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
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Traverse City, we'll send the go / no-go verdict. Email is all we need.
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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: 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 mapPartly intact wooden fish tug, probably the Charles Frank, dragged into 6-12 m close to the Traverse City shore. Easy entry, calm bay water and the local training site; visibility is best in spring and late autumn.
Google MapsSchooner grounded south-east of Old Mission Point in 1886 and now split between a debris field at 2 m and the deeper hull at 37 m. One site, two dives; boat access from Traverse City with pig iron and lumber cargo still visible.
Cameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.
SpainA drop-off near Haserot Beach at the tip of Old Mission Peninsula scattered with small boats, pier timbers and household junk dumped in the 1950s. Popular shore dive in about 6 m; heavy boat traffic, so tow a flag.
Google MapsIntact sloop sunk through neglect in the 1970s in 16 m of southern West Bay, also known as the Double-ender. Short boat run from town, sheltered water; the wreckage regularly holds large schools of game fish.
Google MapsA 55 ft tug of 1926 sunk in the 1970s and lying semi-intact in 13 m near Power Island, sometimes buoyed. Short boat run up West Bay, sheltered from most winds and a good second dive of the day.
Google MapsSunken barge lying in 24 m in the south end of West Bay, minutes from the Traverse City waterfront. Sheltered and current-free, but dark and silty; carry a light and stay off the bottom.
Google MapsShallow schooner wreck of about 1894 in 5 m on the east side of the bay, reachable from shore. Snorkel or a single tank over sand and timber; the identity is disputed and the site is quiet even in August.
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.
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.
Traverse City is unusual on the Great Lakes because most of its diving starts at the beach rather than at a dock: the Clinch Park Woodpile from the timber era, the Pipeline off the power plant, the Junk Pile at Haserot Beach, and the wrecks Metropolis, Nyord and Flora. The 2026 regulations open Lake Michigan to the 45th parallel but cut all of Grand Traverse Bay out of it, so lake trout, northern pike and walleye stay closed to the underwater spear in both arms of the bay. Scuba is banned, the free underwater licence is mandatory, its monthly reports abolished in 2026, and the clearest water comes in August to October.
Depths are the ones published for each site; the level column is the dive, not a promise about the fish. On this coast the shallow structure is where a freediving hunter actually works — Michigan bans scuba for spearfishing, so anything under the thermocline is a dive to look at, not a place to hunt.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission Bay Junk Pile | Structure | 4-9 m | Novice, shore dive | Haserot Beach, tip of Old Mission Peninsula | A drop-off scattered with small boats, pier timbers and household junk dumped in the 1950s, most of it around 6 m. Popular and easy, but boat traffic is heavy — tow a flag. |
| Nyord | Wreck | 16 m | Intermediate, sheltered water | Short boat run from town, southern West Bay | Intact sloop sunk through neglect in the 1970s, known locally as the Double-ender. The wreckage regularly holds large schools of game fish — which, inside the Grand Traverse Bay exclusion, may not be speared. |
| Elmwood Wreck | Wreck | 6-12 m | Novice, the local training site | Easy entry close to the Traverse City shore | Partly intact wooden fish tug, probably the Charles Frank, dragged into shallow bay water. Visibility is best in spring and late autumn. |
| West Bay Barge | Wreck | 24 m | Advanced, dark and silty | Minutes from the Traverse City waterfront | Sunken barge in the south end of West Bay, sheltered and current-free. Carry a light and stay off the bottom or the dive ends in a silt-out. |
Yes, with the Grand Traverse Bay exclusion. Michigan's underwater rules apply in full — free annual licence (its monthly reports abolished in 2026), freedive only, daylight only, 150 feet off swimming areas and docks — and under them the year-round list is open in any state water. Grand Traverse Bay is one of the 2026 exclusions, so what is open here is the year-round list — whitefish, cisco, burbot and the rough fish. The Nyord is the sharpest illustration: the preserve says the wreckage regularly holds large schools of game fish, and here you may look and nothing more.
Grand Traverse Bay is a long, deep, sheltered arm rather than open lake. Harbours and the shallow ends freeze January to March while the middle of the lake usually does not; the dive season is June to October and the best visibility arrives August to October once the summer plankton drops out. The bay is protected enough that the West Bay Barge is described as current-free, which is why so much diving here starts from shore. There is no tide, and no NOAA water-level station in the bay at all — the nearest are Mackinaw City about 115 km away and Ludington about 145 km — so wind observation matters more than a gauge.
Michigan's Bow & Spear Fishing table — the Fisheries Order under NREPA Part 487 — is an enumerating list: whatever it does not name cannot be taken. The 2026 regulations open Lake Michigan to the 45th parallel but cut all of Grand Traverse Bay out of it, so lake trout, northern pike and walleye stay closed to the underwater spear in both arms of the bay. Open here is the year-round all-waters list — bowfin, bullheads, burbot, common carp, catfish, cisco, freshwater drum, gizzard shad, goldfish, grass carp, longnose gar, rainbow smelt, suckers and lake whitefish. Whitefish, cisco and burbot are real Great Lakes fish, so that is no consolation prize. Lake sturgeon is never a spear target.
Yes, and twice over. First the ordinary Michigan all-species licence: $26 resident annual, $76 nonresident annual, $10 daily, $11 resident senior, required from age 17, licence year 1 March to 31 March. Then the document most visitors miss — anyone spearfishing underwater must be issued a free annual underwater spearfishing licence, and it is still mandatory, though the monthly effort-and-harvest reports it used to carry were abolished for the 2026 season. That licence is a legal condition of the fishery, not a courtesy.
The bay is friendly, which is what makes people casual with it. Boat traffic is the main hazard: the Junk Pile is a popular shore site under a busy surface, so the flag is not optional. Silt is second — the West Bay Barge at 24 m is dark, and one fin stroke on the bottom ends the dive. Third is temperature: sheltered bay water is warm on top and cold underneath, and on breath-hold the cold arrives before the fatigue. Cold is the constant: fresh water that stays cold below the first few metres, with the deeper sites under the thermocline. Tow a diver-down flag — but the rule forbids spearfishing where that flag would block boat navigation or access to a launch, and keeps you 150 feet off swimming areas, docks, boat access sites and power intakes, from 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise. The gear is freediving gear, thicker than a sea diver expects: scuba and rebreathers are banned, so the whole day is breath-hold in fresh water that warms only at the surface, and a 7 mm suit or a hooded two-piece is the baseline for a June–October season, with gloves and boots for pier rubble and wreck steel. Legal gear is a hand-, rubber- or spring-propelled spear; a rubber or spring spear may be fired only fully submerged and must be tied to a line no longer than twenty feet, with the bands off and the safety on whenever you move between areas or enter and leave the water.
No. Grand Traverse Bay is one of the explicit 2026 exclusions, cut out of the Lake Michigan water in both arms, so only the year-round list is open here — lake whitefish, cisco, burbot and the rough fish.
Yes, unusually many for the Great Lakes. The Junk Pile at Haserot Beach on Old Mission and the Elmwood Wreck close to the town shore are both entered from the beach.
August to October, after the summer plankton drops out. The season runs June to October; harbours and channels freeze January to March.
Michigan's 2026 underwater-spear waters are named lake by lake: Lake Michigan from the MI/IN border to the 45th parallel, a 2-mile strip in Green Bay to the Ford River mouth, a 5-mile strip from Point Detour to the Brevort River, Lake Huron from the Thunder Bay River pier at Alpena south to Fort Gratiot Light, Lake Erie to the Celeron Island line, and Lake Superior to the St. Marys River — with Grand Traverse Bay, Stannard Rock, Big Reef and the 4.5-mile ring round Isle Royale cut out of them. The 2026 regulations open Lake Michigan to the 45th parallel but cut all of Grand Traverse Bay out of it, so lake trout, northern pike and walleye stay closed to the underwater spear in both arms of the bay.
No. Artificial breathing devices such as scuba and rebreathers are prohibited while underwater spearfishing, and the diver must be fully submerged to fire a rubber- or spring-propelled spear. Michigan's underwater fishery is freedive only.
Portugal
