Cape Henlopen State Park
The Fishing Pier
A long pier running out into Delaware Bay from the north side of the cape — one of the best-known fishing spots on the Delaware coast, and the place where a German submarine crew handed over their boat at the end of the Second World War.
Before you plan around it: sections of the pier have been fenced off for structural reasons, and the state has been weighing repair against a full replacement. How much of it is walkable changes. Check with Delaware State Parks before you drive out, especially if you are counting on reaching the far end.
The whole story, on the crossing itself
What happened at the end of this pier is the ending of Cape Henlopen: The Surrender, a history game played on the Cape May–Lewes Ferry. It takes about seventy minutes, one pass covers your whole party, and it finishes before the arrival announcement.
See what it is →
Fishing it
The pier reaches out over the bay side of the cape, into water that is shallow near shore and drops away as you walk out. That shape is what makes it work: different depths, different structure, different fish depending on how far out you stand and what the tide is doing.
What people fish for here changes through the year — flounder and croaker in the warmer months, striped bass and tautog as the water cools, bluefish and kingfish when they are running, and crabs off the rails in summer. Ask at the tackle shops in Lewes what is actually being caught this week; that answer is always better than anything a web page can tell you.
Before you go
- Delaware requires a fishing license for most anglers, with some exemptions. Check the current rules and get one online through Delaware DNREC.
- Park entry is charged in the warm months, and the pier sits inside Cape Henlopen State Park, so the park fee applies. Confirm the current rate with Delaware State Parks.
- There is a bait and tackle concession at the pier during the season, but hours are seasonal and it is not open year-round.
- Bring shade and water. There is no cover out there and the walk back is as long as the walk out.
- Wind matters more than weather. It is exposed on both sides, and a wind that is merely brisk on the beach is a different thing at the end of the pier.
Rules on rod limits, crabbing, size and season limits are set by the state and change. The pier is also used heavily on summer weekends — early morning is a different experience from a Saturday afternoon.
What happened at the end of this pier
It was not always a fishing pier. It was built as the mine wharf for Fort Miles — the working dock for the army unit whose job was maintaining the minefield laid across the mouth of Delaware Bay. Boats went out from here to tend 455 mines sitting on the seabed, each one wired back to a switch on shore.
On 14 May 1945, six days after Germany surrendered, a German submarine called U-858 was sitting off this coast. Her crew heard the news. They surfaced and gave themselves up.
American ships took control of her and put a US Navy crew aboard. She was brought in past this cape and tied up here, at this dock.
She was the first enemy warship to surrender in United States waters since the War of 1812.
Her crew came ashore for a weapons search and were taken to a prisoner camp in Delaware. Her captain was sent to Washington for questioning. The boat itself lay here for five days, before the Navy took her up to Philadelphia on 19 May.
There is a Delaware historical marker near the pier that tells the story. Most people walking past it are carrying a rod.
A detail worth knowing
That submarine had a quiet war. Across two patrols she never sank a ship and never fired a torpedo in anger. She came all the way across the Atlantic, waited off the American coast, heard her country had lost, and drove into a Delaware dock to hand herself over.
And there is a small human footnote. One of her crew, held at the prisoner camp, painted an oil painting for the camp's telephone operator as a thank-you for a kindness. It took him two weeks.
While you are out here
Fort Miles →
The fort this pier was built to serve, with a museum inside an underground bunker and a gun barrel off the USS Missouri.
The watchtowers →
The concrete towers in the dunes, and the one you can climb.
The rest of the park →
Two coastlines, the Great Dune, the trails and the campground.