NORTH WILDWOOD – Twenty-five years ago, the Grassy Sound fishing pier was just a rickety old bridge connecting the city with the mainland. Now, after three long years of closure, it’s starting a new life as a refurbished, once again free-to-use fishing spot.
After a ribbon-cutting ceremony June 13, residents rushed onto the pier to cast their lines. Others had been using the pier since earlier that morning.
Excitement among the locals was palpable. “It’s a long time coming,” said Ed O’Neill of Fishing Creek, who with his granddaughter was fishing at the pier that morning. “Three years I waited for this.”
Another local, Carol Smith, told the Herald, “It [fishing] was hard for three years when the pier was closed.”
And Paul Donohue, a resident of Anglesea Drive, said the pier was “a lot better” than the other spots where he’s fished.
“It’s beautiful. It really is,” he said. “And it’s long, and it’s wide. The only thing is that there are different fish here … Now the fish got to find out about it.”
Many appreciated the fish-cleaning and recycling stations that are part of the pier’s design.
Smith said, “It’s fabulous. I love the wood and the stations.”
O’Neill added: “This is the best. This has running water, so you can clean yourself and your fish up, when you’re cleaning your bait, and when you’re cleaning your fish on the way out. So, you can walk out of here clean.”
The pier had been closed since 2022 due to structural instability. According to local lore, it was the remaining vestige of a timber bridge into North Wildwood.
Ian Walczak, the designer of the pier, of Colliers Engineering and Design, estimated that the bridge had been used from the early to the middle 1900s. When a larger, more structurally sound bridge was built, that original was chopped in half and turned into a fishing pier.
Colliers Engineering and Design inspected the pier in 2022 and found that the timber had been severely degraded.
“It needed to be closed. It was structurally deficient,” Walczak told the Herald. “That’s when the county got involved and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to make this a priority, and we’re going to replace it.'”
In 2024, a $3.3 million plan to replace the existing pier was approved. The ribbon-cutting ceremony June 13 was attended by county commissioners and Middle Township Mayor Christopher Leusner. Middle Township will manage the pier under an agreement with the county.
The new pier is supported by steel pipes and boasts a number of amenities, including a fish-cleaning station, water service, garbage disposal and fishing-line recycling stations. “It’s everything you would need to fish … and more,” Walczak said.
For those who live near the pier, fishing at Grassy Sound is a large part of their lives and identity.
“There’s a whole community back here,” O’Neill said. “Grassy Sound? It goes back 100 years. I’ve met a lot of the people back here, and they’re always having to fix their houses every year because of hurricanes, high tides. But the fishing? It’s beautiful.”
Flounder, stripers, sheepshead, bluefish, small sharks, blue-claw crabs and minnows for bait can be caught at the pier.
Leusner said, “I’m just excited for locals to have an option, a new option to be able to spend time with their family, a free option. That’s important – that they can come and create memories and have bonding time and enjoy the outdoors and hopefully engage some of our local businesses.”
County Commissioner Director Len Desiderio said during the ceremony, “This is a place for bonding, for parents teaching kids how to fish. For friends meeting after work, for grandparents sharing fish tales with their grandchildren and creating memories and experiences that only the saltwater and all of its abundances can offer.”
Said O’Neill: “I don’t think there’s any place on the East Coast as good as this.”
