Today — right on the edge.
Sources & confidence
Compiled by the spearo sea-state engine · How it works →
The verdict comes from seven water factors and hard safety gates — not ten tabs. Go or stay.
Our own model
Our own forecast engine — not a third-party widget. It weighs these water factors into one go-or-stay verdict for this coast; the 0–10 dial is that verdict, read out as a number.
Safety gates
It all folds into a single 0–10 score and one verdict: go or stay.
A forecast, not a guarantee — the sea has the last word.
Where to get in, where to hunt
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
The day is picked above, in the hero. Here are that day's windows, the hour-by-hour map and the trends. Tap a window to break down the conditions.
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Bayfield, we'll send the go / no-go verdict. Email is all we need.
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
Visibility and what drives it — post-storm clearing, river plume, temperature and the thermocline.
spearo.app folds wind, wave, swell period, visibility, tides, water temperature and risk into a single verdict — go to the spot or not. It computes 7 days ahead from open marine models (Open-Meteo, IPMA), with no sign-up and no accounts. Built for solo spearfishing off the rocks, where any mistake costs dearly.
Now live: 3016 spots across 406 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
See all spotsRelief and bottom type, tides, and the depths of each spot.
The models set the window. Whether you go in is read only at the water: count the sets, watch the surge on the entry. If in doubt, you don't get in.
Scouted entries, coloured by today. The colour is the sea state at the spot, not a guarantee: the wash and a slippery entry you judge on site.
Open the seafloor mapSmall 1912 tug lying in about 2 m south-west of Bayfield, close enough to reach by kayak. Snorkel-depth timbers and machinery over sand and cobble; visibility drops fast in an onshore blow. Bayfield County's spear-possession ban covers inland waters, not the lake.
Google MapsA 282 ft wooden steam freighter burned to the waterline in 1901 and run ashore near Red Cliff; frames and boiler sit in 3 m of clear water. Shore or dinghy entry, snorkel depth, calm in west wind. Outlying-Waters rule: panfish and rough fish only, sunrise to sunset.
Google MapsThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appSchooner barge of 1872 that burned in 1905 in Julian Bay off Stockton Island; the 205 ft hull lies flat in about 4 m of sand-bottomed bay. Sheltered snorkel dive inside Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, where federal park rules may add restrictions.
Google MapsPowerful 1881 harbour tug that burned in 1909 and lies in about 4 m in Red Cliff Bay, on the National Register. Machinery and boiler are exposed; snorkel or a single tank, easy in any south wind. Artefacts are protected - look, do not lift.
Google MapsThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appSOLO is the biggest risk: underwater you can black out from lack of oxygen silently and fatally, with no one around. Solo is never truly «safe». Below are the best weather windows; carry a buoy, tell someone your plan and exit time, and any doubt — don't go.
Cameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.
Check the cam BEFORE you leave. Foam, brown/green murk, or waves washing the entry rocks = No-go. At night/in fog the cam is useless — treat it as «unknown», NOT «green».
Spearfishing at Bayfield is legal but narrow. Lake Superior here is one of Wisconsin's Outlying Waters, where it is unlawful to spear any game fish; white bass, yellow bass, rock bass, panfish and bullheads may be speared while skin or scuba diving during the open rough-fish season, and the rough-fish list — carp, invasive carps, freshwater drum, burbot, bowfin, gar, suckers, alewife, smelt, lamprey — is open. Wisconsin explicitly names scuba, and its definition of spearing covers spearguns. Sunrise to sunset only. The draw is the Apostle Islands: sandstone sea caves, rock formations and shallow island wrecks in 2-8 m.
Almost everything in the Apostles is shallow: five of the eight sites recorded here sit in 2-6 m, snorkel or single-tank depth. The legal column is the same everywhere on this coast — no game fish by spear, panfish and rough fish only — and several of the wrecks are National Register sites where structure and artefacts must be left alone. The Ottawa in Red Cliff Bay, the H.D. Coffinberry beside it and the tug Charlotte add three more snorkel-depth hulls to the list below.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sevona | Wreck | 8 m | Advanced, exposed · rough fish and panfish only | Boat, Sand Island Shoal |
US spearfishing law is state-by-state. License, spearable species, powerhead rules and distances vary; federal sanctuaries (Gray's Reef, the Keys, Flower Garden Banks) ban spearfishing. Always confirm with the state agency and local ordinances.
| Steel ore carrier broken on Sand Island Shoal in the 1905 storm and later dynamited; plate and framing spread over rock in about 8 m. Flat-calm days only — the surge is heavy otherwise. |
| Lucerne | Wreck | 6 m | Intermediate, silt-out risk · rough fish and panfish only | Boat, off Long Island in Chequamegon Bay | The three-masted schooner of 1873 lost with all hands in the 1886 gale, in 6 m on flat sand with the mast stubs still upright. Silt lifts easily, so trim matters. |
| Finn McCool | Wreck | 6 m | Beginner checkout dive · rough fish and panfish only | Boat, a kilometre from the Bayfield city dock | Steam barge abandoned just south of the city dock in 6 m — the easiest checkout dive in the Apostles. Boat traffic is the main hazard, so fly a flag. |
| Noquebay | Wreck | 4 m | Snorkel depth, sheltered · park rules may add restrictions | Boat, Julian Bay, Stockton Island | The 205 ft schooner barge of 1872 that burned in 1905, lying flat in about 4 m of sand-bottomed bay inside Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, where federal park rules may add restrictions. |
| Fedora | Wreck | 3 m | Snorkel, calm west wind · rough fish and panfish only | Shore or dinghy, near Red Cliff | A 282 ft wooden steam freighter burned to the waterline in 1901 and run ashore near Red Cliff; frames and boiler sit in 3 m of clear water at snorkel depth. |
Yes, within Wisconsin's Outlying Waters rule. The DNR defines that class as Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay, Sawyer's Harbor and the Fox River up to the De Pere dam, and for all of it the text reads: it is unlawful to spear any game fish except that white bass, yellow bass, rock bass, panfish and bullheads may be speared while skin diving or scuba diving during the open season for rough fish spearing. So the Apostle Islands are open to a diver with a speargun — for panfish, the three named basses, bullheads and the rough-fish list — and closed to every game fish. Wisconsin defines spearing broadly, as a shaft with an attached barbed point including spears, bow and arrow, crossbow, spearguns and atlatls, so every season and closure in the book reaches a speargun.
Rough fish, verbatim from the DNR: all suckers (suckers, redhorse, buffalo and carpsuckers) not listed as threatened or endangered, common carp, invasive carp (bighead, black, silver and grass), goldfish, freshwater drum, burbot, bowfin, gar, lamprey, alewife, gizzard shad, smelt and mooneye. Invasive carps and the sea lamprey sit inside that definition, which makes Wisconsin the one Great Lakes state where "shoot the invasives" is actually true. Game fish — closed to the spear on this whole coast — includes lake trout and the salmon, walleye, northern pike, muskellunge, smallmouth and largemouth bass and lake whitefish. The rough-fish season is continuous in the coastal counties, and the nine-county closed season that lists Bayfield and Ashland is written for inland waters. Lake sturgeon is never a spear target: the only sturgeon spearing Wisconsin runs is the inland Winnebago System fishery under a separate licence.
This is the one thing to get right before packing a gun for Bayfield. Bayfield and Ashland are two of the nine counties — with Forest, Iron, Menominee, Oneida, Price, Sawyer and Vilas — where no person may have in their possession or under their control, on any of the inland waters or shores of inland waters, at any time, any spear or similar device. Lake Superior is an outlying water, a separate statutory class, so on the text the ban does not reach the lake. But the outlying/inland boundary is exactly the line a warden would argue about, and we will not publish "the Apostle Islands are open" as a settled fact. Treat it as advisory: carry the gun to the lake, not across inland water or inland shore, and confirm with the DNR before you dive. Separately, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is a federal unit, and park rules can add restrictions the state rule book does not carry.
Bays ice over from January to March and Chequamegon Bay freezes solid. The season runs from late May to October and is best in August and September. Summer surface temperature reaches 21 °C in the shallow island bays — warm by Superior standards — while divers below are working in 4-10 °C, so the suit is chosen for the bottom, not the beach. The National Park Service sells the diving itself here: clean, clear water, underwater rock formations, sandstone sea caves and island shipwrecks. There is no tide to plan around; the Great Lakes astronomical range is a few centimetres and NOAA publishes no predictions for these stations, so level moves with wind and pressure. The nearest CO-OPS gauge is Duluth, about 95 km away — there is no gauge on the Wisconsin shore of Superior.
A Wisconsin fishing licence is all you need for spearing: resident annual $20, non-resident annual $55, non-resident 1-day $15, 4-day $29, 15-day $33. There is no spearing-specific licence for underwater work, but note that non-residents under 16 need a licence to spear even though they do not need one to fish with hook and line. Hours are sunrise to sunset — night spearing on this coast is out, with one narrow burbot exception that applies to named Douglas and Ashland county rivers, not the lake. For gear, plan a drysuit or a 7 mm semi-dry: 4-10 °C at depth is the number that matters. Add hood, gloves, a light for the wreck interiors you should not enter, and a dive flag. The specific hazards here are cold-water shock, exposure on the outer shoals like Sand Island in any swell, and the fact that several wrecks are National Register sites — look, do not lift.
Yes, but no game fish. Wisconsin's Outlying Waters rule allows white bass, yellow bass, rock bass, panfish and bullheads by spear while skin or scuba diving in the open rough-fish season, plus the rough-fish list.
Yes. Wisconsin is the only Great Lakes state that names skin and scuba diving as lawful for spearing the panfish and bass group, and its definition of spearing includes spearguns.
No. Lake trout, salmon, walleye, pike, muskellunge, bass and lake whitefish are game fish, and it is unlawful to spear any game fish in Outlying Waters.
It bans possessing a spear on inland waters and shores in nine counties including Bayfield. Lake Superior is an outlying water, so the text does not reach it — but the boundary is contested, so confirm with the DNR before you travel.
The Charlotte and H.D. Coffinberry in about 2 m, the Fedora in 3 m, and the Noquebay and Ottawa in about 4 m — all snorkel or single-tank depth.
The surface reaches 21 °C in summer in the island bays, but divers work in 4-10 °C below. Bays ice January to March and Chequamegon Bay freezes solid.
Resident annual $20, non-resident annual $55, non-resident 1-day $15, 4-day $29, 15-day $33. No separate spearing licence is needed for underwater work.
No. Spearing hours on this coast are sunrise to sunset. The only night exception is a burbot season on named Douglas and Ashland county rivers, not on the lake.
