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
calmupdated 23:59
Foz do Douro (Porto) — solo, off the rocks
BORDERLINE
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site · wave 1.3 m (occasionally up to ~2.5 m)
wave 1.3 mwind 3 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.
Praia do Homem do LemeRocky beach below the Homem do Leme esplanade
borderline
⛔ Banned here
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
Summer outside the guarded bathing season or early morning; water is clearest July–September.
tide
Low to mid tide opens up more reef at the ends of the beach.
shelter
Open west and exposed; granite/metamorphic outcrops at the ends knock down some swell in the rocky pockets. North wind is onshore but cleans the water.
conditions
In small summer swell along the rocky ends — the sand has nothing to see. Visibility is best in calm after a few settled days.
hazard
Shorebreak on the rocky ends and rip current in the pockets between outcrops; slippery exit rocks. Urban beach — boats/SUP nearby.
access
Straight off the Homem do Leme esplanade/promenade via steps to the beach; park along Av. do Brasil.
In summer this is a guarded bathing beach — no hunting in the bathing zone/season; consider only off-season at the far rocks, clear of swimmers.
Castelo do Queijo (Forte de São Francisco Xavier)Northern rocky headland, Nevogilde
borderline
best candidate for today
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
Early morning in summer before the sea breeze; June–September gives the clearest water.
tide
Low to mid incoming tide exposes the reef and eases entry; at high tide the rocks are awash.
shelter
Almost no shelter — an open Atlantic headland. North wind eases the swell a little on the fort's south side; any W/NW swell washes right over the rocks.
conditions
Only in small clean summer swell (below ~0.8 m) with light wind. The granite reef holds robalo and sargo, but the window is narrow.
hazard
Waves hit the fort rocks head-on — sets and backwash at the exit boulders can sweep you off. Entry/exit over wet granite is slippery.
access
Park by the fort on Av. de Montevideu; pick your way to the water over the granite slabs on the north/south side of the point.
Well-known robalo/sargo mark — fish track the reef hunting shrimp and crab. Busy urban shore; only enter when it's calm.
Molhe de Felgueiras / Praia das Pastoras (Douro mouth)Douro river-mouth breakwater, Felgueiras lighthouse
dangerous
⛔ Banned here
swell on the quarter today
window
Not for entering the water. Land-based viewing / photos at the lighthouse only.
tide
Ebb tide amplifies the river outflow and current across the bar — the most dangerous; there is no safe tidal window to enter here.
shelter
None — an open river mouth where swell wraps the breakwater and meets the river outflow. Any W/SW swell makes the zone lethal.
conditions
Do not treat as a hunting spot. Strong river-mouth current, turbid brackish water, poor visibility.
hazard
Notorious spot: people are regularly swept off the Felgueiras breakwater by swell; bar current, backwash and eddies at the mouth.
access
From the seafront by the Felgueiras lighthouse — stay on land.
Hunting is banned by law in the river-mouth navigation channel and on the Molhe Norte (2018/2019 fishing ban). Do not enter the water; scout from land only.
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».
Porto — Ribeira & foz do Douro (Webcamtaxi PTZ)YouTube live — Douro river mouth and Ribeira waterfront (estuary ~2 km up-river of the bar). Embeddable under YouTube's terms (owner left embedding on). Read the water and surf before you go.camera: youtube ↗
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 · Foz do Douro (Porto)
Spearfishing in Foz do Douro (Porto): spots, seasons and rules
Updated 2026-07-09 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher
Spearfishing at Foz do Douro is possible only in a small, clean ocean window. The shore has granite reef that can hold sea bass and seabream, but the Douro plume is only about 0.3 km away and can destroy visibility after rain or river flow. Castelo do Queijo is the main shore entry. The Felgueiras mole and river mouth are not a dive plan: bar current, swell rebound, turbid brackish water and fishing restrictions make them a no-entry zone.
TL;DR
Foz do Douro is an exposed urban west-facing coast, with rock but also direct influence from the Douro plume.
Castelo do Queijo is the only defensible shore-hunting entry, and only with clean summer swell around 0.8 m or less.
Do not enter at Felgueiras mole or the river bar: current, turbulence, turbid water and fishing restrictions make it a land-only check.
Best spearfishing entry in Foz do Douro
The table stays to one entry because the other nearby beaches are urban bathing-zone fallbacks or the river-mouth hazard itself. Castelo do Queijo still needs a small sea and a controlled rock exit.
Spot
Type
Depth
Level
Access
Notes
Castelo do Queijo
Granite promontory by Forte de Sao Francisco Xavier
Shallow to moderate reef close to the fort
Intermediate to advanced because of the rock exit
Park by Av. de Montevideu and descend over the granite slabs on the north or south side of the promontory.
Only in clean, small summer swell, around 0.8 m or less. Waves hit the granite directly; sets and backwash at the exit are the main danger.
Conditions and season essentials
The Douro plume is the key visibility filter. After rain or stronger river flow, the coast can be brown even when wind is light. The best window is June to September, early morning before the nortada, with small clean swell. Low to mid rising tide helps at Castelo do Queijo because more reef is readable; high water covers the rocks. National rules apply: licence from age 16, apnea only, daylight only, Alfa buoy within 30 m, and minimum sizes such as sea bass 36 cm and octopus 750 g.
✓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).
Portugal
Spain