Knapps Narrows and Tilghman Island

Knapps Narrows is at the north end of Tilghman Island, its passage effectively making Tilghman into an island. The entrance is just south of the Poplar Island Straights, and when traveling from the north it will help you cut an hour or two of travel time when entering the Choptank River from the Bay.

The entrance to the Narrows is a narrow channel that takes you almost into the marshy areas that are just to the north of the channel. On more than one occasion we’ve seen sailboats aground just off the entrance mark, so a high tide entry would be recommended. This has long been one of my very favorite pictures of the Chesapeake Bay. The marshy areas, the wide open spaces and water all around, with just that dot of color that is the skiff the boys are fishing from, speaks of the Eastern Shore to me. Kids there can drive a boat almost as soon as they can walk.

Tilghman is where many of the Skipjacks dock when the Virginia oyster season is not open. (Oh! Skipjacks? I’ll be writing on those separately, so watch for that addition!)

The current through the Narrows can be “interesting,” running either in or out with the tide sometimes up to 3 knots. The Bridge opens “on demand,” and the bridge tender is always gracious about it.

The area has seen some growth in the last 20 years, with odd shaped houses popping up where there was no land before, developments of big fancy homes appearing amongst the hard earned and much simpler traditional homes of the area. New restaurants and Inns have opened on both sides of the channel, when before it was only The Bridge Restaurant (where for $1 you could have all the oysters on the half-shell you could eat if you ordered them as an appetizer . . . ) Those days are long gone, unfortunately.

The Tilghman Island Inn is on the south side of the narrows west of the bridge, and I can attest to the fact that this place has come a lo-o-o-ng way from its humble cinder block chicken coop beginnings. The chef is masterful! They have a dock for transients, although it will not accommodate large boats. It is worth a stop if you can manage it, for any meal!

There are many creeks and rivers feeding into the mighty Choptank, with several interesting towns on its banks (including the “back door” to St. Michaels!) so the trip through Knapps Narrows is almost a “must,” for any number of reasons.

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