Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.
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 Cleveland, 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 mapArmour-stone breakwater arm shielding the eastern half of Cleveland Harbor, with 5 m of water on its lake face. Boulder slope, walleye and smallmouth on the rock. Boat access only; no confirmed dive-site source exists for Cleveland.
Google MapsThe west pierhead at the Cuyahoga entrance, with the deepest water of the Cleveland structures at about 8 m. Hard vertical face and rubble toe; commercial traffic uses this gap, so it is a live-boat site, not a swim-out.
Google MapsDetached breakwater off the East 72nd Street marina, 1-2 m over broken stone. Sheltered inside water on the lee side; visibility is central-basin poor after any blow, and there is no published dive description for it.
Google MapsConcrete fishing pier at Edgewater Park with 1-2 m of water and rubble along its base. The one genuine shore entry in the city; shallow, warm and turbid, best treated as a snorkel and orientation site.
Google MapsSOLO 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».
Cleveland is the biggest city on Lake Erie and the honest answer about its diving is thin: no dive site was pinned by a primary source in this research, and everything on the list is harbour structure. Spearfishing follows Ohio's forage-fish rule — freshwater drum, common carp, the Asian carps, quillback, suckers, bowfin, gar, buffalo, gizzard shad and goldfish may be taken by any method, since spears are not among the prohibited means. Game fish are treated as closed. Watch the federal security zones: Burke Lakefront Airport and Perry Nuclear Power Plant both carry them.
Four pieces of harbour structure, honestly labelled: no confirmed dive-site source exists for Cleveland, and the local club's site did not respond during this research. Edgewater is the only genuine shore entry in the city. The two harbour arms are live-boat sites in a working port. Legal status is the same on every row: forage fish by any method including a spear, game fish treated as closed.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edgewater Fishing Pier | Jetty | 1-2 m | Snorkel to single tank · forage fish only, game fish closed | Shore entry | Concrete fishing pier at Edgewater Park with 1-2 m of water and rubble along its base. The one genuine shore entry in the city; shallow, warm and turbid, best treated as a snorkel and orientation site. |
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.
| East 72nd Street Breakwater |
| Jetty |
| 1-2 m |
| Snorkel to single tank · forage fish only, game fish closed |
| Boat |
| Detached breakwater off the East 72nd Street marina, 1-2 m over broken stone. Sheltered inside water on the lee side; central-basin visibility is poor after any blow. |
| Cleveland Harbor East Breakwater | Jetty | 2-5.1 m | Live-boat only · forage fish only, game fish closed | Boat | Armour-stone breakwater arm shielding the eastern half of Cleveland Harbor, with 5 m of water on its lake face. Boulder slope; boat access only, and no confirmed dive-site source exists for Cleveland. |
| Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead | Jetty | 3-8.4 m | Live-boat only · forage fish only, game fish closed | Boat | The west pierhead at the Cuyahoga entrance, the deepest of the Cleveland structures at about 8 m. Hard vertical face and rubble toe; commercial traffic uses this gap, so it is a live-boat site. |
For forage fish, yes. Ohio's Division of Wildlife defines forage fish as freshwater drum (sheepshead), common carp, grass carp in waters not stocked by the Division for vegetation control as posted, bighead carp, silver carp, black carp, quillback, suckers, bowfin, gar, buffalo, gizzard shad and goldfish, and says these species may be taken by any method except by means of explosives, poisons, firearms, electricity, chemicals, nets other than cast nets, seines, traps, or by snagging within 1,000 feet downstream of a posted dam. Spears, gigs and bows are not in that exception list. Ohio never uses the word spearfishing in its Lake Erie regulations at all, so this class definition is the whole of the answer. Note also that municipal and county ordinances were not swept for Cleveland in this research — confirm locally before you dive an urban shoreline with a gun.
Ohio publishes no statewide sentence limiting game fish to angling, and none allowing them by spear. The nearest printed analogue is the Pymatuning entry — angling only, except carp and suckers by longbow and arrow or spears — and Pymatuning is a border lake, not Lake Erie. Ohio Administrative Code 1501:31-13 would settle the question; codes.ohio.gov refused every connection during this research, so the largest hole in the Ohio picture is that the game-fish method rule is inferred rather than read. Act on the safe reading: walleye, smallmouth bass, yellow perch and the salmonids are closed to the spear. Identify any gar before shooting — alligator, shortnose and spotted gar are Ohio state endangered — and remember that lake sturgeon, shovelnose sturgeon, cisco, longnose sucker and goldeye are possession-prohibited in all Ohio waters.
This is the part of the Cleveland answer that is not about fish. Two permanent federal zones sit on this coast. 33 CFR 165.913 establishes a security zone at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, defined by four coordinates and the shoreline; it is carried as advisory. 33 CFR 165.912 establishes a security zone at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant, also four coordinates and shoreline, and that one is hard. Further west, 33 CFR 334.850 defines the Camp Perry / Erie Ordnance Depot danger zone at Lacarne. And 33 CFR 165.903 covers the Cuyahoga and Old River safety zones at Cleveland — those exist in the current eCFR and were not collected in this research, which is a known debt. A diver with a speargun inside a security zone is a federal problem, not a fishing ticket, so check the current eCFR text before working near the river mouth or the airport.
Cleveland sits on the central basin, where the water is deeper and cleaner than the western basin off Toledo — that is the good news, and it is relative. The East 72nd Street entry states the practical limit: central-basin visibility is poor after any blow, and the sheltered lee side of a detached breakwater is where you go when the lake has been working. Edgewater is shallow, warm and turbid by design. Ice cover on Lake Erie often reaches 90-100 % in February; the season runs May to October and the water reaches 22-24 °C in August. There is no tide — the Great Lakes astronomical range is a few centimetres and NOAA publishes no predictions for these stations. The CO-OPS gauge 9063063 is in Cleveland, about 6 km from the forecast point.
Ohio licence fees from the 2025-26 digest, effective through 28 February 2026 and worth re-verifying: resident 1-year $25.00, non-resident 1-year $50.96, non-resident 3-day $25.00, 1-day $14.00. Access is the real constraint in Cleveland. Edgewater Fishing Pier is the one genuine shore entry; both harbour arms need a boat, and the west pierhead sits in the gap commercial traffic uses, so it is a live-boat site with a flag and a lookout, not a swim-out. Gear at 1-8 m in a warm August basin is modest — a wetsuit, gloves for the armour stone and mussel encrustation — but plan for low visibility, and read the fish-consumption advisories Ohio publishes for Lake Erie before you keep anything.
For forage fish, yes: drum, carp, the Asian carps, quillback, suckers, bowfin, gar, buffalo, gizzard shad and goldfish, since spears are not among Ohio's prohibited means. Game fish are treated as closed.
No. This research pinned no dive site by a primary source; the local club's page did not respond. The four listed sites are harbour structure.
Edgewater Fishing Pier, with 1-2 m of water and rubble along its base — shallow, warm and turbid, best treated as a snorkel and orientation site.
The west pierhead at the Cuyahoga entrance, about 8 m. Commercial traffic uses that gap, so dive it from a live boat.
Yes. A security zone at Burke Lakefront Airport under 33 CFR 165.913, one at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant under 165.912, and the Cuyahoga and Old River safety zones under 165.903, which were not collected here.
No. Treat game fish as closed. Ohio publishes nothing allowing them by spear and the code section that would settle it could not be read.
Better than the western basin, but poor after any blow. The sheltered side of the East 72nd Street breakwater is the fallback when the lake has been working.
Municipal and county ordinances were not swept for Cleveland in this research. Confirm locally before diving an urban shoreline with a gun.
