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THE PALMETTO TEAM

HILTON HEAD, SC

MEET THE CAPTAIN

Captain Trent is one of the rare natives of Hilton Head Island. This has been his only home for almost 40 years. Trent was born into a family that has thrived on the Lowcountry’s rivers and estuaries for hundreds of years. They fished, picked oysters, crabbed, shrimped, and frolicked in anything that has to do with Mother Ocean, and they still do to this day. Trent’s dad was the most hard-core fisherman he has ever known.

CAPTAIN TRENT MALPHRUS

 

Trent got the fishing fever at a very young age as he followed in his father’s footsteps. All of the fishing knowledge he has attained originates from his father’s teachings. Trent now works to perfect his skills and achieve a greater level of understanding of fish and the intricacies of fishing. Trent’s father has passed on, but would surely be proud of his son and his love of fishing.

Trent was introduced to the Palmetto Dunes lagoon system when he was about 11 years old. His father would bring him to work and drop him off to fish all day in the brackish lagoons. These lagoons are abounding with wildlife like redtail hawks, ospreys, otters, kingfishers, and the occasional alligator.

Trent now lives and works in Palmetto Dunes on Hilton Head Island. It is here, amid this familiar saltwater kingdom, that he is now raising his own son. Every morning when he wakes up to this great big world, Trent’s son runs to the back door. Staring out at the dock he asks his mother, “has daddy already gone to work?” Occasionally he rises early enough to find the skiff still moored at the dock and asks if Trent has caught any fish yet. It seems another Malphrus has started down the road toward a life-long love of fishing.


CAPTAIN STACY GARBETT

 

Captain Stacy Garbett was born in the small town of Douglas, Georgia. His grandparents owned a farm with a few well stocked ponds that held bass, catfish, and brim. Every weekend as a child, Stacy headed to farm for the weekend to do chores and fish. As a young boy on the farm, he had two choices; work in the field or go fishing… He took the obvious choice. This is when Stacy’s family decided to move to Hilton Head Island and his love for saltwater fishing began.

Stacy remembers stomping through mud flats, creek banks, and salt marsh at a very young age. Then, when he was 12 years old, his dad purchased the family’s first boat. After the first cobia season, the family boat was converted into the family “fishing” boat. Anything in the boat that did not pertain to fishing was now gone. Eager to learn how to catch more species of fish, he read any fishing literature he could get his hands on. Learning new techniques and modifying old ones, he began to understand that there is so much more to fishing than just wetting a line.

On weekdays and rainy weekends, there was no boating, and Stacy discovered the banks of the salt water estuary called Palmetto Dunes lagoon. This is when he discovered his love for Hilton Head’s largest lagoon system. Stacy has worked with Trent at Palmetto Lagoon Charters for four years now and loves every minute of his “job.”