Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.
Sources & confidence
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The verdict comes from seven water factors and hard safety gates — not ten tabs. Go or stay.
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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
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
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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 mapSteamer capsized in a 1911 squall off the Indiana dunes and made the state's dedicated shipwreck preserve, lying inverted in shallow water on sand. Boat dive west of Michigan City; artefact recovery is prohibited. Indiana does not name the speargun for Lake Michigan.
Google MapsThe east breakwall of Michigan City harbour with its 1904 lighthouse, rubble and steel along the lake face in 3-7 m. Walk-in from Washington Park; surge and boat traffic are the hazards. Indiana's Lake Michigan rules name only bow gear, so treat this as a dive site.
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.
Cameras, 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».
Indiana names the spear gun and then does not name Lake Michigan. The DNR guide's "Bow Fishing & Spear Fishing" section allows a gig, fish spear, spear gun or underwater spear year-round, at any hour, for invasive carp, bowfin, buffalo fish, common carp, gar, shad and suckers — but only from non-flowing waters and eight named rivers. The Lake Michigan section says those same species may be taken with a bow and arrow, and never mentions a spear. 312 IAC 9-7 would settle it and could not be read, so Michigan City's lake water is unresolved: do not treat it as allowed. Spear possession is separately banned in Trail Creek, the town's harbour.
This is a thin list, honestly stated: no dive site beyond these was confirmed in this research. The two piers give 3-7 m of rubble with walk-in access, and the J.D. Marshall lies inverted in shallow water in the state's shipwreck preserve west of town. The legal column is the same on every row — Indiana does not name the spear for Lake Michigan, so treat all three as dive points.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J.D. Marshall | Wreck | 5-9 m | Boat dive · Indiana does not name the spear for Lake Michigan | Boat | Steamer capsized in a 1911 squall off the Indiana dunes and made the state's dedicated shipwreck preserve, lying inverted in shallow water on sand. Boat dive west of town; artefact recovery is prohibited. |
SpainUS 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.
| Michigan City East Pier | Jetty | 3-7 m | Shore dive · Indiana does not name the spear for Lake Michigan | Walk-in from Washington Park | The east breakwall with its 1904 lighthouse, rubble and steel along the lake face in 3-7 m. Surge and boat traffic are the hazards; Indiana's Lake Michigan rules name only bow gear. |
| Michigan City West Pier | Jetty | 3-7 m | Shore dive · Indiana does not name the spear for Lake Michigan | Shore access from the beach | The west arm of the harbour entrance, stone and concrete with rubble along its outer face in 3-7 m and a clean sand floor beside it. The channel between the piers runs current. |
Unresolved, and that is the answer to act on. Indiana's 2026-2027 fishing guide has a section called Bow Fishing & Spear Fishing which reads that a gig, fish spear, spear gun or underwater spear can be used year-round at any time of day to take invasive carp, bowfin, buffalo fish, common carp, gar, shad and suckers from non-flowing waters, including lakes, ponds and reservoirs, and from a list of large rivers. On its face that is the most permissive gear rule in the eastern Great Lakes. But the guide's Lake Michigan section says only that bowfin, buffalo fish, carp, gar, shad and sucker from Lake Michigan can be taken with a bow and arrow. Bow, not spear. The statewide paragraph is scoped to non-flowing waters, and Lake Michigan is a lake, so the spear rule arguably reaches it — yet the DNR named the lake explicitly in the bow paragraph and not in the spear paragraph. 312 IAC 9-7 would settle the question and sits behind a JavaScript-only portal that returned nothing. Treat Indiana Lake Michigan underwater spearfishing as unresolved, never as allowed.
This is the hard, unambiguous rule and the easiest one to trip over at Michigan City. Indiana prohibits possession of a fish spear, gig, gaff, bowfishing equipment, crossbow, grab hook, spear gun, club, snag hook or underwater spear in or adjacent to the Galena River (LaPorte County), Trail Creek (LaPorte County), the East Branch of the Little Calumet River (LaPorte and Porter counties), Salt Creek (Porter County), the West Branch of the Little Calumet River (Lake and Porter counties), Burns Ditch (Lake and Porter counties), Deep River downstream of the dam at Lake George (Lake County), and the tributaries to all of these. Trail Creek is Michigan City's harbour, and Burns Ditch is Portage's. The line between lawful lake water and an unlawful gear-possession zone therefore runs straight through the two best access points on the Indiana shore, and it is not marked on the water. Possession is the offence — carrying the gear on the bank is enough.
Seven rough species, named in the spear paragraph itself: invasive carp (bighead, silver, black and grass), bowfin, buffalo fish, common carp, gar, shad and suckers. No game fish appears anywhere in it. Lake sturgeon is state endangered in Indiana, and this research did not re-verify that against 312 IAC. Round goby is absent from Indiana's spear list, as it is from every eastern Great Lakes state's — that is an argument from silence across four sources rather than a printed prohibition, and it is largely academic given the size of the fish. Nothing on the Indiana shore is venomous; the hazards are cold water, boat traffic and current, not wildlife.
Michigan City is Indiana's one workable node on the lake — a harbour, a lighthouse and the way out to Indiana Dunes — and this research confirmed no dive site of its own beyond three points. The east pier, with its 1904 lighthouse, carries rubble and steel along the lake face in 3-7 m and is a walk-in from Washington Park. The west pier is a stone and concrete wall with rubble on its outer face in 3-7 m and clean sand beside it; the channel between the two runs current, so treat the gap as a hazard rather than a route. West of town the J.D. Marshall, a steamer capsized in a 1911 squall, lies inverted in shallow water on sand and is the state's dedicated shipwreck preserve — artefact recovery is prohibited. One further gap worth naming: Indiana Dunes National Park sits alongside, and its superintendent's compendium and 36 CFR 2.3 were not read in this research, so a federal swimming-beach fishing closure very likely applies somewhere along that shore.
Harbours and canals freeze from January to March while mid-lake stays open. The season runs June to October and the water is clearest from August to October. This is the southern end of the lake, so the surface warms more than it does off Wisconsin, but below the summer thermocline it stays cold — plan a wetsuit for the piers in August and thicker protection for anything deeper or earlier. There is no tide; the Great Lakes astronomical range is a few centimetres and NOAA publishes no predictions for these stations. The nearest CO-OPS gauge is Calumet Harbor, 9087044, about 52 km west. An Indiana fishing licence for 2026 costs $23 resident annual, $60 non-resident annual, $10 resident 1-day, $15 non-resident 1-day and $35 non-resident 7-day, with a Trout/Salmon Stamp at $11.
Unresolved. Indiana's spear paragraph covers seven rough species in non-flowing waters and named rivers, but the Lake Michigan section names only a bow, and 312 IAC 9-7 could not be read. Do not treat the lake as open.
Yes, in the waters its guide names: a gig, fish spear, spear gun or underwater spear may be used year-round at any hour in non-flowing waters and eight named rivers. Lake Michigan is not among them for spears.
Not in or adjacent to Trail Creek, which is the town's harbour creek. Possession of a spear, gig, gaff, crossbow or spear gun is prohibited there and in six other named waters and their tributaries.
Invasive carp, bowfin, buffalo fish, common carp, gar, shad and suckers — seven rough species, year-round, at any hour, in the waters the rule names.
A steamer capsized in a 1911 squall off the Indiana dunes, lying inverted in shallow water on sand and designated as the state's dedicated shipwreck preserve. Artefact recovery is prohibited.
Yes. Both piers carry rubble in 3-7 m with shore access, but the channel between them runs current and boat traffic is constant.
For 2026: resident annual $23, non-resident annual $60, resident 1-day $10, non-resident 1-day $15, non-resident 7-day $35, plus a Trout/Salmon Stamp at $11.
Indiana Dunes National Park adjoins the shore and its compendium and 36 CFR 2.3 were not read in this research. A federal swimming-beach fishing closure very likely applies somewhere along it.
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