Cape Town spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras

spearo.app / South Africa / Cape Town
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◈Cape Town · South Africa
5.1
wave 1.3 m
visibility~1m

Marginal

Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and surge pounding.

Sources: Open-Meteo · Copernicus — high confidence · data 23:08

Sources & confidence

Sources
Open-Meteo · Copernicus
Method
spearo sea-state engine: consensus of up to 6 models + satellite clarity (ZSD) + buoy-bias checks
Freshness
Re-read every hour, per coast

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.

How we score the water

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.

01
Swell & wave memory
Height, period and direction of the swell, plus the wake of recent storms — an old storm still stirs the water, and the engine remembers.
02
Wind & gusts
Speed and gusts, hour by hour — wind speed and an onshore push chop the surface and cut visibility.
03
Tide phase
Timing and range of the tide, calibrated per coast — big spring tides pull the verdict toward caution.
04
Water temperature
Sea-surface temperature — sharply cold water vetoes a green verdict.
05
Currents & outflow
Direction and drift of the current — it pushes you, and it drags turbid coastal water across where you dive.
06
Rain runoff & air clarity
Rain muddies the water inshore through land runoff, while fog and haze cut visibility at the surface.
07
Coast shape & exposure
How the coast faces the swell — a sheltered cove keeps the water clean; an exposed, head-on point takes a penalty.

Safety gates

  • Thunderstorm forecast — an instant red, no exceptions.
  • An official warning (MeteoAlarm / IPMA) — yellow, or red for the higher ranks.
  • Missing input data — a would-be green is capped to yellow rather than overstated.
  • Strong disagreement between forecast models — a green day is pulled back to yellow.
  • Night hours — where night spearfishing is banned by law the window is forced red; where it is legal (Australia outside NSW, New Zealand, South Africa) it is capped at yellow, never green.

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.

Entry pointsNo-take zonesLive cams

Where to get in, where to hunt

Entry points with coordinates
Seabed relief — promising ground

This verdict — in your pocket. Open the app for the week's window.

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More spots

Spots in South Africa

🇿🇦South Africa

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Western Cape

  • Hout Bay
  • Muizenberg
  • Simon's Town
  • Gordon's Bay
  • Hermanus
  • Langebaan
  • Saldanha
  • Gansbaai
  • Struisbaai
  • Arniston

Garden Route

  • Stilbaai
  • Mossel Bay
  • Knysna
  • Plettenberg Bay

Eastern Cape

  • Jeffreys Bay
  • Gqeberha
  • Port Alfred
  • East London
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spearo.app · a private marine instrument · Cape Town · a planner, not a safety guaranteePrivacy
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0 m

Surface

Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.

spearo.app
updated 23:08
Cape Town — solo, off the rocks
BORDERLINE
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site · wave 1.3 m (occasionally up to ~2.7 m)
wave 1.3 mwind 15, gusts 41 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~1 m
today, best window 06:00–09:00
fish · Visibility 1 m · Water 15.7°C
confidence low · verdict for the selected day
Best window · next 3 days
borderlinetoday · 06:00–09:00
you can see ~1 m ahead fish

Tell me when it's on

Just your email — nothing else needed.

Before entering, check the camera and the surge
Whole week — tap a day. is driving swell right now.
›
Solo risk: carry a float · tell someone your plan and exit time · doubt = don't go. A model-based planner; the call is made on site.
Selected day

Windows, hours
and the day's trends.

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.

Sunday · today2026-10-25
05:52–19:07 · full moon
▲ 02:00▼ 08:00▲ 14:00▼ 20:00mid-range tides · 1.7 m
Hours (06→20)
06
09
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide-0.52 m
Wave1.72 m
Wind15 km/h
Water14 °C
fish activity: moon overhead 00:00 · high · moonset 05:03 · moderate · moon underfoot 11:50 · high · moonrise 18:39 · moderate
Conditions window06:00–09:00
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site fish
Hs 1.34 m · roughperiod 7.1 swind 15→41surge 3viz 1 m
1.34 mrough · up to ~2.68 · 226° at an angle
7.1 sswell moderate
15→41gusts 41 km/h
3pounding the rocks
0.22m/s
1 mrecent swell
15.7°Cthicker suit + hood
▼08:00tide turn near
Atmosphere42 kmlandmarks visible
lowoff the lunar peaks
  • wave 1.3 m (occasionally up to ~2.7 m)
  • steep wind-wave — choppy surface, careful on entry
  • low water — slack
confidence lowtwilight
Open the seafloor map with entry points →

Your best window — with you. Forecast in your pocket.

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point your camera
−10 m

The water column

Visibility and what drives it — post-storm clearing, river plume, temperature and the thermocline.

What it is

A marine instrument,
go / no-go for solo hunting.

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 spots →
−20 m

The seabed

Relief and bottom type, tides, and the depths of each spot.

On the rock

The forecast is the plan.
The call is on the rock.

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.

Entry points

Where to get in
off the rocks.

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 map →
BakovenCape Town
borderline
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
—

Granite-boulder kelp reef on the Atlantic seaboard below Camps Bay; hottentot, roman, cold clear Benguela water. Controlled zone — permit + bag limits apply.

Google Maps
Llandudno RocksCape Town
borderline
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
—

Granite kelp reef south of Camps Bay, cold Atlantic; hottentot, roman, crayfish (permit). Exposed to SW swell — dive it on light wind.

Google Maps

One morning glance — and you know.

Download on theApp StoreGET IT ONGoogle Play
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point your camera
≈

Surfacing

Cameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.

Live cameras, map & reference
Cameras · live

Look at the water
right now.

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».

connecting to the stream…
● LIVE↗
Sea Point & Lions Head — Atlantic seaboardYouTube live — Sea Point & Lions Head — Atlantic seaboard. Embedded live stream; the operator's channel carries several coastal locations, so we pin this specific video (needsLiveCheck: if the stream ends it degrades to the source page). Read the water before you go.camera: youtube ↗
more: Clifton 4th Beach — Atlantic seaboard ↗ · Table Bay / Milnerton beachfront ↗
Open the seafloor map →
Reference

What's in season,
what the law says.

In season now
  • yellowtail
    Seriola lalandi · 3–40 m · legal
  • garrick / leervis
    Lichia amia · 1–20 m · legal
  • geelbek (Cape salmon)
    Atractoscion aequidens · 5–40 m · legal
  • galjoen (national fish)
    Dichistius capensis · 0–12 m · ⚠️ closed season/limit
    National fish but NOT no-take: legally spearable (35 cm, bag 2), closed 15 Oct–end Feb.
  • kob / kabeljou
    Argyrosomus japonicus · 2–30 m · legal
  • red roman
    Chrysoblephus laticeps · 5–40 m · legal
  • king mackerel (couta/cuda)
    Scomberomorus commerson · 1–25 m · legal
  • elf / shad
    Pomatomus saltatrix · 1–20 m · ⚠️ closed season/limit

Wild Coast

  • Coffee Bay
  • Port St Johns

KwaZulu-Natal

  • Margate
  • Shelly Beach
  • Port Shepstone
  • Scottburgh
  • Umkomaas
  • Durban
  • Umhlanga
  • Ballito
  • Richards Bay
  • St Lucia
  • Sodwana Bay

spearo.app — All countries

transparency ~2 m · satellite, 2 days agosatellite estimate · may differ right at the shore

OudekraalCape Town
borderline
⛔ Banned here
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
—

Classic Atlantic kelp-forest reef, granite gullies 4-14 m. Per the DFFE zonation this entry falls inside the TMNP Karbonkelberg restricted (no-take) zone — all spearfishing is banned here; dive/look only. Hunt south of the boundary (Bakoven/Llandudno).

Google Maps

SOLO 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.

⚠️ Closed 1 Sep–30 Nov (spawning). Don't take it then.
  • white musselcracker
    Sparodon durbanensis · 3–30 m · legal
  • hottentot
    Pachymetopon blochii · 2–25 m · legal
    • Law
    • ✓You need a endorsed for SPEARFISHING (MLRA 18/1998). Buy it online (fishing.dffe.gov.za) or at an authorised office (SAPO branch) — check the current fee there. Own use only — sale is banned.
    • ✓Breath-hold + snorkel only — scuba/hookah are BANNED (reg 8). Spearfishing in is FULLY BANNED (reg 16, no exceptions). Daily cap of 10 fish total. Inside an obey the managing authority; in several you can't even CARRY a speargun.
    • •NIGHT — the recreational spearfishing brochure (MLRA 18/1998) carries no time-of-day restriction: diving at night is legal. The permit, breath-hold-only, the blanket ban and conditions all apply around the clock; shark risk is worse after dark — that is safety, not law.
    • ⛔ 🚫 Table 3 (zero possession): brindle bass (Epinephelus lanceolatus), potato bass (E. tukula), seventy-four (moratorium since 1998), great white / whale / basking sharks, sawfishes, coelacanth, Natal wrasse.
    • ⛔ 🚫 All hard corals, sea fans and sea pens (Scleractinia/Gorgonacea/Pennatulacea) — protected. Seahorses/pipefish (Syngnathidae) — no-take.
    • ⛔ 🚫 Spearfishing in is FULLY BANNED (reg 16 — no exceptions). Inside an obey the managing authority's conditions; in several you can't even CARRY a speargun (Sardinia Bay, Bird Island, Robben Island etc.). Abalone (perlemoen) — recreationally closed until further notice.

    Rules change. Before heading out, check with the DFFE (Marine Recreational Fishing brochure / permit) and the MPA managing authority (SANParks / CapeNature / Ezemvelo KZN / ECPTA / iSimangaliso).

    Safety protocol
    • Sets: watch the wave trains ≥15 min before entering; Hmax ≈ 2×Hs, the wash can run 50 m past the foam line. A lull >10 min with period >12 s = a big set «overdue», do NOT enter; enter right after a full set passes and re-check at minute 30.
    • Exit FIRST: find your exit AND a backup before entering. On a rocky/boulder shore a 0.5 m rise in swell can make the exit impossible — getting pinned/unable to climb out is the main killer.
    • Headland rip: prominent points often have a permanent topographic rip regardless of the model — locate it, enter/exit on the windward side, never swim against it.
    • Cold: wetsuit per the SST chip; the first shiver = a metabolic surge and a drop in breath-hold → get out at the first steady shiver. Cap the session at 45–60 min below 15 °C.
    • Solo discipline: buoy up; tell someone the spot and exit time; conservative breath-hold (never push it in cold/murky/surfy water); visibility <3 m — don't enter.
    • Afternoon wind: on many coasts the wind builds from midday — plan to be out of the water by midday; the chop builds — get out.
    • UV 11:00–15:00 (UVI ≥6): sunscreen and cover up on the surface interval.
    • Solo is a fundamental risk (hypoxic blackout with no buddy). Any doubt = No-go.
    Local guide · Cape Town

    Spearfishing in Cape Town: spots, seasons and rules

    Updated 2026-07-09 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher

    Spearfishing in Cape Town is legal only with a DFFE recreational permit endorsed for spearfishing under MLRA 18/1998. Get it online at fishing.dffe.gov.za or through an authorised SAPO branch, and check the current fee at the point of issue. No fee figure is quoted here. The diving itself is breath-hold and snorkel only; scuba and hookah are banned. Estuaries are fully closed, the total daily cap is 10 fish, and MPA conditions can be stricter. On the Atlantic seaboard, Bakoven and Llandudno are the usable kelp-reef names here. Oudekraal is not: it sits inside the Table Mountain National Park Karbonkelberg restricted no-take zone. Expect cold Benguela water, kelp, hottentot, red roman, musselcracker and summer yellowtail, with visibility controlled by the Cape Doctor and winter north-west storms.

    TL;DR

    • Cape Town requires a DFFE recreational permit endorsed for spearfishing under MLRA 18/1998; buy it online or through an authorised SAPO branch and check the current fee there.
    • Spearfishing is breath-hold and snorkel only. Scuba and hookah are banned, estuaries are fully closed, and the overall daily cap is 10 fish.
    • Bakoven and Llandudno are the Atlantic kelp options here; Oudekraal falls inside the TMNP Karbonkelberg restricted no-take zone.
    • Cold Benguela water drives the plan: moderate south-easter can clean it up, sustained wind turns it green, and winter north-west storms shut the coast down.

    Where to spearfish Cape Town Atlantic seaboard kelp

    Cape Town's Atlantic seaboard is not a warm-water reef stroll. It is granite, kelp, cold upwelling and MPA boundaries. The three marks below are close together on the map but not equal legally. Oudekraal is included because it is a classic kelp-forest name and a common planning mistake; for spearfishing it is no-take. No formal safety rating is published for these marks, and some coordinates are approximate, so legal boundary and sea state come before habit.

    SpotTypeDepthLevelAccessNotes
    BakovenGranite-boulder kelp reefAround 8 mControlled zone, permit and bag limits applyAtlantic seaboard below Camps BayHottentot, roman and cold clear Benguela water are named here. Carry the correct permit endorsement and stay inside the daily cap.
    OudekraalKelp forest and granite gullies4-14 mHard no-take, dive and look onlyTMNP Karbonkelberg restricted zoneAll spearfishing is banned here. The practical hunting direction is south of the boundary, not inside Oudekraal.
    Llandudno RocksGranite kelp reefAround 8 mExposed to south-west swellSouth of Camps BayHottentot, roman and crayfish are named, with permit context. Dive it on light wind and respect lobster-specific rules.

    Do you need a permit to spearfish in Cape Town?

    Yes. South Africa requires a recreational permit endorsed for spearfishing under MLRA 18/1998. It is for own use only; sale is banned. Buy it online at fishing.dffe.gov.za or through an authorised SAPO branch, and check the current fee there. The point is not the price but the endorsement. Without the spearfishing endorsement, a Cape Town kelp dive is not a legal hunting plan.

    Where do you buy the permit and how much is it?

    Use the DFFE online permit system or an authorised SAPO branch. The current fee belongs at the point of issue, so check the current fee at issue. That avoids stale permit pricing and keeps the legal action clear: get the recreational permit with the spearfishing endorsement before carrying a gun. Keep it with you, because Atlantic seaboard entries such as Bakoven and Llandudno are not remote enough to treat paperwork casually.

    Which MPAs are no-take around Cape Town (Table Mountain NP)?

    Oudekraal is the hard example here. It falls inside the Table Mountain National Park Karbonkelberg restricted no-take zone, and all spearfishing is banned at that entry. MPA conditions can also restrict carrying a speargun, so check the managing authority before assuming transit is fine. The national estuary ban is separate and absolute: do not spearfish in river mouths or the V&A basin. False Bay is warmer, but this article stays on the Atlantic seaboard.

    Cape Town water temperature visibility spearfishing today

    The Atlantic side works on Benguela water and wind timing. A moderate south-easter, the Cape Doctor, can upwell cold clear water with 15 m or more visibility, but a sustained blow turns the water green. Winter north-west storms shut it down. The cold floor matters: below 9 degrees is very cold, and below 12 calls for caution. Wear a proper suit and do not let clear water talk you into a swell-exposed entry.

    Cape Town spearfishing yellowtail red roman kelp reef

    Cape Town kelp forest targets include hottentot, red roman, black musselcracker and summer yellowtail. Species rules still matter. Red roman has a 30 cm minimum in the species table, hottentot 22 cm, white musselcracker 60 cm and kob 40 cm. Galjoen is not no-take, but it is closed from 15 October to the end of February, with its own tight limits. Elf / shad is closed from 1 September to 30 November. Great white shark, whale shark, sawfishes, coelacanth, brindle bass and potato bass are zero-possession or fully protected.

    FAQ

    Do you need a permit to spearfish in Cape Town?

    Yes. You need a DFFE recreational permit endorsed for spearfishing under MLRA 18/1998.

    Where do you buy the permit and how much is it?

    Buy it online at fishing.dffe.gov.za or through an authorised SAPO branch. Check the current fee there; no fee figure is quoted here.

    Where can you spearfish around Cape Town?

    Bakoven and Llandudno are the Atlantic kelp options here. Oudekraal is no-take.

    Which MPAs are no-take around Cape Town (Table Mountain NP)?

    Oudekraal falls inside the TMNP Karbonkelberg restricted no-take zone, where all spearfishing is banned.

    How cold and clear is the water in Cape Town today?

    Expect cold Benguela water. Moderate south-easter can make it clear; sustained wind turns it green, and winter north-west storms shut it down.

    What is the overall daily bag limit in South Africa?

    The national spearfishing rule gives a daily cap of 10 fish total.

    What are the size limits for yellowtail and roman?

    Red roman is listed at 30 cm. Yellowtail is listed as legal with no minimum size supplied in the species table.

    Is spearfishing on scuba allowed in South Africa?

    No. Breath-hold and snorkel only; scuba and hookah are banned for spearfishing.

    Sources

    • DFFE, recreational fishing permits and marine rules
    • DFFE online fishing permits
    • SANParks, Table Mountain National Park

    Nearby towns

    • Muizenberg: forecast and spots
    • Gordon's Bay conditions today
    • Spearfishing in Gansbaai
    • Dive spots near Knysna
    • Plettenberg Bay conditions today
    Data partners
    dive centres that send us real visibility readings
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