Cape ClairaultMargaret River (Gracetown)
dangerous Ultra · subscribers
exposed head-on to the swell today
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The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appMargaret River (Gracetown) spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras
2.5
🌫 Murky all week after the storm — the water isn't settling
visibility1m
Today — sit it out — wave, wind and surge pounding. 🌫 Murky all week after the storm — the water isn't settling
Sources: IPMA · buoys · Copernicus · Sentinel-2 — high confidence · data 15:58
Sources & confidence
- Sources
- IPMA · NDBC & IH buoys · Copernicus Marine · Sentinel-2
- Method
- spearo sea-state engine: 6-model consensus + 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
Surface
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
spearo.app
updated 15:58
Margaret River (Gracetown) — solo, off the rocks
don't go · wave 2.0 m (occasionally up to ~4.1 m)
wave 2 mwind 13 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~1 m
today, best window 15:00–18:00
fish · Visibility 1 m · Water 18.2°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 · today2026-09-10
06:26–18:07 · new moon
▲ 00:00▼ 02:00▲ 09:00▼ 17:00▲ 23:00 · 0.4 m
Hours (06→20)
06
09
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide0.06 m
Wave2.02 m
Wind8 km/h
Water18 °C
fish activity: moon underfoot 00:00 · high · moonrise 05:48 · moderate · moon overhead 11:30 · high · moonset 17:18 · moderate
Conditions window15:00–18:00
don't go fish
Hs 2.04 m · roughperiod 12.5 swind 13→22surge 46.9viz 1 m
2.04 mrough · up to ~4.08 · 225° at an angle
12.5 sswell building
13→22gusts 22 km/h
46.9pounding the rocks
0.25m/s
1 mrecent swell
18.2°C5 mm + hood
▼17:00tide turn near
Atmosphere43 kmlandmarks visible
moderatemoonset
- wave 2.0 m (occasionally up to ~4.1 m)
- wind-wave — choppy surface
- low water — slack
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: 1391 spots across 205 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 mapCape Freycinet / BoodjidupMargaret River (Gracetown)
dangerousexposed head-on to the swell today
- window
- —
Granite reef gutters south of the river; 4–10 m, crayfish, dhufish. Exposed and remote — experienced only, high shark-risk.
Google MapsCowaramup Bay (Gracetown)Margaret River (Gracetown)
dangerousexposed head-on to the swell today
- window
- —
Protected bay launch at Gracetown/South Point; reef, dhufish, crayfish grounds nearby. Legal — the Ngari Capes sanctuary is the Cowaramup Point reef to the N; verify zoning locally.
Google MapsGas Bay (Prevelly)Margaret River (Gracetown)
dangerousexposed head-on to the swell today
- window
- —
Reef and boulders at the Margaret River mouth; 3–8 m, dhufish, crayfish. Enter off the rocks; watch swell and sharks.
Google MapsGnarabup BeachMargaret River (Gracetown)
dangerous Pro · subscribers
exposed head-on to the swell today
- window
- —
The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appGrunters BayMargaret River (Gracetown)
dangerous Pro · subscribers
exposed head-on to the swell today
- window
- —
The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appSOLO 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
Open the seafloor map →What's in season,
Reference
What's in season,
what the law says.
In season now
- Western Australian salmonmin 30 cm · bag 4 a day · Counts inside the 16-fish nearshore mixed bag.
- tailormin 30 cm · bag 8 a day · Only 2 fish over 50 cm.
- silver trevally (skippy)min 25 cm · bag 8 a day
- samsonfishmin 60 cm · Inside the statewide 3-fish large-pelagic mixed bag.
- yellowtail kingfishmin 60 cm · Inside the statewide 3-fish large-pelagic mixed bag.
- King George whitingmin 28 cm · bag 12 a day
- Australian herring (tommy ruff)no minimum size · bag 20 a day
- snookmin 30 cm · bag 8 a day
- western king wrasseno minimum size · bag 8 a day
- baldchin groperno minimum size · bag 2 (West Coast) / 1 (Abrolhos) a day · ⚠️ Demersal fish in the West Coast bioregion may not be taken from a BOAT (boat-based spearing included) until spring 2027; shore-entry spearfishing stays open and the South Coast bioregion (Albany, Esperance) is outside the closure (DPIRD, 2026 guide). · closed 1 Oct – 31 Dec · at the Abrolhos Islands — for everyone, shore fishers included.
- pink snapperLancelin – Black Point min 50 cm, Lancelin – Zuytdorp min 41 cm, bag 2. · closed 1 Aug – 31 Jan · in Cockburn Sound and Warnbro Sound — all methods. · ⚠️ Demersal fish in the West Coast bioregion may not be taken from a BOAT (boat-based spearing included) until spring 2027; shore-entry spearfishing stays open and the South Coast bioregion (Albany, Esperance) is outside the closure (DPIRD, 2026 guide).
- breaksea codno minimum size · bag 2 (West Coast) / 4 (South Coast) a day · ⚠️ Demersal fish in the West Coast bioregion may not be taken from a BOAT (boat-based spearing included) until spring 2027; shore-entry spearfishing stays open and the South Coast bioregion (Albany, Esperance) is outside the closure (DPIRD, 2026 guide).
- western blue gropermin 50 cm · bag 1 a day · ⚠️ Demersal fish in the West Coast bioregion may not be taken from a BOAT (boat-based spearing included) until spring 2027; shore-entry spearfishing stays open and the South Coast bioregion (Albany, Esperance) is outside the closure (DPIRD, 2026 guide). · In Victoria the species is fully protected, and in the South Australian gulfs it is closed at all times.
off season: West Australian dhufish ()
Law
- •Spearfishing in Australia is governed by STATE law, not federal: the licence, the gear, the closed areas, the sizes and the all differ between NSW, QLD, VIC, SA, WA and TAS. Below is your state's pack; cross into the next state and the rules change at the border.
- ✓Federally listed species are protected everywhere in Australia, in every state and in Commonwealth waters: white and whale sharks, sawfish, marine turtles, marine mammals and the other listed marine species — never shoot, disturb or take them (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999).
- •Marine park zoning applies ON TOP of the state's fishing rules: / Sanctuary / Preservation zones are full no-take, and on the Great Barrier Reef the marine park zoning sits on top of the Queensland rules. Check the boundaries on the managing agency's zone map before you enter the water.
- •Two prohibitions coincide in every state we ship a city in: rock lobster may not be taken with a spear or any puncturing device, and all inland (fresh) waters are closed to spearfishing. Abalone may not be speared either. Source: the state fisheries recreational guides.
- ✓WA: no licence is needed for shore-based fishing, but from a powered boat a Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence is required — AUD 40 a year; separate rock lobster and abalone licences at AUD 50. Half fee for under-16s, Seniors Card holders and listed pensioners; a licence runs 12 months from issue (Fish Resources Management Act 1994).
- ✓WA gear and places (per DPIRD, 2026 guide): spearfishing is allowed in ocean waters except some , around dive wrecks, and from a boat during the West Coast demersal closure. All inland waters are closed; a hand spear in an is only for estuarine cobbler. In Ningaloo and Shark Bay Marine Parks spearfishing on compressed air is prohibited. A is not on the list of permitted gear, and explosives or noxious substances may not be carried on a boat (Aquatic Resources Management Act 2016).
- •WA, the key shore-versus-boat difference: the demersal closure in the West Coast bioregion (Kalbarri/Zuytdorp – Augusta/Black Point) runs to spring 2027 and bites on BOAT-based fishing, boat spearing included; shore-entry spearfishing stays open. The exception is the dhufish, which may not be speared from land at all. The South Coast bioregion (Albany, Esperance) is outside the closure.
- •WA sizes and seasons: pink snapper 50 cm (Lancelin – Black Point) or 41 cm (Lancelin – Zuytdorp), bag 2; western blue groper 50 cm (1); coral trout 45 cm (1); spangled emperor 40 cm; WA salmon 30 cm (4) and tailor 30 cm (8) inside the 16-fish nearshore bag. Closures: Cockburn and Warnbro Sounds 1 Aug – 31 Jan, the Abrolhos baldchin groper closure 1 Oct – 31 Dec, and three separate Shark Bay pink snapper windows.
- •WA weather: the BOM marine wind warning summary for the state — bom.gov.au/marine/lite/warning/IDW20100.shtml. Rules change: check DPIRD before every trip.
- ⛔ 🚫 Western Australia also protects all rays and skates in the Hamelin Bay Protection Area, the black and smooth stingrays (Bathytoshia) in the South Coast and West Coast bioregions, coral and live rock, and seven native freshwater fishes (fresh water is closed to spearfishing anyway).
- ⛔ 🚫 Fully protected in Western Australia: grey nurse shark, white shark, speartooth shark, whale shark, all sawfish, potato rockcod, Queensland groper, humphead Maori wrasse, common and leafy seadragons, coral and live rock; black and smooth stingrays in the South Coast and West Coast bioregions.
- ⛔ 🚫 Every inland water in Western Australia is closed to spearfishing; some and the dive wrecks are closed to it, and in Ningaloo and Shark Bay Marine Parks spearfishing on compressed air is prohibited (DPIRD). Rock lobster and abalone may not be speared.
Rules change and vary BY STATE. Before heading out, check with your state's fisheries (NSW DPI, Fisheries QLD, VFA, DPIRD WA, PIRSA, NRE Tas, NT Fisheries) and the marine-park zoning map.
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 Margaret River (Gracetown)
Where can I spearfish in Margaret River (Gracetown)?
Margaret River (Gracetown) has rock entry points such as Cowaramup Bay (Gracetown), Gas Bay (Prevelly) and Cape Freycinet / Boodjidup. The Margaret River capes — Cowaramup Bay at Gracetown is the protected launch, and Gas Bay at the river mouth gives 3–8 m of reef and boulders for dhufish and crayfish. Below you'll find each spot (access, shelter and hazards) and today's forecast.
When is the best season in Margaret River (Gracetown)?
Autumn (Mar–May) — warm Leeuwin, less swell; summer afternoon sea breeze.
How cold is the water in Margaret River (Gracetown)?
Summer 20–23 °C — 3 mm suit; winter 18–19 °C — 5 mm. Warm Leeuwin.
Is Margaret River (Gracetown) good for a beginner?
Easy–moderate: clear Leeuwin water; afternoon sea breeze.
Do I need a licence in Margaret River (Gracetown)?
Margaret River (Gracetown) is in WA. No licence from the shore in Western Australia — but fishing from a boat needs the RFBL, and the WA dhufish sits under a demersal closure to spring 2027. Spearfishing on scuba is banned everywhere, rock lobster may never be speared, and marine-park sanctuary/green zones are no-take. See the guide for the state-by-state detail.
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