Acantilados de JaizkibelHondarribia
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Jaizkibel coast to the west; legendary rocky bottom, very exposed, advanced.
Google MapsHondarribia spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras
5.3
wave 0.6 m head-on
visibility4m
Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.
Sources: IPMA · NDBC · Copernicus — high confidence · data 03:04
Sources & confidence
- Sources
- IPMA · NDBC buoys · Copernicus Marine
- Method
- Model consensus, read per window
- Freshness
- Re-read every hour, per coast
Compiled by the spearo sea-state engine
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.
- 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.
- Wind & gusts
- Speed and gusts, hour by hour — wind speed and an onshore push chop the surface and cut visibility.
- Tide phase
- Timing and range of the tide, calibrated per coast — big spring tides pull the verdict toward caution.
- Water temperature
- Sea-surface temperature — sharply cold water vetoes a green verdict.
- Currents & outflow
- Direction and drift of the current — it pushes you, and it drags turbid coastal water across where you dive.
- Rain runoff & air clarity
- Rain muddies the water inshore through land runoff, while fog and haze cut visibility at the surface.
- 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 — forced red; the window is closed after dark.
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
Surface
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
spearo.app
calmupdated 03:04
Hondarribia — solo, off the rocks
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site · long secondary swell (9 s)
wave 0.6 m head-onwind 12 km/hvisibility ~5 mwindow 06:00–21:00
today, best window 18:00–21:00
fish · Visibility 5 m · Water 25.4°C
confidence high · verdict for the selected day
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.
Thursday · today2026-07-23
06:47–21:39 · first quarter
▲ 00:00▼ 06:00▲ 12:00▼ 18:00 · 1.5 m
Hours (06→20)
06
09
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide0.10 m
Wave0.58 m
Wind7 km/h
Water25 °C
fish activity: moonset 01:27 · moderate · moon underfoot 09:10 · high · moonrise 17:07 · moderate · moon overhead 21:30 · high
Conditions window06:00–09:00
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site fish
Hs 0.76 mperiod 4.5 swind 14→17surge 1.9viz 3 m
0.76 mup to ~1.52 · 342° at an angle
4.5 sswell moderate
14→17gusts 17 km/h
1.9noticeable surge
0.17m/s
3 mrecent swell
24.8°C5 mm + hood
▲12:00tide turn near
Atmosphere44 kmlandmarks visible
highmoon underfoot
- wind 14 km/h
- first hours of the flood — fish moving in
confidence hightwilight
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: 1152 spots across 189 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
See all spotsThe 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
Bahia de TxingudiHondarribia
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Inner part of the bay; well sheltered, sandy bottom, of little interest in a big sea.
Google MapsCabo HigerHondarribia
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Cape at the mouth of the Bidasoa; rocky ground with drop-offs, sea bass and sea bream, exposed to the NW.
Google MapsCalas de Jaizkibel (Asaburua)Hondarribia
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Rocky coves below Jaizkibel; tricky entry off the rocks, semi-exposed.
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.
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…
Reference
What's in season,
what the law says.
Minimum sizes by caladero (in the table below). Season depends on the species and place.
In season now
- European seabass
- gilthead seabream
- salema / saupe⚠️ Do NOT eat the head/guts (ichthyosarcotoxism).
- bogue
- black seabream
- grey mullet
- red porgy
- striped red mullet
- common octopusTalla por PESO: mín. 1 kg (RD 560/1995, todos los anexos). No coger hembras con huevos.
- European conger
- pollackTalla operativa 42 cm; máx. 2 ejemplares/día (medida recreativa anual de la UE, Reg. 2025/202). ⚠️ Atlantic: recreational CLOSED 1 Jan–30 Apr (catch-and-release).
Law
- ✓Spearfishing licence mandatory; the AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY issues it (not the State) and it is valid in the exterior waters of the whole coast. Free-diving only — scuba is banned (, art. 3).
- ✓Spearfishing catch may not be sold or traded — it is non-commercial fishing ().
- ✓Night prohibited: spearfishing only in daylight (sunset to sunrise not allowed) — , art. 16.d.
- ✓Marker buoy MANDATORY: mark your position with a clearly visible buoy and stay within 25 m of it — , art. 15.
- ✓Never keep the speargun loaded out of the water — , art. 16.a.
- ✓Keep at least 300 m from professional fishing vessels that are working — , art. 12.b.
- ✓Spearfishing banned in marine reserves/protected zones (without a special permit), in ports and at busy beaches/bathing areas. The exact distance to bathing zones is set by the autonomous community.
- ✓Min. sizes by ( + + EU 2019/1241): sea bass 42 cm (rec.) / 36 cm / 25 cm Mediterranean / 22 cm Canaries; gilthead bream 20 cm and white seabream 23 cm in the Mediterranean (EU 2019/1241); grouper 45 cm. See your zone's species card.
- ✓Only species in Annex I of may be taken; keeping, landing or transporting undersized specimens is prohibited.
- ✓The licence needs a medical fitness certificate for free-diving and civil-liability insurance (or a federative licence, which includes it). Mandatory in the Basque Country/Murcia/Asturias/Galicia; the federative licence covers it in Galicia/Balearics/Cantabria; the Canaries and Andalusia do NOT require it for the individual licence (a responsible health declaration). Minimum age generally 16 (14 in Andalusia).
- ✓There is no fixed national catch cap (, art. 5 delegates it to the communities); the standard is 5 kg/person/day, with 1 specimen allowed not to count (Canaries art. 38.3; Murcia; Galicia; Basque Country). Protected species have per-piece quotas.
- ✓Basque Country: the spearfishing licence is issued by the Basque Government — Gobierno Vasco (Eusko Jaurlaritza): Decreto 198/2000, platform, spearfishing valid 1 year.
- ⛔ Seahorses (Hippocampus) — protected (RPE).
Rules change and are REGIONAL. Before heading out, check with the competent autonomous community (licence) and the min-size table in force.
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.
Spearfishing in Hondarribia: spots, seasons and rules
Spearfishing in Hondarribia is shore-entry rock hunting on an exposed Atlantic corner, where the Bidasoa runs out to sea and Spain meets France. The coast faces north-northwest, so it stirs up and closes out fast when the sea comes from northwest to northeast, with the northwest the worst axis. Cabo Higer at the river mouth and the Jaizkibel cliffs to the west are the real ground, both exposed and neither a training spot; the Asaburua coves below Jaizkibel are semi-sheltered with a tricky entry, and the inner Txingudi bay is the calm fallback. You need the Basque regional licence, freediving only, daylight only, with a signalling buoy within 25 m.
TL;DR
- Hondarribia sits where the Bidasoa meets the sea, right on the French border, and the coast opens to the north-northwest, so the bad sea runs from northwest through north to northeast, worst on the northwest.
- Cabo Higer is the exposed cape at the river mouth; the Jaizkibel cliffs to the west are legendary but advanced, very exposed rock; the Asaburua coves below Jaizkibel have an awkward entry off the rocks.
- Bahia de Txingudi is the sheltered sandy fallback, but there is little to hunt there once the coast has any real sea, and a calm bay is no proof the Jaizkibel points are diveable.
- You are in the Basque Country: the recreational licence is issued by the regional government, national rules are freediving only, daylight only, buoy within 25 m, and the Cantabrian-Northwest size table applies, with sea bass at 42 cm.
Best spearfishing spots in Hondarribia
The three outer entries are rock on an exposed north-facing coast, so read the sea from land before you commit. Cabo Higer is the cape at the Bidasoa mouth, Jaizkibel to the west is legendary but advanced ground, the Asaburua coves sit under the cliffs with an awkward entry, and Txingudi is the sheltered sandy bay you fall back on when the outside is closed out.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabo Higer | Rocky cape at the Bidasoa mouth | Shore rock with drop-offs off the cape | Intermediate, exposed | Shore entry off the cape rocks by the river mouth | Sea bass and sea bream hold over the drop-offs. It faces the northwest, so it is one of the first spots to churn up and close out when that sea is running, and it sits right on the border with Hendaye across the Bidasoa. |
| Acantilados de Jaizkibel | Cliff-and-rock coast west of town | Rocky bottom off the cliffs, open ground | Advanced | Demanding access down the Jaizkibel cliffs | Legendary rocky ground along the Jaizkibel coast, and very exposed. Not a place to learn: the climb down the cliffs is as much of the hazard as the sea, so keep it for advanced divers on a settled day. |
| Calas de Jaizkibel (Asaburua) | Rocky coves below Jaizkibel | Rock in and off the coves | Intermediate, tricky entry | Awkward entry off the rocks into the coves | The coves under Jaizkibel are only semi-exposed, which makes them the softer option on that stretch, but the entry off the rocks is fiddly. Pick a settled sea and keep a clear exit line. |
| Bahia de Txingudi | Sheltered inner bay of the estuary | Sheltered sandy bottom | Easy, sheltered fallback | Easy, from the calm inner bay | Well sheltered over sand, the calm option when the open coast is closed out. There is little of interest here once there is real sea, so treat it as a bad-weather fallback rather than a target. |
When can you spearfish in Hondarribia?
Watch the direction before the height. The coast opens to the north-northwest, and the bad sector runs roughly from northwest through north to northeast, with the northwest the worst axis, so a swell in that arc turns the water over and makes the rock entries ugly. On the northern Spanish coast the workable stretch is broadly late spring through autumn, but the calm between swells and fronts matters more than the month. The Jaizkibel cliffs want a genuinely settled sea, Cabo Higer is quick to close in a northwest, and Txingudi is where you go when the outside is off. Clarity swings with the sea state and with river outflow: after heavy rain the Bidasoa plume browns the water around the cape and the inner bay, so the clearest water tends to follow a settled spell. This is an Atlantic tidal coast, so the state of the tide changes how the rock entries work.
What licence and rules apply on the Basque coast?
The recreational licence in Spain is issued by the autonomous community, and Hondarribia is in the Basque Country, so it is the Basque Government that issues it rather than Cantabria or Asturias next door. The national rules still hold: freediving only, no scuba, daylight only, no sale of the catch, no loaded speargun out of the water, a visible signalling buoy within 25 m of you, and a 300 m clearance from working professional fishing vessels. Confirm the Basque licence class and any local specifics with the regional government, since those details are not carried in this dataset.
What fish and minimum sizes apply here?
The spot descriptions name sea bass and sea bream over the rock at Cabo Higer and along Jaizkibel. The sizes are the Cantabrian-Northwest caladero table, the same one used along this coast, and worth confirming as the baseline: sea bass is 42 cm, gilthead 19 cm, black seabream 23 cm, grey mullet 20 cm, and conger 58 cm, while octopus is measured by weight at a 1 kg minimum. Pollack carries an operational 42 cm size with a limit of two a day and an Atlantic recreational closure from 1 January to 30 April. Seahorses are protected, and undersized fish must go back.
FAQ
Where can you spearfish in Hondarribia?
Cabo Higer at the Bidasoa mouth and the Jaizkibel cliffs to the west are the main rock ground, both exposed. The Asaburua coves below Jaizkibel are the semi-sheltered option, and the inner Txingudi bay is the calm fallback.
Which sea direction is bad at Hondarribia?
The coast opens to the north-northwest, and the bad sector runs from northwest through north to northeast. Northwest is the worst axis, and Cabo Higer is one of the first spots to close out in it.
Do I need a licence, and who issues it?
Yes. Hondarribia is in the Basque Country, so the recreational licence is issued by the Basque Government, not by Cantabria or Asturias. It is freediving only, daylight only, with a buoy within 25 m.
What is the minimum size for sea bass here?
Sea bass is 42 cm in the Cantabrian-Northwest table. Others include gilthead 19 cm, black seabream 23 cm, grey mullet 20 cm, conger 58 cm, and octopus at a 1 kg minimum.
Is scuba spearfishing allowed in Spain?
No. The national rule is freediving only; scuba spearfishing is banned under RD 347/2011. It is also daylight only.
Sources
Nearby towns
Coming soon
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