Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.
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 Marblehead, 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.
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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 mapShoal off Bay Point at the mouth of Sandusky Bay, about 3 m over sand and rubble. Bay water meets lake water here, so visibility swings hard with the wind; short boat run from Marblehead, heavy summer traffic.
Google MapsThe deepest of the Marblehead reefs at about 6 m, off Lakeside on the north side of the peninsula. Flat limestone with rubble edges; a short run from the ferry docks and usually the clearest of the group.
Google MapsCameras, 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».
SpainShallow shoal inside the East Harbor system, 1-2.5 m over hard bottom and weed. Protected water that stays diveable when the open lake is rough, but the visibility is bay-grade, often under 2 m.
Google MapsReef outside West Harbor on the Catawba shore, about 4 m over limestone. Sheltered from the east by the peninsula, easy launch, and the closest reef to the Marblehead ramps.
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.
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.
Marblehead is where you launch. It is the mainland gate to the Erie islands, with ferries to Kelleys and South Bass, ramps, and shallow, quick-warming western-basin water. Ohio's spearfishing answer is a class definition: forage fish — freshwater drum, common carp, the Asian carps, quillback, suckers, bowfin, gar, buffalo, gizzard shad and goldfish — may be taken by any method except a list that omits spears. Game fish are treated as closed. The local reefs run 1-6 m, from the sheltered Middle Harbor Shoal to Lakeside Reef, which is usually the clearest of the group.
These four are the closest hard bottom to the Marblehead ramps, and they are graded by shelter rather than by depth. Middle Harbor Shoal inside East Harbor keeps working when the lake does not; Lakeside Reef on the north side is the deepest and usually the clearest. Legal status is the same on every row: forage fish by any method including a spear, game fish treated as closed.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middle Harbor Shoal | Reef | 1-2.5 m | Snorkel to single tank · forage fish only, game fish closed | Boat | Shallow shoal inside the East Harbor system, 1-2.5 m over hard bottom and weed. Protected water that stays diveable when the open lake is rough, but visibility is bay-grade, often under 2 m. |
| Bay Point Shoal | Reef | 1.5-3 m | Boat, current · forage fish only, game fish closed | Boat | Shoal off Bay Point at the mouth of Sandusky Bay, about 3 m over sand and rubble. Bay water meets lake water here, so visibility swings hard with the wind; heavy summer traffic. |
| West Harbor Reef | Reef | 2.5-4 m | Snorkel to single tank · forage fish only, game fish closed | Boat | Reef outside West Harbor on the Catawba shore, about 4 m over limestone. Sheltered from the east by the peninsula, easy launch, and the closest reef to the Marblehead ramps. |
| Lakeside Reef | Reef | 4-6 m | Snorkel to single tank · forage fish only, game fish closed | Boat | The deepest of the Marblehead reefs at about 6 m, off Lakeside on the north side of the peninsula. Flat limestone with rubble edges; a short run from the ferry docks and usually the clearest of the group. |
For forage fish, yes. The Ohio Division of Wildlife defines forage fish as freshwater drum (sheepshead), common carp, grass carp in waters not stocked by the Division for vegetation control as indicated by signs, bighead carp, silver carp, black carp, quillback, suckers, bowfin, gar, buffalo, gizzard shad and goldfish, and says these species may be taken by any method except by means of explosives, poisons, firearms, electricity, chemicals, nets other than cast nets, seines, traps, or by snagging within 1,000 feet downstream of a posted dam. Spears, gigs and bows are not in the exception list, so a spear is lawful for that class in Ohio waters of Lake Erie. Ohio never writes the word spearfishing in its Lake Erie regulations at all; the answer has to be read from the class definition.
There is no Ohio text saying game fish may only be taken by angling, and there is no text saying they may be speared either. The administrative code that would resolve it — OAC 1501:31-13 — could not be opened, because codes.ohio.gov refused every connection during this research. So the safe and honest reading is that game fish are closed to the spear: walleye, yellow perch, the bass and the salmonids. Confirm with ODNR before planning otherwise. Two protection details apply everywhere on this shore: three gars (alligator, shortnose and spotted) are Ohio state endangered even though gar is a forage-fish category, so identify before you shoot; and lake sturgeon, shovelnose sturgeon, cisco (lake herring), longnose sucker and goldeye are possession-prohibited in all Ohio waters.
The four Marblehead reefs sort themselves by shelter. Middle Harbor Shoal sits inside the East Harbor system in 1-2.5 m of hard bottom and weed; it is protected water that stays diveable when the open lake is rough, but the visibility is bay-grade and often under 2 m. West Harbor Reef, on the Catawba shore in about 4 m of limestone, is sheltered from the east by the peninsula and is the closest reef to the ramps. Lakeside Reef, on the north side in 4-6 m, is the deepest and usually the clearest of the group, a short run from the ferry docks. Bay Point Shoal, at the mouth of Sandusky Bay in about 3 m, is the volatile one: bay water meets lake water there, so visibility swings hard with the wind and summer traffic is heavy.
This is the shallow western basin, and it behaves accordingly. Ice cover on Lake Erie often reaches 90-100 % in February. The season runs May to October, and this water warms first of any of the Great Lakes, up to 22-24 °C in August — at these depths a thin wetsuit is genuinely enough in late summer. The trade-off is clarity: the western basin is the murkiest water in the lake, and visibility collapses after wind over about 15 knots. There is no tide; the astronomical range on the Great Lakes is a few centimetres and NOAA publishes no predictions for these stations. The CO-OPS gauge 9063079 sits on the point at Marblehead itself, barely a kilometre from the forecast position — the closest gauge-to-site pairing anywhere on this shore.
Ohio licence fees from the 2025-26 digest, effective through 28 February 2026 and worth re-verifying: resident 1-year $25.00, non-resident 1-year $50.96, non-resident 3-day $25.00, 1-day $14.00. Marblehead is a launching town — ramps, ferries to Kelleys and South Bass, and constant summer boat movement — so a diver-down flag is essential and the ferry routes are not places to be in the water. Bay Point Shoal in particular sits where bay and lake traffic converge. Gear is straightforward at these depths: a wetsuit in high summer, gloves for the limestone and the mussel encrustation, and a plan that assumes visibility can drop to a couple of metres without notice.
For forage fish, yes — drum, carp, the Asian carps, quillback, suckers, bowfin, gar, buffalo, gizzard shad and goldfish. Spears are not among Ohio's prohibited means for that class.
No. Treat game fish as closed. Ohio publishes nothing allowing them by spear and OAC 1501:31-13 could not be read; confirm with ODNR.
Middle Harbor Shoal inside the East Harbor system, in 1-2.5 m of protected water. The cost is bay-grade visibility, often under 2 m.
Lakeside Reef on the north side of the peninsula, at 4-6 m, usually the clearest of the group and a short run from the ferry docks.
Bay water meets lake water at the mouth of Sandusky Bay, so the wind decides which one you get.
From Marblehead to Kelleys Island and South Bass Island. Stay well clear of the routes when you are in the water.
Up to 22-24 °C in August, the warmest on the Great Lakes. Ice cover often reaches 90-100 % in February.
Right on the point by the lighthouse — station 9063079, about a kilometre from the forecast position.
Portugal
