One Shot Charters

One Shot Charters fishes out of Adventure Marina on Okaloosa Island, the barrier island reached from downtown Fort Walton Beach by crossing the Brooks Bridge over Santa Rosa Sound. The operation runs a small fleet rather than a single boat, giving visitors more flexibility in trip length and target species than most single-boat charters can offer. Captain Kirk runs a 25-foot Contender, Captain Adam runs a 31-foot Cape Horn, and the flagship of the fleet is the Ice Man, a 46-foot Invincible catamaran built for the long runs offshore.

The shortest option, the three-hour Fun Run, keeps things simple with catch-and-release fishing in nearshore waters, a good pick for families with young kids or anyone who wants a taste of Gulf fishing without committing a full day. Six-hour and eight-hour deep sea trips step up from there, working nearshore reefs or running farther offshore depending on conditions, with the six-hour trips capped around five anglers to keep the cockpit workable. For serious anglers, the daytime swordfish and big game charter targets tuna and swordfish in blue water, using deep drop tactics and longer runs that separate this trip from a standard bottom fishing charter.

The marquee trip is the overnight Tuna & Marlin charter, a 30 to 36 hour run aboard the Ice Man that pushes more than 100 miles offshore to reach oil rigs and canyon edges where yellowfin tuna, marlin, mahi, and wahoo hold. Trips like this require real commitment, both in stamina and in gear, which is why the crew outfits every boat with top of the line Penn light tackle rather than leaving anglers to bring mismatched equipment of their own. Across every trip length, target species include snapper, grouper, tuna, swordfish, marlin, mahi, wahoo, and triggerfish, which covers most of what the northern Gulf has to offer between the nearshore reefs and the deep canyons well offshore.

One Shot Charters asks for a 20 percent deposit to hold a trip and offers a 10 percent discount to active military and law enforcement, a detail that matters given the concentration of nearby bases, including Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field, that make Fort Walton Beach a common stop for service members and their families. Because Adventure Marina sits directly on Okaloosa Island, anglers can pair a morning or overnight charter with an afternoon on the island’s beaches, making it easy to build a full day or two around a single trip without much driving. Anyone booking the overnight run should plan to lose a full day and night to the water and should pack layers, since Gulf nights well offshore run cooler than the beach ever suggests, along with seasickness remedies for the long ride out to the rigs and canyons. Shorter trips need far less preparation. A hat, sunscreen, and a willingness to handle a rod are about all the Fun Run or the half-day trips ask of first-time anglers.

Running multiple boats rather than one lets One Shot Charters match a trip to the group booking it instead of forcing everyone onto the same size vessel. A bachelor party chasing tuna offshore needs a different boat than a family with two kids trying nearshore fishing for the first time, and having Captain Kirk’s Contender, Captain Adam’s Cape Horn, and the larger Ice Man catamaran on hand lets the operation say yes to a wider range of requests than a single-boat charter can. That flexibility also helps on days when weather closes out one part of the Gulf but leaves nearshore water fishable, since a smaller center console can often still get out when a longer offshore run is not worth the risk.

Adventure Marina itself is a full service operation on Okaloosa Island, close enough to the public beach access points that a group can split a day between a morning charter and an afternoon in the sand without repacking the car. Anyone new to Gulf fishing charters in general should ask the crew ahead of time what to bring beyond sunscreen and a hat, since policies on food, drinks, and coolers vary by boat and by trip length, and confirming details the day before saves time at the dock on the morning of departure.