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The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appToday — sit it out.
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
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Foz do Douro (Porto), we'll send the go / no-go verdict. Email is all we need.
Every covered town has its own live forecast, cameras and entry points. Choose where you're diving.
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
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.
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: 1391 spots across 205 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 mapThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appCameras, 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».
In season now: Sea bass, White seabream, Gilthead bream, Salema, Octopus, Mullet
transparency ~2 m · satellite, 2 days agosatellite estimate · may differ right at the shore
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.
Guarded bathing beach in summer — no hunting in the bathing zone/season; of interest off-season along the rocks, and only when calm.
Google MapsIn 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.
Google MapsWell-known robalo/sargo mark — fish track the reef hunting shrimp and crab. Busy urban shore; only enter when it's calm.
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 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.
Rules change. Before heading out, check with DGRM / ICNF / Capitania and the defeso table.
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.
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. |
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.
Castelo do Queijo is the main shore candidate, only in small clean swell with a safe exit over the granite slabs.
Yes. The river mouth is about 0.3 km away, so rain and flow can push turbid water onto the coast.
No. The bar has strong current, swell rebound, turbid water and fishing restrictions. Keep it as a land observation point.
They are limited outside-season rock checks, not primary hunting recommendations, because they are urban bathing beaches.
A PTZ camera covering Ribeira and the Douro mouth is listed. Use it for context, then inspect the rock entry in person.