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Famous reef/cave ~2 km offshore — boat only. Grey-nurse critical habitat: NO spearfishing, look only.
Google MapsToday — sit it out.
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 South West Rocks, we'll send the go / no-go verdict. Email is all we need.
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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: 1391 spots across 205 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 mapFamous reef/cave ~2 km offshore — boat only. Grey-nurse critical habitat: NO spearfishing, look only.
Google MapsThe 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 appThe 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 appProtected cove east of Trial Bay; reef and boulders 2–6 m, easy family entry.
Google MapsThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appSheltered reef below Trial Bay Gaol; easy entry, snapper, bream, kingfish schools. Best of the shore dives here.
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 South West Rocks is built around one piece of geography: Trial Bay opens to the north behind Smoky Cape, so it holds shape when the swell and the wind are hammering the open coast. Front Beach reef and Little Bay are the easy entries, Ladies Reef is the standard dive off the Horseshoe Bay headland, and Gaol Reef is worth a flat day rather than an average one. Fish Rock is closed to spearfishing because it is grey nurse habitat. Pay the NSW recreational fishing fee, read the spearfishing closure schedule and keep the beach rule in mind before choosing an entry.
Everything useful sits inside or beside Trial Bay, which is why the town dives when the rest of the mid-north coast cannot. Judge each entry by swell direction and the length of the swim out.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trial Bay — Front Beach | Sheltered reef below Trial Bay Gaol | Shallow bay reef | Easy, the pick of the shore dives | Walk-in entry | Snapper, bream and schooling kingfish are what people report here. NSW closes ocean beaches to spearfishing except the last 20 m at each end, so the reef corners are the ground, not the open sand. |
| Little Bay (Arakoon) | Protected cove with reef and boulders | 2-6 m | Easy family entry | Walk-in from the cove | The calm-cove option east of Trial Bay when north in the swell makes Front Beach messy. Short swim, obvious exit. |
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.
| Ladies Reef | Circular reef off the Horseshoe Bay headland | 6-12 m | Standard easy dive with little current | Easy shore access | Sheltered from most weather and a known night dive. Juvenile fish, nudibranchs, moray eels and cuttlefish are what divers report. |
| Fish Rock | Reef and cave about 2 km offshore | Boat-dive depths | No spearfishing | Boat only | A grey nurse shark aggregation and critical habitat: no spearfishing, look only. Grey nurse sharks are protected in NSW. |
The bad sector runs from about 10 to 150 degrees and is worst near 90 degrees, and Trial Bay answers most of it by facing north behind Smoky Cape. A southerly that closes the open coast usually leaves the gaol reef and Little Bay workable, while anything with real east in it puts swell straight into the bay. Transport for NSW publishes live cameras at Trial Bay, on the Macleay River pole and on the Nambucca River bar. Read them as a surface and chop clue, not a visibility reading.
Fish Rock is the obvious one: it is a grey nurse aggregation and critical habitat, so it is a look-only dive with no spearfishing. Grey nurse sharks also use the Smoky Cape stretch, and they are protected, so leave them alone wherever they turn up. Beyond that, NSW closes all inland waters and lists a schedule of estuary entrances, coastal lagoons and other tidal waters where a speargun may not be used. That schedule changes: DPIRD reduced the Crescent Head closure at Little Nobby Headland in October 2025. Read the current list, not a remembered one.
The reef here holds the usual NSW temperate mix, and the numbers come from the state table. Yellowtail kingfish is 65 cm with a bag of 5 in NSW, snapper is 30 cm with a bag of 10, and silver trevally is 30 cm with a bag of 10. Rock blackfish and luderick are shore-dive staples at 30 cm and 27 cm, both bag 10. Dusky flathead is a slot fish at 36 to 70 cm with a bag of 5, so measure the big ones. Mulloway is 70 cm and one fish per diver, and Australian salmon has no size limit and a bag of 5.
Eastern blue groper is the one that ends trips. It is bag 0, release only, and NSW names spear or speargun used to take blue, brown or red groper as a banned method; the line fishing prohibition was continued for a further three years from 1 March 2025. Black cod is protected, and NSW bans spearing any protected fish. Wobbegong sharks are release only, great and scalloped hammerheads are protected, and blue drummer, the cousin of the black drummer you may take, is bag 0. Grey nurse and white sharks are protected too.
Spearfishers must pay the NSW recreational fishing fee and carry the receipt, which DPIRD lists at 7 AUD for 3 days, 14 AUD for a month, 35 AUD for a year and 85 AUD for 3 years, with exemptions including under-18s and pensioner concession card holders. You may snorkel while taking fish, but hookah is banned and scuba is allowed only for scallops and sea urchins. A light used with a spear or speargun is banned, so no night hunting under a torch. Powerheads and explosive devices are banned, rock lobster may be taken by bare or gloved hand only, and the code of practice asks for 50 m clearance from swimmers, snorkellers and other divers.
You need to pay the NSW recreational fishing fee and carry the receipt. DPIRD lists it at 35 AUD for a year, with shorter options and several exemptions.
No. Fish Rock is grey nurse shark critical habitat and a look-only dive, and grey nurse sharks are protected in NSW.
The reef below Trial Bay Gaol at Front Beach, with Little Bay as the calm-cove alternative and Ladies Reef as the standard easy dive.
No. Blue, brown and red groper are bag 0 in NSW, and using a spear or speargun to take them is listed as a banned method.
Not along the beach itself. Spearfishing on ocean beaches is banned except for the last 20 m at each end, which is why the reef corners and headlands are the ground here.
No. Snorkel is permitted for taking fish, hookah is banned, and scuba may be used only for scallops and sea urchins.
transparency nearby ~14 m · satellite, 2 days agosatellite estimate · may differ right at the shore