BoneyardsJeffreys Bay
dangerousswell on the quarter today
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Rocky reef just north of Supertubes; blacktail, bronze bream and kob on warm Agulhas water. Surf-zone entry — pick a calm morning.
Google MapsJeffreys Bay spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras
2.6
💧 Water looks set to clear by Sunday (~3d) — tentative
visibility2m
Tomorrow — sit it out — wave, wind and surge pounding. 💧 Water looks set to clear by Sunday (~3d) — tentative
Sources: IPMA · NDBC · Copernicus — high confidence · data 23:05
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 23:05
Jeffreys Bay — solo, off the rocks
don't go · wave 1.4 m (occasionally up to ~2.9 m)
wave 1.4 mwind 17, gusts 28 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~3 m
Thursday, best window 06:00–09:00
fish · Visibility 3 m · Water 17.4°C
confidence medium · 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.
Thursday2026-07-23
07:19–17:34 · first quarter
▼ 04:00▲ 11:00▼ 16:00▲ 23:00 · 0.5 m
Hours (06→20)
06
09
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide0.05 m
Wave1.82 m
Wind14 km/h
Water18 °C
fish activity: moonset 02:14 · moderate · moon underfoot 07:20 · high · moonrise 12:23 · moderate · moon overhead 19:50 · high
Conditions window06:00–09:00
don't go fish
Hs 1.44 mperiod 9.3 swind 17→28surge 4.3viz 2 m
1.44 mup to ~2.88 · 130° at an angle
9.3 sswell moderate
17→28gusts 28 km/h
4.3pounding the rocks
0.08m/s
2 mrecent swell
17.4°C5 mm + hood
▲11:00tide rising
Atmosphere1 kmlandmarks visible
highmoon underfoot
- wave 1.4 m (occasionally up to ~2.9 m)
- swell period 9 s
- flood — water rising
confidence mediumtwilight
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
Kabeljous reefJeffreys Bay
dangerousswell on the quarter today
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Reef seaward of Kabeljous, north of the river mouth; garrick and kob. The Kabeljous estuary itself is no-spear.
Google MapsSupertubes reefJeffreys Bay
dangerousswell on the quarter today
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Rocky reef off the famous point; blacktail, kob and garrick, warmer Agulhas water. Surfer traffic — dive early.
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».
Reference
What's in season,
what the law says.
In season now
- yellowtail
- garrick / leervis
- geelbek (Cape salmon)
- galjoen (national fish)National fish but NOT no-take: legally spearable (35 cm, bag 2), closed 15 Oct–end Feb.
- kob / kabeljou
- red roman
- king mackerel (couta/cuda)
- elf / shad⚠️ Closed 1 Sep–30 Nov (spawning). Don't take it then.
- white musselcracker
- hottentot
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.
- ⛔ 🚫 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
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 | Surf-zone reef and ledges | Intermediate, calm mornings only | Shore entry from the point area | Blacktail, bronze bream, and kob are the local targets. The entry is surf-zone dependent, so pick low-energy days rather than squeezing in between sets. |
What sea state shuts Jeffreys Bay down?
The main safety driver is southwest groundswell. The coast faces a bad swell window from southeast through west, with west-southwest energy especially awkward. A small, clean morning can be workable; a famous surf day is not. The drier months are the better clarity cue, but swell size remains the first filter.
Which fish and national limits apply?
Local fish include kob, garrick, blacktail, and bronze bream. Kob has a 40 cm minimum and garrick has a 70 cm minimum. Shad, if encountered along this coast, is closed from 1 September to 30 November. Protected Table 3 fish, hard corals, seahorses, pipefish, and recreational abalone must be left alone.
Where are the legal red lines?
No spearfishing is allowed in the Kabeljous or Seekoei estuaries. St Francis area MPA zoning also sits near the broader coastline, so treat any restricted or no-take zone as closed unless the current boundary is confirmed. The fail-close rule is simple: if you cannot place yourself outside restricted water, do not spear.
What permit do I need?
South Africa requires a recreational permit endorsed for spearfishing under MLRA rules. It is available through DFFE online or an authorised SAPO branch, where the current fee should be checked. The method is breath-hold and snorkel only; scuba and hookah are banned. Recreational catch is for personal use, not sale.
FAQ
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.
Sources
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