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.
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.
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0 m
Surface
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
spearo.app
calmupdated 11:45
Porto Covo — solo, off the rocks
DON'T GO
don't go · wave 1.5 m (occasionally up to ~3.0 m)
wave 1.5 m head-onwind 24, gusts 45 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~1 m
today, best window 15:00–18:00
fish · Visibility 1 m · Water 18.1°C
confidence medium · 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.
Wednesday · today2026-09-09
07:11–19:52 · new moon
▲ 01:00▼ 07:00▲ 14:00▼ 20:00 · 2.8 m
Hours (06→20)
06
09
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide-0.44 m
Wave1.58 m
Wind16 km/h
Water18 °C
fish activity: moonrise 05:08 · moderate · moon overhead 12:10 · high · moonset 19:02 · moderate · moon underfoot 00:00 · high
Conditions window15:00–18:00
don't go fish ·
Hs 1.50 m · roughperiod 6.7 s head-onwind 24→45surge 5viz 1 m
1.50 mrough · up to ~3.00 · 306° head-on
6.7 sswell moderate
24→45gusts 45 km/h
5pounding the rocks
0.19m/s
1 mrecent swell
18.1°C5 mm + hood
▼20:00tide falling
Atmosphere36 kmlandmarks visible
lowoff the lunar peaks
wave 1.5 m (occasionally up to ~3.0 m)
steep wind-wave — choppy surface, careful on entry
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
Your best window — with you. Forecast in your pocket.
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−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: 1391 spots across 205 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
Early morning outside the bathing season only. In summer it is a supervised bathing beach — in practice a scout, not a hunt.
tide
Low to mid tide exposes the side rocks and eases the shorebreak; at high tide the surf breaks closer to the seawall.
shelter
Urban beach in a cove framed by large rocks — relatively sheltered, but it is a surf beach with noticeable waves. Sheltered from easterly wind by the village; open to W/NW.
conditions
Narrow window: only flat seas and minimal swell, otherwise there is shorebreak. Work the rocky points at the cove's edges, not the central sand.
hazard
The dominant danger is shorebreak and rip-style return flow by the rocks as swell builds: being swept onto rock on the exit. It is a surf spot — dive float essential, stay to the edges.
access
Right in the village: steps from the promenade to the sand, parking nearby. The easiest approach but the busiest.
The village's main beach — useful as a fallback/scout, but busy and lifeguarded in season, so spearing is not an option then. Spearfish only in winter on the side reefs in flat seas.
Praia da Ilha do PessegueiroForte do Pessegueiro (south of the village)
dangerous
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
Early morning before the boats run to the island. Quiet in winter; in summer it is a bathing beach with traffic out to the island.
tide
Low to mid tide exposes more reef by the fort and eases the entry; high tide swims easier but the reef sits deeper.
shelter
Wide sandy beach backed by large rocks and the Ilha do Pessegueiro ~200 m offshore, which gives partial lee from W swell. Open to the W; sheltered from easterly wind by the land.
conditions
Diveable in small W swell with offshore wind. The reef sits by the fort rocks and along the channel to the island; no visibility over sand, so work the rock.
hazard
The dominant danger is boat traffic in the ~200 m channel to the island: stay tight to the fort rocks and never cross open water without a dive float. The island site itself is boat-only.
access
Paved road and large car park by the Forte do Pessegueiro; walk down from the fort to the sand and enter off the sand beside the rocks.
The most sheltered entry around thanks to the island breaking the swell; the fort reef holds octopus and moray. In peak season it is a bathing beach — poor for spearing, plus island traffic. ⚠️ Hazard is materially incomplete/sugar-coated: Portuguese fisheries authority (DGRM) explicitly lists Ilha do Pessegueiro as a prohibited zone for recreational fishing/spearfishing ('a pesca ludica e interdita nas areas designadas como: Ilha do Pessegueiro'), and spearfishing is separately banned in navigation channels. The text frames the channel only as boat-traffic risk and encourages diving the fort rocks, omitting that spearfishing here is legally PROHIBITED - the single most important fact for a solo diver. Coords (37.8324,-8.7927) land at the fort-rocks/channel edge between the sandy beach center (37.8301,-8.7918) and the island (37.8336,-8.7978), consistent with the described entry.
Praia da SamoqueiraSamoqueira (north of the village)
dangerous
best candidate for today
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
Mornings before the thermal NW wind (nortada) builds. Shore-dive season May to October; locals spearfish here mostly in winter.
tide
Best at low to mid tide when the rock pools and channels to the reef open up; at high water the entry rocks are awash.
shelter
Rock ledges at the water's edge soften the swell and form natural pools at low water. Sheltered from south wind but open to W/NW Atlantic swell.
conditions
Diveable on calm days with small swell (up to roughly 1 m) and an E/NE offshore wind. Clearest water with light northerly seas.
hazard
The dominant danger is the exit over slippery rocks once swell builds — you can get pinned in the channel. Watch the sets; enter the caves only in flat conditions.
access
Dirt parking on the clifftop, then stone steps cut into the rock down to the water. Enter off the slabs between the rock formations.
The area's most workable rocky entry for snorkel/freedive; turquoise water over walls, cracks and caves. Inside the PNSACV park — night spearfishing banned, licence required.
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.
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≈
Surfacing
Cameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.
In season now: Sea bass, White seabream, Gilthead bream, Salema, Octopus, Mullet
In season now
Robalo (sea bass)
<4 m · end of ebb → start of flood · dawn/dusk
Prime target. Shy of light — pick early/twilight windows.
Sargo (white seabream)
1–5 m · flood (rides the surf onto the reef) · dawn
Dominant reef target. Visibility matters more than time of day.
Dourada (gilthead bream)
1–4 m · flood over sand/weed · dawn
Very skittish — static ambush.
Salema
0–2 m · — · daytime
Easiest target at 0–6 m. ⚠️ Do NOT eat the head/guts (ichthyosarcotoxism).
Polvo (octopus)
1–6 m · high water · twilight
Peaks in autumn. Spot the den by the pile of shells. Don't take egg-bearing females. Min. weight 750 g (DGRM).
Tainha (mullet)
0–2 m · — · —
Extremely wary; murky water HINDERS it. Opportunistic, in calm coves.
Santola (spider crab)
1–10 m · low water (reef shelf exposed) · calm morning (≤force 2)
Carapace ≥12 cm. Peaks Jul–Aug. CLOSED 15.02–15.06. Limit 2 kg/day.
Law
🦀 spider crab open (season 16.06–14.02)
✓Spearfishing licence required, daily/monthly/annual (~€25/yr). Speargun = licence required. (DL 246/2000, art. 12.º + 12.º-A; fees in , .) There is no minimum age for the licence, but under-16s are exempt from holding one when fishing accompanied by a licence holder (art. 12.º n.º 2 al. b).
✓Hand-gathering shellfish with NO gear — no licence; but if a speargun is on the dive, a spearfishing licence is required (DL 246/2000, art. 12.º n.º 1; ).
✓Night prohibited: spearfishing only in daylight (sunset→sunrise not allowed). Artificial light as a means of finding/attracting fish is banned — a torch for safety only (, art. 8.º/3 + 3.º/5; DL 246/2000, art. 14.º n.º 1 d).
✓Signalling buoy MANDATORY for spearfishing: buoy/float with an «Alfa» flag (red/orange/yellow, ≥8 L), no more than 30 m from the diver (, art. 4.º/2).
✓Spearfishing daily limit: fish + cephalopods — 15 kg (excluding the largest specimen). General rod-and-line recreational fishing — 10 kg (, art. 12.º/1).
✓Spider crab: min. carapace 12 cm; (closed season) 15.02–15.06 — applies to recreational gathering too (, ; table).
✓Min. sizes: robalo 36 cm, sargo 17 cm, dourada 19 cm, choupa 23 cm, corvina 42 cm; octopus 750 g ( + EU Reg. 2019/1241; minimum-size table).
✓Grouper — fully protected, may not be taken (
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. At Cabo Raso/Arriba a 0.5 m rise in swell makes a boulder exit impossible — getting pinned/unable to climb out is the main killer here.
Headland rip: at Cabo Raso there is 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.
Nortada (Jun–Sep): wind builds from midday — be out of the water by ~11:00; 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.
Local guide · Porto Covo
Spearfishing in Porto Covo: spots, seasons and rules
Updated 2026-07-09 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher
Spearfishing in Porto Covo is about small rocky coves, not open sand beaches. Samoqueira is the clear shore candidate: ledges, tide pools, cracks and clean turquoise water when the Atlantic settles. Ilha do Pessegueiro may look sheltered, but it should not be used as a hunting spot because recreational fishing is indicated as prohibited at the island and the channel has boat traffic. Praia Grande is an urban bathing fallback, useful for looking at the sea, not for a normal speargun plan.
TL;DR
Porto Covo's honest shore entry is Samoqueira, with rock pools, ledges, cracks and small caves in a calm-sea window.
Look for swell around 1 m or less, E/NE offshore wind and low to mid tide, when the reef access opens up.
Ilha do Pessegueiro is not a recommendation: recreational fishing is indicated as banned there, and the channel has boat traffic and spearfishing restrictions.
Best spearfishing entry in Porto Covo
The table stays to Samoqueira. Praia Grande is a bathing fallback, and Pessegueiro is a legal and traffic warning rather than a hunting mark.
Spot
Type
Depth
Level
Access
Notes
Praia da Samoqueira
Rocky cove with ledges, pools and cracks
Shallow to moderate reef channels
Intermediate
Dirt parking by the cliff, then stone steps cut into the rock down to the water.
Works with calm sea, swell around 1 m or less and E/NE offshore wind. Slippery rock exits and getting trapped in channels are the main hazards as swell builds.
Conditions and season essentials
Low to mid tide is the useful Samoqueira window because the rock pools and reef corridors open up. At high water, the entry rocks are covered and the channels can hide set energy. Go in the morning before the nortada. Shore-diving season is noted from May to October, while local spearfishing is described as more winter-focused because the beach is quieter. Do not enter caves unless the sea is fully still. The coast is inside the SW Alentejo and Vicentina Coast Natural Park, so check local restrictions. National rules apply: licence from age 16, apnea only, daylight only and Alfa buoy within 30 m.
✓Breath-hold only: spearfishing may be practised in apnea alone. Scuba, rebreather and hookah are banned; the speargun may not be powered by a detonating charge or by compressed gas (DL 246/2000, art. 9.º n.º 3 — o antigo art. 6.º foi revogado).
✓The catch may NOT be sold: displaying for sale, offering or selling recreational catch is prohibited — it is for the fisher, the household, or donation to charitable, scientific or museum institutions (DL 246/2000, art. 7.º).
✓A loaded speargun out of the water is an offence (DL 246/2000, art. 14.º n.º 2 f). Same article: no fishing closer than the legally set distance from concessioned beaches during the bathing season (n.º 2 d), nor in places closed for health or marine-traffic reasons (n.º 2 e). The exact metres come from the regulation and the capitania — check before you go.
✓Distances between people: at least 20 m from another spearfisher (, art. 6.º n.º 3) unless you agree otherwise; from a boat, 50 m from other vessels, divers and set gear (art. 6.º n.º 2); every vessel must keep 50 m from your signalling buoy and from boats flying flag Alfa (art. 7.º n.º 6). The figure that circulates — «30 m between hunters» — is wrong: 30 m is the distance to YOUR OWN buoy.
✓What you may take into the water: the CAPTURE gear on a spearfishing dive is the speargun, a shellfish knife, a gaff (puxeiro) and an arrelhada (, art. 3.º n.º 3). That is not a ban on everything else: art. 4.º n.º 1 expressly allows equipment for cold protection, for buoyancy, for protection or safety and for carrying the catch, and any other equipment that does not permit the direct capture of specimens. Bait and groundbait are PROHIBITED in spearfishing (art. 5.º n.º 3). You may not carry or keep a speargun and a breathing apparatus aboard at the same time, nor carry the gun ready to fire out of the water or in a zone where spearfishing is banned (art. 3.º n.º 6). On any recreational-fishing boat the whole crew wears a lifejacket (art. 4.º n.º 3).
✓Where recreational fishing is closed altogether (, art. 8.º n.º 1): in marked shipyard zones (no exception) and in aquaculture establishments — in the LATTER only, fishing is possible when the concession-holder or owner formally authorises it; the shipyard bar has no such carve-out; within 100 m of the mouth of any marked sewage outfall; over beach-concession waters, to the extent the POOC sets; and in other zones closed by the port or maritime authority. For spearfishing and boat fishing specifically (n.º 2) the navigation channels of port and river bars, the approach channels and the buoyed channels are closed. There is NO «300 m from the beach» rule on the mainland — that number comes from Madeira's own act; on the mainland the distance is set by the POOC and by the capitania's edital.
✓The border rivers Minho and Guadiana: spearfishing is BANNED along both international stretches — bilateral Portugal-Spain agreements, art. 9.º n.º 3 (Minho, RAR 34/2023, in force since 26-05-2023) and art. 6.º n.º 1 (Guadiana, RAR 173/2025, in force since 07-12-2025), both reading «É proibida a pesca submarina». On the Guadiana it is also a serious offence (art. 19.º), and a 100 m strip alongside the Sapal de Castro Marim reserve is closed separately (art. 5.º). The stretches run from the confluence with the Trancoso / the Chança down to the closing line at each mouth.
✓On the other Portuguese-Spanish border river stretches (outside the TIRM and the Guadiana maritime-jurisdiction zone) — Decreto 30/88, art. 6.º n.º 1: harpoons, gigs, tridents and any blunt instrument used to take fish are prohibited (al. e), as is «a pesca ou caça subaquática» with artificial light, and night fishing (al. g).
Rules change. Before heading out, check with DGRM / ICNF / Capitania and the defeso table.
FAQ
Where can you spearfish in Porto Covo?
Samoqueira is the main shore entry, with ledges, pools and cracks. It still needs a calm sea and a planned rock exit.
Can you spearfish at Ilha do Pessegueiro?
Do not use it as a hunting spot. Recreational fishing is indicated as banned at the island, and the channel has boat traffic and spearfishing restrictions.
Is Praia Grande useful for spearfishing?
Mostly as an urban fallback or reconnaissance point. In summer it is a watched bathing beach, not a normal speargun entry.
What conditions does Samoqueira need?
Swell around 1 m or less, E/NE offshore wind, and low to mid tide. If ledges are breaking, skip it.
Does Porto Covo have a webcam or buoy?
No webcam or NDBC buoy is listed for Porto Covo. Use the forecast and inspect the rock entry in person.
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