Ketchikan spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras

spearo.app / United States / Ketchikan
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◈Ketchikan · United States
5.4
wave 0.2 m
visibility~5m

Dayisover

Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.

Sources: NWS · NDBC · Open-Meteo · Copernicus — high confidence · data 20:18

Sources & confidence

Sources
NWS · NDBC · 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.

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.

Entry pointsNo-take zonesLive cams

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.

Download on theApp StoreGET IT ONGoogle Play
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point your camera
0 m

Surface

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

spearo.app
NWS no dataupdated 20:18
Ketchikan — solo, off the rocks
Day is over
spearfishing is banned at night · night — spearfishing prohibited
wave 0.2 mwind 8, gusts 26 km/hvisibility ~5 m
today, best window 18:00–21:00
fish · Visibility 5 m · Water 9.9°C
confidence medium · 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.

Saturday · today2026-10-24
07:35–17:24 · full moon
▼ 05:00▲ 11:00▼ 18:00 · 4.9 m
Hours (06→20)
06
09
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide1.80 m
Wave0.14 m
Wind8 km/h
Water10 °C
fish activity: moonset 05:47 · moderate · moon underfoot 11:10 · high · moonrise 16:30 · moderate · moon overhead 23:50 · high
Conditions window18:00–21:00
spearfishing is banned at night fish
Hs 0.18 m · calmperiod 5.4 swind 8→26surge 0viz 5 m
0.18 mcalm · up to ~0.36 · 163° at an angle
5.4 sswell moderate
8→26gusts 26 km/h
0weak surge
0.31m/s
5 mrecent swell
9.9°Cthicker suit + hood
▲00:00tide turn near
Atmosphere27 kmlandmarks visible
lowoff the lunar peaks
  • night — spearfishing prohibited
  • current 0.31 m/s
  • first hours of the flood — fish moving in
confidence mediumnight
Open the seafloor map with entry points →
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spearo.app · a private marine instrument · Ketchikan · a planner, not a safety guaranteePrivacy
Today
Notify me
Map
Best window · next 3 days
borderlinetomorrow · 06:00–09:00
you can see ~5 m ahead fish

bite times: 10:10–12:10 · 16:00–17:00

Tell me when it's on

Just your email — nothing else needed.

Your best window — with you. Forecast in your pocket.

Download on theApp StoreGET IT ONGoogle Play
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point your camera
−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: 3016 spots across 406 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.

See all spots →
−20 m

The 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 →
Clover Pass / Knudson CoveKetchikan
borderline
swell on the quarter today
window
—

A current-swept rocky reef, 5–20 m: lingcod and rockfish tight to the structure. Dive slack — outside it the current drags and visibility collapses. Access from the Knudson Cove marina.

Google Maps
Mountain PointKetchikan
borderline
swell on the quarter today
window
—

The best-known shore dive in the region, about 8 km southeast: the wall starts roughly 30 m out and drops from 3 to 15 m, with lingcod, rockfish, greenling and wolf eels in their dens.

Google Maps
Settlers CoveKetchikan
borderline
swell on the quarter today
window
—
Seabed depth of the selected area
≈12–74 m (bathymetry NOAA CUDEM, 8 m)

A rocky recreation-area shoreline north of town, 3–12 m: rockfish and greenling over stone and kelp. Easy entry with parking close by, good for a warm-up before the current sites.

Google Maps

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.

Download on theApp StoreGET IT ONGoogle Play
Google Play — QR code
point your camera
≈

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».

FAA Weather Cam KTN Cam 1 — Tongass Narrows, Ketchikan waterfrontFAA Weather Cams
FAA Weather Cam KTN Cam 1 — Tongass Narrows, Ketchikan waterfrontFAA Weather Cam KTN Cam 1 — Tongass Narrows, Ketchikan waterfront (FAA Weather Cams). A still every ~10 minutes, served through our own /api/camproxy/faa (the direct frame URL carries a timestamp and is not stable). Read the water before you go.camera: faa ↗
Open the seafloor map →
Reference

What's in season,
what the law says.

In season now
  • rockfish
    Sebastes spp. · 5–60 m · ⚠️ closed season/limit
    Alaska splits rockfish into three regulatory groups whose limits differ by an order of magnitude. Southeast: pelagic (black, dark, dusky, widow, yellowtail) 3/day and 6 in possession; slope 1/day; demersal shelf (canary, China, copper, quillback, rosethorn, tiger, YELLOWEYE) 1/day, non-residents an annual limit of 1 with a harvest record, and a Jul 1–Aug 25 season. No minimum size anywhere. Every vessel must carry a functional deepwater release device.
  • Pacific halibut
    Hippoglossus stenolepis · 10–90 m · ⚠️ closed season/limit
    JANUARY IS CLOSED outright; Feb 1–Dec 31 open statewide. No size limit for unguided anglers, 2/day and 4 in possession; guided/charter limits are federal and differ. Halibut may not be filleted or disfigured aboard the vessel beyond 2 ventral, 2 dorsal and 2 cheek pieces with skin attached, and proxy fishing for halibut is not allowed.
  • kelp greenling and other unlisted marine fish
    Hexagrammos spp. · 2–25 m · legal
    The realistic nearshore breath-hold target in Alaska once lingcod is out of season and demersal shelf rockfish is capped at one fish. Year-round, no size or bag limit. But the basis is a RESIDUAL clause — 'other fish species not listed' in the SE Alaska saltwater general regulations — not a named species entry. Read it that way.
Regulated — check your state
  • lingcod📋 season by state
    This is a closure on ALL gear, not a spear-specific one, and its real shape is a summer/autumn window that differs by region. SE residents May 16–Nov 30; area windows for everyone: Northern SE May 16–Jun 14 and Sep 1–Nov 30; Central SE Outside May 16–Jun 30 and Sep 1–Nov 30. SE non-residents: annual limit 2 (one 30–35″ and one 55″+), harvest record required. Southcentral and Kodiak 35″ with head attached, 1/day. Resurrection Bay (Seward) is closed YEAR-ROUND.
Law
  • ✓ADF&G sport fishing licence. Spear/speargun (no explosive charge) — legal gear for halibut/rockfish/lingcod.
  • ✓This is a closure on ALL gear, not a spear-specific one, and its real shape is a summer/autumn window that differs by region. SE residents May 16–Nov 30; area windows for everyone: Northern SE May 16–Jun 14 and Sep 1–Nov 30; Central SE Outside May 16–Jun 30 and Sep 1–Nov 30. SE non-residents: annual limit 2 (one 30–35″ and one 55″+), harvest record required. Southcentral and Kodiak 35″ with head attached, 1/day. Resurrection Bay (Seward) is closed YEAR-ROUND.
  • ✓In-season Emergency Orders override the printed regs — check the regional summary. Cold, low-viz water: expert level.
  • •Statewide in saltwater, every vessel must carry a functional deepwater release device, readily available, regardless of the species targeted. Unretained rockfish must be released at depth of capture or 100 ft (30 m), whichever is shallower.
  • ⛔ 🚫 Sea turtles and mammals, closed waters, refuges and seasonal closures (in-season Emergency Orders override print) — check the regional summary.

US spearfishing law is state-by-state. License, spearable species, powerhead rules and distances vary; federal sanctuaries (Gray's Reef, the Keys, Flower Garden Banks) ban spearfishing. Always confirm with the state agency and local ordinances.

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.

FAQ — spearfishing in Ketchikan

Where can I spearfish in Ketchikan?

Ketchikan has rock entry points such as Mountain Point, Clover Pass / Knudson Cove and Settlers Cove. Rocky walls and current-swept reefs — lingcod, rockfish, greenling and wolf eels; dive Clover Pass at slack. Below you'll find each spot (access, shelter and hazards) and today's forecast.

When is the best season in Ketchikan?

Brief Jun–Aug window; halibut/lingcod/rockfish, cold low-viz water.

How cold is the water in Ketchikan?

Very cold, 4–12 °C — drysuit; low viz, Cook Inlet hyper-tides.

Is Ketchikan good for a beginner?

Expert: cold, Cook Inlet hyper-tides and low viz — slack only, with backup.

Do I need a licence in Ketchikan?

Yes — in Ketchikan almost certainly, but the licence is the STATE's, not a federal one: nearly every coastal state requires its own saltwater fishing licence, and several add a free registration or an extra endorsement on top (Florida's free State Reef Fish Survey for reef fish, Texas's saltwater endorsement, California's Ocean Enhancement Validation). Hawaii asks nothing of residents and charges visitors the NRMFL. What may be speared, and with what gear, is state law too — the price and the details depend on the state, so read the «Law» block below.

Full guide: spearfishing in Hawaii & Alaska →
Westport
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