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
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.
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Sheboygan, 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.
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 appThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appCanal schooner of 1866 lying in about 4 m off Mosel, north of Sheboygan, close enough to reach by kayak in flat water. Snorkel depth over sand with the hull outline clear. Rough fish and panfish are Wisconsin's only spear targets on this coast.
Google MapsThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appThe armour-stone breakwall that shelters Sheboygan harbour, with rubble slopes into 3-8 m on the lake face. Shore access from the north-side park; surge builds fast in an east wind. Wisconsin permits panfish, white and rock bass, bullheads and rough fish by spear.
Google MapsCanal schooner of 1866 standing upright in 50 m with masts still rigged, one of the finest deep wrecks on the Wisconsin coast. Decompression dive inside the national marine sanctuary; the rig is fragile and must not be touched.
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».
Spearfishing at Sheboygan is lawful under Wisconsin's Outlying Waters rule, which closes every game fish to the spear and leaves panfish, white bass, yellow bass, rock bass, bullheads and the rough-fish list, taken while skin or scuba diving in the open rough-fish season, sunrise to sunset. The town is an anchor of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, and its wrecks sit within recreational depth: the Selah Chamberlain in 27 m, the I.A. Johnson in 28 m, the Hetty Taylor in 30 m. The harbour breakwater is the shore option at 3-8 m. Harbour and museum infrastructure is on the spot.
This is the sanctuary sector that sits closest to recreational limits: four of the wrecks here are between 27 and 50 m, and the breakwater is the only shallow structure with shore access. The legal column is the same on every row — no game fish by spear anywhere on this coast, panfish and rough fish only. The I.A. Johnson, a scow-schooner of 1867 in 28 m with her centreboard trunk and deck framing intact, belongs on the same list. Sanctuary wrecks are protected: nothing may be removed.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walter B. Allen | Wreck | 50 m | Technical, decompression · dive only | Boat | Canal schooner of 1866 standing upright in 50 m with masts still rigged — one of the finest deep wrecks on the Wisconsin coast. The rig is fragile and must not be touched. |
| Hetty Taylor | Wreck |
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.
| 30 m |
| Advanced boat dive · panfish and rough fish only |
| Boat |
| Small schooner of 1874 that foundered in 1880, upright and remarkably complete in 30 m south of town. Cold, dark and often silty; nitrox and a good line are worth having. |
| Selah Chamberlain | Wreck | 27 m | Intermediate boat dive · panfish and rough fish only | Boat | A 212 ft steam freighter run down in 1886 and lying in 27 m just outside Sheboygan — the port's standard boat dive, with engine, boiler and windlass all in place. |
| Sheboygan Harbor Breakwater | Jetty | 3-8 m | Shore access · panfish and rough fish only | Shore swim | The armour-stone breakwall that shelters the harbour, with rubble slopes into 3-8 m on the lake face. Shore access from the north-side park; surge builds fast in an east wind. |
| Montgomery | Wreck | 4 m | Beginner, snorkel or single tank · panfish and rough fish only | Kayak or small boat | Canal schooner of 1866 in about 4 m off Mosel, north of Sheboygan, close enough to reach by kayak in flat water. Snorkel depth over sand with the hull outline clear. |
Yes, with the same ceiling that applies to the whole Wisconsin Great Lakes coast. Lake Michigan is an Outlying Water, and the DNR rule for that class states that 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 own definition of spearing covers spearguns explicitly, so nothing about carrying a gun instead of a pole spear changes the answer. Hours are sunrise to sunset; the season for rough fish is continuous in the coastal counties, so the constraint is usually weather rather than dates.
Panfish — crappie, bluegill, perch, pumpkinseed — plus white bass, yellow bass, rock bass and bullheads, and then the rough-fish list in full: 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. Because the invasive carps and the sea lamprey are inside the rough-fish definition, Wisconsin is genuinely a state where shooting invasives is lawful. Closed: lake trout, salmon, walleye, northern pike, muskellunge, the black basses and lake whitefish, all game fish; and lake sturgeon, which is never a spear target on this coast.
Sheboygan County sits inside the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, designated in 2021, which runs 132 km along the shore and reaches 11-26 km out from it. NOAA counts 36 known wrecks in the sanctuary from the 1830s to 1930, 27 of them on the National Register, and roughly 60 more still unfound. What distinguishes the Sheboygan sector is that the wrecks are within recreational depth: the Selah Chamberlain, a 212 ft steam freighter run down in 1886, is the port's standard boat dive at 27 m with engine, boiler and windlass in place; the I.A. Johnson sits in 28 m; the Hetty Taylor in 30 m, upright and remarkably complete. Deeper, the Walter B. Allen stands upright in 50 m with masts still rigged — a fragile rig that must not be touched. Artefacts are protected on all of them.
Harbours and canals freeze from January to March while the lake itself usually does not. The season runs June to October and the water is clearest from August to October, once the plankton has fallen out — the I.A. Johnson is noted as best from late August. Expect a real thermocline in summer and cold, dark water on the 27-30 m tier regardless of the surface temperature. The Hetty Taylor is described as often silty, which is the general warning for this sector: an east wind stirs the shallow shore and the visibility goes with it. No tide applies; the astronomical range on the Great Lakes is a few centimetres and NOAA publishes no predictions for these stations. The nearest CO-OPS gauge is Milwaukee, 9087057, about 85 km south.
The Wisconsin fishing licence covers spearing: resident annual $20, non-resident annual $55, non-resident 1-day $15, 4-day $29, 15-day $33, with the quirk that non-residents under 16 need a licence to spear though not to fish hook and line. For gear, this is a nitrox and good-line coast: 27-30 m in cold fresh water is a serious dive, and the Hetty Taylor entry explicitly recommends both. Add a drysuit or heavy semi-dry, hood, gloves and a flag. The shore option, the harbour breakwater, has its own hazard profile — surge builds fast in an east wind and the north-side park entry is exposed. Zebra-mussel encrustation on old steel cuts; wear gloves.
Yes, but only panfish, white/yellow/rock bass, bullheads and rough fish, taken while skin or scuba diving in the open rough-fish season. No game fish at all.
The Selah Chamberlain, a 212 ft steam freighter of 1886 lying in 27 m just outside the harbour, with engine, boiler and windlass in place.
The harbour breakwater, with rubble slopes into 3-8 m on the lake face and access from the north-side park. Surge builds fast in an east wind.
50 m, standing upright with masts still rigged. A decompression dive on a fragile and protected site.
Yes. Sheboygan County sits inside the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, which runs 132 km of shore and reaches 11-26 km out.
No. Artefacts on these sites are protected and nothing may be removed.
August to October. Harbours freeze January to March and the season runs June to October.
Not legally, but the 27-30 m tier is cold, dark and often silty, and the site notes recommend nitrox and a good line.
