Today — right on the edge — wave <, wind and visibility.
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 St. Clair Shores, 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 mapAccretion Beach: lake shore, 7.2 km from St. Clair Shores. Access type in the OpenStreetMap data: beach. Water body: Lake St. Clair. Marker position: 42.410° N, 82.884° W. Check the state's current spearing rules before you dive.
Google MapsChampine Park: lake shore, 4.2 km from St. Clair Shores. From here you swim out into Lake St. Clair. The pin sits at 42.511 N / 82.880 W on the chart. Fresh water floats you less, so trim your weights. Which fish may be speared, and when, is set by the state; read the rules.
Google MapsLittle Beach: lake shore, 7.7 km from St. Clair Shores. Water body: Lake St. Clair. The pin sits at 42.406 N / 82.886 W on the chart. Fresh water: carry less lead than in the sea. State fishing rules set species and seasons for spearing; check them first.
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.
St. Clair Shores is the one node on the open part of Lake St. Clair. The lake is shallow and turbid, so its diving value is low — but there is a real legal niche here: yellow perch may be taken with a hand spear in Macomb, St. Clair and Wayne counties from 1 December to 15 March, and muskellunge may not be speared anywhere in this system. The 2026 regulations name the waters where lake trout, northern pike and walleye may be taken with an underwater spear, and this water is not among them. Freedive only, daylight only, and a free underwater spearfishing licence on top of the fishing licence, with no monthly reporting since the 2026 season.
Yes, but narrowly. Michigan's Lake Huron game-fish zone stops at the mouth of the St. Clair River, and Lake St. Clair, the St. Clair River and the Detroit River are connecting waters outside it. So no lake trout, northern pike and walleye by underwater spear at St. Clair Shores — only the year-round list — and muskellunge may not be taken by any means other than hook and line on Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River and the St. Clair River. The instrument is the Bow & Spear Fishing Regulations table of the Michigan Fishing Guide, a Fisheries Order under NREPA Part 487.
The year-round Michigan list is the backbone: bowfin, bullheads, burbot, common carp, catfish, cisco, freshwater drum, gizzard shad, goldfish, grass carp, longnose gar, rainbow smelt, suckers and lake whitefish. On these lakes whitefish, cisco and burbot are real targets on it, not a consolation prize. Lake sturgeon is off the table everywhere here. One local exception cuts the other way: yellow perch may be taken with a hand spear, bow or crossbow in Macomb, St. Clair and Wayne counties from 1 December to 15 March — that is Michigan's ice lane, a different legal channel from underwater spearfishing, and it needs no underwater licence.
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.
Two licences, not one. You need the Michigan All Species fishing licence — 26 USD resident, 76 USD non-resident, 10 USD a day, from age 17 — plus a free annual underwater spearfishing licence, which is mandatory — though its monthly effort-and-harvest report was abolished for the 2026 season. The gear rules are just as concrete. A rubber- or spring-propelled spear may be fired only while you are fully submerged, and it must be tethered to a line no longer than 20 ft. Scuba and rebreathers are prohibited while underwater spearfishing, so this is a freedive discipline. Daylight only, bands unloaded whenever you move between areas, and 150 ft off swimming areas, docks, boat access sites and power intakes — which effectively closes harbour mouths.
Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair and Detroit rivers freeze from December to March, and frazil ice in the current is genuinely dangerous. The workable season is May to November. Plan for a thick suit with hood, gloves and boots, or a drysuit: the thermocline shapes every dive here, and what feels workable at the surface is a different lake ten metres down. There is no tide on the Great Lakes — the level moves with wind and pressure.
Cold is the first risk and it is not seasonal: below the thermocline the water stays a few degrees above freezing all summer, and the freedive-only rule leaves you no gas reserve to buy time with. The second is exposure. Most of these sites sit in open lake with no shelter and, outside the buoyed preserves, no mooring at all, so weather windows are short and a shot line is your own responsibility. Finally, ice: the water freezes for months, and frazil and shore ice make the shoulder seasons a different sport.
No. Michigan's 2026 underwater-spear permission is a list of named waters and this one is not on it, so what is open here is the year-round list — whitefish, cisco, burbot and the rough fish.
No. Scuba, rebreathers and similar devices are prohibited while underwater spearfishing: Michigan is freedive-only.
The Michigan All Species fishing licence plus a free annual underwater spearfishing licence, whose mandatory monthly effort-and-harvest report was abolished for the 2026 season.
No. It is prohibited from 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise, and you must stay 150 ft off swimming areas, docks, ramps and power intakes.
Yes, but a different lane: yellow perch by hand spear, bow or crossbow in Macomb, St. Clair and Wayne counties from 1 December to 15 March. That is the ice fishery, not underwater spearfishing.
Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair and Detroit rivers freeze from December to March, and frazil ice in the current is genuinely dangerous.
