Today — right on the edge.
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 Port Washington, we'll send the go / no-go verdict. Email is all we need.
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
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: 3016 spots across 406 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 mapThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appCameras, 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».
transparency ~9 m · satellite, 2 days agosatellite estimate · may differ right at the shore
buoy ATW20 - Atwater Park, WI: 11.5° · wave 0.4 m/4 s · 2 h ago
The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appSchooner sunk in a collision in 1868 and lying upright in 41 m off Port Washington with deadeyes and windlass in place. A deep, cold boat dive for experienced divers; the site is on the National Register and fully protected.
Google MapsPort Washington - Lake Michigan is a lake shore entry about 0.7 km from Port Washington. Water body: Lake Michigan. Depths reach at least about 5 m. Check the state's current spearing rules before you dive.
Google MapsThe 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.
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.
Port Washington allows spearfishing only within Wisconsin's Outlying Waters rule, which makes it unlawful to spear any game fish and leaves panfish, white bass, yellow bass, rock bass, bullheads and the rough-fish list, taken while skin or scuba diving during the open rough-fish season, sunrise to sunset. The town is the southern anchor of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary and holds part of its 36 known wrecks. The diving is unusually approachable: the Toledo in 6 m is a shore swim, the Mahoning and Niagara sit at 17 m, and the Northerner is upright in 41 m.
This is the shallowest-friendly stretch of the sanctuary coast: two hulls in 5-6 m, two in 17 m, one at 41 m. The legal column is identical everywhere on this shore — no game fish by spear, panfish and rough fish only, sunrise to sunset. Several of these are National Register sites and artefacts are protected on all of them; the Mahoning's note about a thermocline at 12 m is the practical warning for the mid-depth pair.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northerner | Wreck | 41 m | Technical, decompression · dive only | Boat | Schooner sunk in a collision in 1868, upright in 41 m off Port Washington with deadeyes and windlass in place. A National Register site and fully protected. |
| Mahoning | Wreck | 17 m | Intermediate boat dive · panfish and rough fish only | Boat | Brig of 1847 in 17 m south of town, an early wooden sailing hull with the bow well preserved. Thermocline around 12 m; visibility is best in autumn. |
| Niagara | Wreck | 17 m | Intermediate boat dive · panfish and rough fish only | Boat | Side-wheel steamer that burned in 1856 with heavy loss of life, in 17 m off Belgium north of town. Paddle machinery and hull bottom are the highlights; artefacts are protected. |
| Toledo | Wreck | 6 m | Beginner, snorkel or single tank · panfish and rough fish only | Shore or short boat run | A 178 ft propeller lost with heavy loss of life in the 1856 gale, lying in 6 m directly off Port Washington. Shore swim or a two-minute boat run; broken and sanded over, but bright and easy. |
| Atlanta | Wreck | 5 m | Beginner, snorkel or single tank · panfish and rough fish only | Boat | A 200 ft steamer burned in 1906 and lying in 5 m off Holland, Wisconsin, shallow enough to snorkel from a small boat. Wide, bright and easy, with framing spread across sand. |
Yes, within the state's Outlying Waters rule. Lake Michigan belongs to that class, together with Lake Superior, Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay, Sawyer's Harbor and the Fox River to the De Pere dam, and the DNR's text is unambiguous: it is unlawful to spear any game fish, except that white bass, yellow bass, rock bass, panfish and bullheads may be speared while skin diving or scuba diving during the open season for rough fish spearing. Wisconsin's definition of spearing includes spearguns by name, so the gun is bound by every rule in the book — hours sunrise to sunset, and the rough-fish season, which is continuous in the coastal counties.
Port Washington sits in Ozaukee County on the southern boundary of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, designated in 2021. The sanctuary covers 962 square miles, runs 132 km of Wisconsin shore and reaches 11-26 km out from it, holding 36 known wrecks from the 1830s to 1930, 27 of them on the National Register, plus roughly 60 more that have never been located. NOAA notes that the cold fresh water has preserved part of the fleet nearly whole. The sector off Port Washington carries a share of those wrecks, and the sanctuary's protection is aimed at them as cultural resources: on the sites recorded here artefacts are protected and nothing may be lifted. Confirm current sanctuary rules with NOAA before you dive a listed hull.
Lawful with a spear: panfish, white bass, yellow bass, rock bass, bullheads, and the rough-fish list — all suckers, redhorse, buffalo and carpsuckers not listed as threatened or endangered, common carp, bighead, black, silver and grass carp, goldfish, freshwater drum, burbot, bowfin, gar, lamprey, alewife, gizzard shad, smelt and mooneye. Closed to the spear: every game fish, which on this coast means lake trout and the salmon, walleye, northern pike, muskellunge, smallmouth and largemouth bass, and lake whitefish. Lake sturgeon is never a spear target on the Great Lakes here; Wisconsin's only sturgeon spearing is the inland Winnebago System fishery under a separate licence.
Harbours and canals ice over from January to March while mid-lake stays open. The season runs June to October and the clearest water is from August to October. The Mahoning's site note gives the practical detail that matters here: a thermocline around 12 m, so on the 17 m pair you cross into cold water partway down the descent and the suit has to be chosen for the bottom. Visibility on those two is described as best in autumn. There is no tide — the Great Lakes astronomical range is a few centimetres and NOAA publishes no predictions for these stations — so level moves with wind and seiche. The Milwaukee CO-OPS gauge, 9087057, is about 43 km south.
A Wisconsin fishing licence covers spearing: resident annual $20, non-resident annual $55, non-resident 1-day $15, 4-day $29, 15-day $33. Non-residents under 16 need a licence to spear even though they do not to fish hook and line, and there is no separate underwater licence. Gear: for the shallow pair a wetsuit will do on a warm August day, but for the 17 m and 41 m sites plan a drysuit or heavy semi-dry, hood, gloves and a light. Fly a diver-down flag — this is an hour from Milwaukee and summer boat traffic is heavy. Hazards: cold below the thermocline, exposure with no shelter offshore, and zebra-mussel encrustation on old steel and iron.
Yes, but no game fish. Wisconsin's Outlying Waters rule leaves panfish, white/yellow/rock bass, bullheads and rough fish, taken skin or scuba in the open rough-fish season.
The Toledo in 6 m directly off town — a shore swim or a two-minute boat run — and the Atlanta in 5 m off Holland, shallow enough to snorkel.
41 m, upright with deadeyes and windlass in place. A cold decompression dive on a National Register site.
Around 12 m, according to the Mahoning site note — so on the 17 m wrecks you cross into cold water on the way down.
It sits on the southern boundary of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, in Ozaukee County, and holds part of the sanctuary's 36 known wrecks.
No. Both are game fish and it is unlawful to spear any game fish in Wisconsin's Outlying Waters.
August to October. Harbours ice January to March and the season runs June to October.
About an hour by road, and the Milwaukee tide gauge is around 43 km south of the forecast point.
