Gone Fishin’: A Day on the Chesapeake Bay

An Accomplished captain and acclaimed artist shows us more than just your typical day on the Bay.

Written by Joy McPeters

Last fall friends invited me to go on a half-day charter-fishing trip on the Chesapeake Bay. Living in Baltimore, I’ve done lots of these trips before, and they always make for a pleasant day out on the water with your pals, even though no one ever catches very many fish. This trip, however, would prove to be surprisingly different.

We were told to be aboard the boat, Breezin’ Thru, by 5:30 a.m. Since we were leaving out of Kent Narrows, down near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, this meant a bleary-eyed 4 a.m. departure from Baltimore. When we pulled up at the Kentmorr Marina we were greeted by Captain Tilghman Hemsly and his first mate, Kathy Stimson. As soon as we boarded, Kathy served an enormous feast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and scrapple, a regional dish that’s sort of like a breakfast-time pork cake. Once we’d polished everything off, we pulled away from the dock and cruised into the bay. The sun was just beginning to rise and we could make out the Bay Bridge in the distance.

As we motored along at a comfortable eight knots, Tilghman gave the wheel to Kathy so that he could start preparing the fishing lines. We passengers relaxed with Bloody Marys in the roomy aft deck, where I noticed several quirky signs near the helm. One said: “This is my ship and I’ll do as I damn please.” Another read: “Our Captain is always right.” Clearly, Tilghman was something of a character. Then I saw a sign that really caught my eye: “Captain Harry Carter.” I wondered if this could possibly be the same Captain Carter who used to take me charter fishing with my dad when I was a kid. I went over to Tilghman and asked him, and sure enough, this was the very same boat, built in 1949 and captained by Carter up until Tilghman purchased it from him. Tilghman told me that he’d started working with Carter in 1984 and took over the boat in 1990. He remembered my dad and several of his friends, all of whom were regular charter customers of Captain Carter. I knew then that my luck was running—even as a kid I always caught plenty of rockfish (known as striped bass in other parts of the country) and bluefish on this boat. How could things be any different now?

We heard the call from the captain: Time to start fishing! We grabbed lines that Tilghman had expertly baited and cast them into the water. It wasn’t long before someone got the first bite and the craziness began. Soon we were all pulling in blues and rocks, and just when it seemed we couldn’t catch any more, Tilghman would announce that we were heading to another spot. We’d get there, put our lines in the water, and almost immediately start reeling in more hungry fish. Apparently Tilghman had a reputation for knowing the best fishing holes, because the other charter boats were constantly calling him on the VHF radio, asking for advice.

After several hours of nonstop fishing we anchored in a protected cove to swim, sip cocktails, and enjoy another unbelievable meal. Kathy took some of the rockfish we’d been catching and prepared a red sauce with it that she served over pasta. She grilled the blues and finished them with a light butter sauce. Bluefish get old quickly, which is why you don’t often see them in grocery stores or fish shops, but when they’re fresh they are delicious, and these could not have been fresher. She also served crabcakes made with crabmeat that Tilghman had just caught the previous day.

It was during lunch that I finally had a chance to hear Tilghman’s full story. Tilghman is not only an amazing charter-boat captain but also a renowned artist whose work is displayed throughout the Eastern Shore. His most famous piece is the Maryland Watermen’s Monument, a sculpture in Kent Narrows designed to honor all the men and women who once earned their living working on the Chesapeake. Tilghman’s friends George and Camille O’Donnell approached him about creating the sculpture, and even though up until then he’d never worked on such a large scale he accepted the challenge. The indomitable O’Donnells spent seven years raising the necessary funds, at which point Tilghman had to figure out how to turn a sketch and a 15-inch clay model into an actual sculpture. Today the memorial includes large-than-life bronze watermen standing nine-feet tall in a 13-foot-long skiff. Tilghman is also known for his oil and pastel paintings depicting everyday life on the working waterfront—Marylanders picking crabs, shucking oysters, repairing boats. Tilghman trained as a painter at the Maryland Institute of Art, and decided early on to combine his two passions: fishing and fine art. He has worked on the Chesapeake for 30 years, painting and sculpting all the while. He’s recently taken these twinned interests one step further with his newly christened boat, Ark Angel, which runs daily tours around the bay and aboard which he offers art classes.

Back at the dock, Tilghman expertly cleaned and filleted our catch so that we could take them home, and continued to regale us with his stories. Of all the days I’ve spent fishing on the Chesapeake, this is the best one I can remember since, well, since I was a little girl, fishing on Breezin‘ Thru with Captain Carter and my dad.

For more information about Tilghman’s art and fishing charters, visit: http://wthemsleyfineart.com/ or www.breezinthrucharters.com