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.
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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0 m
Surface
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
spearo.app
calmCabo Raso 36 Nupdated 03:02
Guincho — rocks — solo, off the rocks
DON'T GO
don't go · wave 1.8 m (occasionally up to ~3.6 m)
wave 1.8 m head-onwind 19, gusts 39 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~1 m
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
Your best window — with you. Forecast in your pocket.
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−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: 1391 spots across 205 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
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.
One morning glance — and you know.
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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».
In season now: Sea bass, White seabream, Gilthead bream, Salema, Octopus, Mullet
In season now
Robalo (sea bass)
<4 m · end of ebb → start of flood · dawn/dusk
Prime target. Shy of light — pick early/twilight windows.
Sargo (white seabream)
1–5 m · flood (rides the surf onto the reef) · dawn
Dominant reef target. Visibility matters more than time of day.
Dourada (gilthead bream)
1–4 m · flood over sand/weed · dawn
Very skittish — static ambush.
Salema
0–2 m · — · daytime
Easiest target at 0–6 m. ⚠️ Do NOT eat the head/guts (ichthyosarcotoxism).
Polvo (octopus)
1–6 m · high water · twilight
Peaks in autumn. Spot the den by the pile of shells. Don't take egg-bearing females. Min. weight 750 g (DGRM).
Tainha (mullet)
0–2 m · — · —
Extremely wary; murky water HINDERS it. Opportunistic, in calm coves.
Santola (spider crab)
1–10 m · low water (reef shelf exposed) · calm morning (≤force 2)
Carapace ≥12 cm. Peaks Jul–Aug. CLOSED 15.02–15.06. Limit 2 kg/day.
Law
🦀 spider crab open (season 16.06–14.02)
✓Spearfishing licence required, daily/monthly/annual (~€25/yr). Speargun = licence required. (DL 246/2000, art. 12.º + 12.º-A; fees in , .) There is no minimum age for the licence, but under-16s are exempt from holding one when fishing accompanied by a licence holder (art. 12.º n.º 2 al. b).
✓Hand-gathering shellfish with NO gear — no licence; but if a speargun is on the dive, a spearfishing licence is required (DL 246/2000, art. 12.º n.º 1; ).
✓Night prohibited: spearfishing only in daylight (sunset→sunrise not allowed). Artificial light as a means of finding/attracting fish is banned — a torch for safety only (, art. 8.º/3 + 3.º/5; DL 246/2000, art. 14.º n.º 1 d).
✓Signalling buoy MANDATORY for spearfishing: buoy/float with an «Alfa» flag (red/orange/yellow, ≥8 L), no more than 30 m from the diver (, art. 4.º/2).
✓Spearfishing daily limit: fish + cephalopods — 15 kg (excluding the largest specimen). General rod-and-line recreational fishing — 10 kg (, art. 12.º/1).
✓Spider crab: min. carapace 12 cm; (closed season) 15.02–15.06 — applies to recreational gathering too (, ; table).
✓Min. sizes: robalo 36 cm, sargo 17 cm, dourada 19 cm, choupa 23 cm, corvina 42 cm; octopus 750 g ( + EU Reg. 2019/1241; minimum-size table).
✓Grouper — fully protected, may not be taken (
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. At Cabo Raso/Arriba a 0.5 m rise in swell makes a boulder exit impossible — getting pinned/unable to climb out is the main killer here.
Headland rip: at Cabo Raso there is 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.
Nortada (Jun–Sep): wind builds from midday — be out of the water by ~11:00; 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 · Cascais
Spearfishing in Cascais: spots, seasons and rules
Updated 2026-07-09 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher
Spearfishing in Cascais splits between two opposite coasts: Guincho and Cabo Raso, open Atlantic facing northwest, and the sheltered Cascais-Estoril bay behind the headland. The Guincho side only opens with groundswell under 0.5 m and a light easterly, and it closes out fast once the nortada builds. Visibility is best in spring. You need a spearfishing licence, apnea only, with a signalling buoy. On big-swell days the sheltered bay is the calm fallback. Every spot here is a rock entry, and while the bay marks can suit a careful solo diver, the exposed Guincho and Cabo Raso side is not a place to dive alone.
TL;DR
Best entries: Baia do Mexilhoeiro for solo diving, Forte dos Oitavos at Cabo Raso for fewer people, and Pedra da Nau in the bay as the fallback on northwest days.
Window: groundswell under 0.5 m, easterly offshore wind, at dawn; get out before the nortada builds around 10 or 11 am. Best visibility in spring.
Guincho and Cabo Raso are open ocean and close out fast; the calm fallback is the Cascais bay, never Praia da Arriba.
Best spearfishing spots in Cascais
These are all rock-entry spots with shallow hunting where sea bass and white seabream hold. Baia do Mexilhoeiro is the safest solo, Forte dos Oitavos at Cabo Raso sees fewer people than Guincho beach, and Pedra da Nau in the bay is the fallback for northwest days. The Boca do Inferno cliff platforms are left out, with documented deaths there.
Spot
Type
Depth
Level
Access
Notes
Baia do Mexilhoeiro
Rocky cove (Boca do Inferno)
Shallow, over the platforms
Intermediate, best solo
Stone steps ~20 m from the road
The best real solo candidate, with exposed platforms and a genuine safety margin. Go in only with the steps exposed, since they are your exit, and the mussel rock is slippery. It fishes 15 to 20 days a month.
Forte dos Oitavos
Rock platforms (Cabo Raso)
Shallow, along the rocks
Intermediate
From the EN247 verge
Fewer people than Guincho beach. It closes out fast in a northwest swell, so finish before the nortada washes the low platforms.
✓Breath-hold only: spearfishing may be practised in apnea alone. Scuba, rebreather and hookah are banned; the speargun may not be powered by a detonating charge or by compressed gas (DL 246/2000, art. 9.º n.º 3 — o antigo art. 6.º foi revogado).
✓The catch may NOT be sold: displaying for sale, offering or selling recreational catch is prohibited — it is for the fisher, the household, or donation to charitable, scientific or museum institutions (DL 246/2000, art. 7.º).
✓A loaded speargun out of the water is an offence (DL 246/2000, art. 14.º n.º 2 f). Same article: no fishing closer than the legally set distance from concessioned beaches during the bathing season (n.º 2 d), nor in places closed for health or marine-traffic reasons (n.º 2 e). The exact metres come from the regulation and the capitania — check before you go.
✓Distances between people: at least 20 m from another spearfisher (, art. 6.º n.º 3) unless you agree otherwise; from a boat, 50 m from other vessels, divers and set gear (art. 6.º n.º 2); every vessel must keep 50 m from your signalling buoy and from boats flying flag Alfa (art. 7.º n.º 6). The figure that circulates — «30 m between hunters» — is wrong: 30 m is the distance to YOUR OWN buoy.
✓What you may take into the water: the CAPTURE gear on a spearfishing dive is the speargun, a shellfish knife, a gaff (puxeiro) and an arrelhada (, art. 3.º n.º 3). That is not a ban on everything else: art. 4.º n.º 1 expressly allows equipment for cold protection, for buoyancy, for protection or safety and for carrying the catch, and any other equipment that does not permit the direct capture of specimens. Bait and groundbait are PROHIBITED in spearfishing (art. 5.º n.º 3). You may not carry or keep a speargun and a breathing apparatus aboard at the same time, nor carry the gun ready to fire out of the water or in a zone where spearfishing is banned (art. 3.º n.º 6). On any recreational-fishing boat the whole crew wears a lifejacket (art. 4.º n.º 3).
✓Where recreational fishing is closed altogether (, art. 8.º n.º 1): in marked shipyard zones (no exception) and in aquaculture establishments — in the LATTER only, fishing is possible when the concession-holder or owner formally authorises it; the shipyard bar has no such carve-out; within 100 m of the mouth of any marked sewage outfall; over beach-concession waters, to the extent the POOC sets; and in other zones closed by the port or maritime authority. For spearfishing and boat fishing specifically (n.º 2) the navigation channels of port and river bars, the approach channels and the buoyed channels are closed. There is NO «300 m from the beach» rule on the mainland — that number comes from Madeira's own act; on the mainland the distance is set by the POOC and by the capitania's edital.
✓The border rivers Minho and Guadiana: spearfishing is BANNED along both international stretches — bilateral Portugal-Spain agreements, art. 9.º n.º 3 (Minho, RAR 34/2023, in force since 26-05-2023) and art. 6.º n.º 1 (Guadiana, RAR 173/2025, in force since 07-12-2025), both reading «É proibida a pesca submarina». On the Guadiana it is also a serious offence (art. 19.º), and a 100 m strip alongside the Sapal de Castro Marim reserve is closed separately (art. 5.º). The stretches run from the confluence with the Trancoso / the Chança down to the closing line at each mouth.
✓On the other Portuguese-Spanish border river stretches (outside the TIRM and the Guadiana maritime-jurisdiction zone) — Decreto 30/88, art. 6.º n.º 1: harpoons, gigs, tridents and any blunt instrument used to take fish are prohibited (al. e), as is «a pesca ou caça subaquática» with artificial light, and night fishing (al. g).
✓Avencas (Parede↔São Pedro, ~8–12 km east) — hunting allowed but capped at 7.5 kg. Guincho is OUTSIDE this zone.
•The Sintra-Cascais Nature Park covers Guincho — sub-zones/restrictions likely. Check with (pnsc@icnf.pt) or de Cascais.
•2026 Sintra-Cascais SAC (marine area) — trawling/dredging bans published; no confirmed point no-take at Guincho/Cabo Raso. Check the full text.
Rules change. Before heading out, check with DGRM / ICNF / Capitania and the defeso table.
Pedra da Nau
Rock channels (Cascais bay)
Shallow, in the rock channels
Easy, fallback option
From the seafront by Villa Italia
The easiest solo entry and the fallback when Guincho closes out; the calm alternative is the bay, never Arriba. Marina boat traffic means the flag buoy is mandatory.
When is the best time to spearfish in Cascais?
Spring gives the best visibility, when an easterly land wind holds the sea down. At dawn the first two hours by the rocks produce sea bass, which is shy of light and hunts under 4 m. Get out before the northwest nortada builds around 10 or 11 am; in summer it drives upwelling and cools the water. After heavy rain the Tagus plume can push turbid water in.
Can you spearfish at Guincho beach?
You can, but on tight conditions. Guincho and Cabo Raso are open ocean facing northwest, with rock entries and no sheltered bail-out, and they only open with groundswell under 0.5 m and a light easterly. Once the swell builds, the northwest seals the exit off the rocks, not a place for solo beginners. Treating Praia da Arriba as shelter is a common mistake: it takes the same swell. The real fallback is the Cascais bay behind the headland, busier and coarser. The Boca do Inferno cliff platforms stay off the list, with documented deaths there.
What fish can you spearfish in Cascais?
The species and minimum sizes are national, set by DGRM. Sea bass is the prime target at 36 cm, best June to October. White seabream, 17 cm, is the steadiest reef fish. Gilthead is 19 cm, black seabream 23 cm, salema 18 cm, and you must not eat the salema head or guts. Octopus has a 750 g minimum. Meagre, 42 cm, is closed nationwide through June. Grouper and seahorses are protected.
FAQ
Where can you spearfish in Cascais?
Baia do Mexilhoeiro for solo diving, Forte dos Oitavos at Cabo Raso, and Pedra da Nau in the bay as the fallback. The open-ocean cliff spots are not for hunting.
How is the water visibility in Cascais today?
It depends on swell, wind and recent rain. The clearest water comes in spring with a light easterly and groundswell under 0.5 m. After heavy rain the Tagus plume can brown it.
Do I need a license to spearfish in Cascais?
Yes. A licence is required from age 16 and costs about 25 euros a year. Hunting is apnea only; scuba is banned.
What is the minimum size for sea bass in Portugal?
Sea bass is 36 cm. Others: white seabream 17 cm, gilthead 19 cm, black seabream 23 cm, meagre 42 cm, and octopus 750 g.
How far from the beach can you spearfish in Portugal?
There is no single distance figure in the national rules. Stay clear of concessioned swimming beaches and keep the flag buoy within 30 m of you.
Portugal
Spain