Boating, Fishing, and Travel Information for Mispillion River, DE

Small-craft facilities on Mispillion River, just above the fixed bridges about 1 mile below Milford, can provide gasoline, diesel fuel, and water. The oil terminal about 1 mile below Milford has about 5 feet alongside, and the wharves at Milford have 5 to 7 feet alongside; mud bottom.
Just inside the jetties, a dredged channel known as Cedar Creek extends southward for about 1 mile to a point just beyond the State Route 36 highway bridge. There are small-craft facilities and marinas on both sides of the bridge. In 2011, the midchannel controlling depth was 2 feet.
Navigation:
Click the “Map View” button above to see a chart of this harbor.
Mispillion River, protected at the entrance by jetties, empties from the westward into Delaware Bay 13 miles northwest of Cape Henlopen. The jetties, about 200 feet apart, extend about 1 mile southeastward from shore. The jetties are marked at the seaward ends by lights. The river is used by pleasure and fishing craft, and oil barges bound for Milford.
In 2011, the controlling depth was 5 feet in the entrance channel to the jetties, thence 7 feet inside the jetties, thence 4 feet to a point in about 38°57’00″N., 75°19’46″W.; thence in 1996, the controlling depth was 2 feet to the State Route 14 bascule bridge just east of Milford, thence the river channel shoals from 2 feet to 1 foot at Milford, Mariners are advised to approach the channel from the northeast for the greatest depths.
An overhead power cable with a clearance of 57 feet crosses the river about 7 miles above the mouth. About 1.1 miles below Milford, the river is crossed by twin fixed highway bridges which have a clearance of 25 feet. About 0.5 mile below Milford, a highway bridge, with a 45-foot bascule span and a clearance of 5 feet, crosses the river. An overhead power cable with a clearance of 45 feet is just southwest of the bascule bridge.