You do indeed have to drop the skid plate as shown in the first picture.
Front tow hooks are held on by 2 bolts. The forward most bolt you can loosen and just leave in but the rear bolt is the long one...roughly 10.25" which is the reason for removing the skid plate. I took a crescent wrench and hammer and just tapped out the bolt, wasnt that difficult.
If you look at 3rd picture you can see im pointing to the two bolts that hold the mount for the skid plate forward bolts, you'll definitely need to loosen those, even easier to judt remove altogether, in order to pull the tow hook out. There just isn't enough room for them to pull out with that mount there. That's all...it's actually pretty simple.