Hello! I’m Captain Melissa Stubbs, AKA Captain Hook. Growing up in West Texas made boating a rare thing, but that didn’t stop my love for water and boating starting at a young age.

As a child, my Aunt Bon used to take my sisters, my cousins and me fishing at the lake every summer. She taught us how to fish using stink bait, chum, trot line, water dogs and worms. A few years after my earliest fishing experiences with her, she upgraded to a fiberglass pontoon boat with a 175 Mercury outboard motor. Boy, I tell you what! We started staying out all night on that new boat water fishing. I learned to raft, canoe and use a bass buggy on all sorts of small ponds and lakes.

We frequently slept on that boat after a long night of fishing with Aunt Bon. We used our life jackets as make-shift pillows and our towels as blankets! She would wake us up when the fish started biting again, and we would all scramble to try and get another catch.

I’m so grateful to have these memories to fondly reminisce on. They are part of the reason I fell in love with boating and fishing. In my humble opinion, nothing beats those warm summer nights on the lake.

My Uncle Gene also had a boat. It was a 17-foot outboard ski boat. I learned about water safety and water sports from my dear uncle. Water skiing was THE thing back then!

As a young adult, I dreamed of being on the sea as much as possible. I interviewed for the Naval Academy at West Point and the Merchant Marines in my 20s. I was selected to go to the Merchant Marines. My father was a nuclear electrician on submarines in the Navy during the Vietnam War. So, I was excited to carry on in my father’s maritime footsteps. However, my Father had another plan; he didn’t want me to leave and be that far from Texas. He wanted me to be an officer through the ROTC program at the local university. So, I enlisted in ROTC training as a Freshman. I gotta be honest though… it was very disappointing. I was practically never out in the water or on the open sea like I had dreamt of for so long. However, I did learn leadership, marching, rappelling, survival skills, and how to shoot military rifles and machine guns.

I transferred after the second year to a university closer to the sea. I obtained my Bachelor's Degree in Photography and Business. Then I started my lifetime pursuit of education.

My father encouraged me to pursue medicine, so I did! I was a nurse for many years and received an education in laboratory medicine as well. Having this experience/education and caring for people in critical situations for so many years helps me feel prepared for anything and everything that could happen out on a boat in the open water.

As a nurse, I took night classes at an art school and eventually received my Associate’s Degree in Art. I specialized in acrylic painting! After living in Houston and working in oncology in the Medical Center for 20 years, I made my move to Galveston - finally living by the ocean.

I bought my first boat in 2011. It was a Bayliner ski boat. In 2021, I upgraded to a custom center-console fishing boat. Then, in 2022, after three long and stressful years working as a nurse during the pandemic, I quit nursing to pursue my dream of becoming a boat captain full time.

I wanted to share my love for the sea and boating with others. My passion is to teach, guide and provide entertainment to others through the things I love the very most: water and boating.

I’ve been doing this for a long time, and it brings copious amounts of joy and fulfillment to my life. I’m full of knowledge, experience and plenty of funny and entertaining stories about boating and my life :) If you come on an adventure with me, please take advantage of that! Ask me anything, share your stories with me and tell me your wildest boating & water adventure dreams! This is my life’s passion, and I wouldn’t change it for the world!