like her mom!} own a cute little store in Rockport Texas called My Fair Mermaid, and we book charters through there as well.