Can you spearfish when Supertubes is pumping?

Usually no. A strong southwest groundswell makes the point surfable but poor for safe reef entry and exit.

Is the Kabeljous estuary open to spearfishing?

No. South African estuaries are fully closed to spearfishing, so only seaward reef outside the mouth can be considered.

What fish are named for Jeffreys Bay reefs?

Kob, garrick, blacktail, and bronze bream are named across Supertubes, Kabeljous, and Boneyards.

Do nearby MPAs matter from Jeffreys Bay?

Yes. St Francis area zoning is flagged nearby; any restricted or no-take water should be treated as closed.

Can I use scuba for spearfishing here?

No. South African spearfishing is breath-hold only, with scuba and hookah banned.

Jeffreys Bay spearfishing forecast — South Africa

Jeffreys Bay · South Africa

5.2

wave 1 m

visibility2m

Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and surge pounding.

Sources: Open-Meteo · Copernicus — high confidence · data 06:06

Sources & confidence

Sources: Open-Meteo · Copernicus
Method: spearo sea-state engine: consensus of up to 6 models + satellite clarity (ZSD) + buoy-bias checks
Freshness: Re-read every hour, per coast

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.

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 — 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.

Google Play — QR code — point your camera

0 m

Surface

Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.

spearo.app

updated 06:06

Jeffreys Bay — solo, off the rocks

BORDERLINE

caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site · wave 1.0 m + hitting the shore

wave 1 mwind 8 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~2 m

today, best window 18:00–21:00

fish · Visibility 2 m · Water 19.2°C

confidence high · verdict for the selected day

Before entering, check the camera and the surge

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.

Sunday · today2026-10-25

05:26–18:42 · full moon

▲ 02:00▼ 08:00▲ 14:00▼ 21:00 · 1.8 m

Hours (06→20)

Day's trends

Tide-0.72 m

Wave0.98 m

Wind3 km/h

Water19 °C

fish activity: moon overhead 00:00 · high · moonset 04:36 · moderate · moon underfoot 11:20 · high · moonrise 18:11 · moderate

Conditions window06:00–09:00

don't go fish

Hs 1.12 m · roughperiod 7.2 swind 6→12surge 6.1viz 1 m

1.12 mrough · up to ~2.24 · 167° at an angle

7.2 sswell moderate

6→12gusts 12 km/h

6.1pounding the rocks

0.14m/s

1 mrecent swell

18.4°C5 mm + hood

▼08:00tide turn near

Atmosphere16 kmlandmarks visible

lowoff the lunar peaks

wave 1.1 m (occasionally up to ~2.2 m)
murky water (visibility ~1 m)
low water — slack

confidence hightwilight

Open the seafloor map with entry points

More spots

Spots in South Africa

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Eastern Cape

Garden Route

Western Cape

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What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.

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…

● LIVE↗

Jeffreys Bay — Supertubes / Lower PointYouTube live — Jeffreys Bay — Supertubes / Lower Point. Embedded live stream; the operator's channel carries several coastal locations, so we pin this specific video (needsLiveCheck: if the stream ends it degrades to the source page). Read the water before you go.camera: youtube ↗

What's in season,
what the law says.

In season now

yellowtail
Seriola lalandi · 3–40 m · legal
garrick / leervis
Lichia amia · 1–20 m · legal
geelbek (Cape salmon)
Atractoscion aequidens · 5–40 m · legal
galjoen (national fish)
Dichistius capensis · 0–12 m · ⚠️ closed season/limit
National fish but NOT no-take: legally spearable (35 cm, bag 2), closed 15 Oct–end Feb.
kob / kabeljou
Argyrosomus japonicus · 2–30 m · legal
red roman
Chrysoblephus laticeps · 5–40 m · legal
king mackerel (couta/cuda)
Scomberomorus commerson · 1–25 m · legal
elf / shad
Pomatomus saltatrix · 1–20 m · ⚠️ closed season/limit
⚠️ Closed 1 Sep–30 Nov (spawning). Don't take it then.
white musselcracker
Sparodon durbanensis · 3–30 m · legal
hottentot
Pachymetopon blochii · 2–25 m · legal

Law

✓You need a endorsed for SPEARFISHING (MLRA 18/1998). Buy it online (fishing.dffe.gov.za) or at an authorised office (SAPO branch) — check the current fee there. Own use only — sale is banned.
✓Breath-hold + snorkel only — scuba/hookah are BANNED (reg 8). Spearfishing in is FULLY BANNED (reg 16, no exceptions). Daily cap of 10 fish total. Inside an obey the managing authority; in several you can't even CARRY a speargun.
•NIGHT — the recreational spearfishing brochure (MLRA 18/1998) carries no time-of-day restriction: diving at night is legal. The permit, breath-hold-only, the blanket ban and conditions all apply around the clock; shark risk is worse after dark — that is safety, not law.

⛔ 🚫 Table 3 (zero possession): brindle bass (Epinephelus lanceolatus), potato bass (E. tukula), seventy-four (moratorium since 1998), great white / whale / basking sharks, sawfishes, coelacanth, Natal wrasse.
⛔ 🚫 All hard corals, sea fans and sea pens (Scleractinia/Gorgonacea/Pennatulacea) — protected. Seahorses/pipefish (Syngnathidae) — no-take.
⛔ 🚫 Spearfishing in is FULLY BANNED (reg 16 — no exceptions). Inside an obey the managing authority's conditions; in several you can't even CARRY a speargun (Sardinia Bay, Bird Island, Robben Island etc.). Abalone (perlemoen) — recreationally closed until further notice.

Rules change. Before heading out, check with the DFFE (Marine Recreational Fishing brochure / permit) and the MPA managing authority (SANParks / CapeNature / Ezemvelo KZN / ECPTA / iSimangaliso).

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 Jeffreys Bay: spots, seasons and rules

Updated 2026-07-09 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher

Jeffreys Bay is not a place to force. The same southwest groundswell that makes the point famous can close the reef entries for spearfishing, push surfers across the best water, and turn exits messy. On calm, smaller mornings the Agulhas-influenced coast offers kob, garrick, blacktail, and bronze bream over reef. The legal line is just as important as the swell line: estuaries are closed, St Francis has MPA zoning nearby, and uncertain no-take boundaries should be treated as closed.

TL;DR

Jeffreys Bay is a point-break spearfishing call: excellent reef structure, but powerful southwest groundswell can make it unspearable.

Supertubes and Boneyards are surfer-heavy reef marks, so early, small, calm mornings are the only sensible shore windows.

Kabeljous reef is seaward of the river mouth; the Kabeljous and Seekoei estuaries themselves are no-spear water.

Carry the MLRA spearfishing permit, avoid no-take MPA zoning around the St Francis area, and stay breath-hold only.

Where does Jeffreys Bay make sense for spearfishing?

These are reef checks for settled conditions, not default all-weather entries. If the point is firing for surf, it is usually a poor spearfishing day. Give surfers space, avoid brown water near mouths, and confirm any MPA boundary before carrying a speargun farther west or toward St Francis.

Spot	Type	Depth	Level	Access	Notes
Supertubes reef	Rocky reef off the famous point	Shallow to moderate reef edge	Intermediate, traffic-aware	Shore entry around the point on calm mornings	Blacktail, kob, and garrick are the listed fish. Dive early only when the swell is down, because surfer traffic and surge are the main constraints.
Kabeljous reef	Reef north of the river mouth	Seaward reef outside estuary water	Intermediate with mouth awareness	Shore approach north of town	The reef can hold garrick and kob, but the Kabeljous estuary is no-spear. Stay seaward and skip the area after runoff or a brown plume.
Boneyards	Rocky reef just north of Supertubes

Surface

Windows, hours
and the day's trends.

Spots in South Africa

🇿🇦South Africa

Eastern Cape

Garden Route

Western Cape

Help us make it better

The water column

A marine instrument,
go / no-go for solo hunting.

The seabed

The forecast is the plan.
The call is on the rock.

Where to get in
off the rocks.

Surfacing

Look at the water
right now.

What's in season,
what the law says.

Spearfishing in Jeffreys Bay: spots, seasons and rules

TL;DR

Where does Jeffreys Bay make sense for spearfishing?

Wild Coast

KwaZulu-Natal

What sea state shuts Jeffreys Bay down?

Which fish and national limits apply?

Where are the legal red lines?

What permit do I need?

FAQ

Sources

Nearby towns

Jeffreys Bay spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras

Windows, hours and the day's trends.

Get the go / no-go verdict for Jeffreys Bay by email

Spots in South Africa

🇿🇦South Africa

Eastern Cape

Garden Route

Western Cape

Help us make it better

A marine instrument, go / no-go for solo hunting.

The forecast is the plan.The call is on the rock.

Where to get in off the rocks.

Look at the water right now.

What's in season, what the law says.

TL;DR

Where does Jeffreys Bay make sense for spearfishing?

Wild Coast

KwaZulu-Natal

What sea state shuts Jeffreys Bay down?

Which fish and national limits apply?

Where are the legal red lines?

What permit do I need?

FAQ

Sources

Nearby towns

Windows, hours
and the day's trends.

A marine instrument,
go / no-go for solo hunting.

The forecast is the plan.
The call is on the rock.

Where to get in
off the rocks.

Look at the water
right now.

What's in season,
what the law says.