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 Two Rivers, 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 mapTug of 1881 lying beside the Francis Hinton off Manitowoc in about 4 m, small enough to see in a single dive. Shore or kayak access in calm weather; a good second site. Wisconsin's Outlying Waters rule bars every game fish from the spear.
Google MapsA 244 ft wooden steamer stranded north of Two Rivers, her hull spread over sand in about 4 m. Long shore swim or a short boat run; bright, shallow and easy, and a good site for spotting rough fish. Only panfish and rough fish may be speared in Wisconsin.
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 Christmas Tree Ship, a schooner of 1868 lost with all hands in 1912, upright and intact in 50 m off Two Rivers with trees still in the hold. Decompression boat dive, cold and dark; the region's most famous wreck and fully protected.
Google MapsThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appCanal barque of 1866 lying in about 3 m less than a kilometre from the Two Rivers waterfront. A shore-swim snorkel over 137 ft of framing and planking on sand; only a settled lake makes it worth the trip. Wisconsin bans spearing game fish 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 Two Rivers is lawful but limited to panfish, white bass, yellow bass, rock bass, bullheads and rough fish — Wisconsin's Outlying Waters rule makes it unlawful to spear any game fish on this coast, and skin or scuba diving is the authorised method during the open rough-fish season, sunrise to sunset. What brings divers here is the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary: 962 square miles, 36 known wrecks, 27 of them on the National Register. The Rouse Simmons sits in 50 m; the Tubal Cain in 3 m is a shore swim. Cold fresh water has preserved these hulls remarkably well, and they are protected.
The sanctuary sector off Two Rivers and Manitowoc covers the full range from decompression wrecks to shore swims. Legal status is the same on every line: no game fish by spear anywhere, panfish and rough fish only, sunrise to sunset. The Continental in about 4 m north of town and the tug Arctic in about 4 m beside the Francis Hinton add two more easy options. Sanctuary wrecks are cultural resources — dive them, photograph them, take nothing.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rouse Simmons | Wreck | 50 m | Technical, decompression · dive only | Boat | The Christmas Tree Ship, a schooner of 1868 lost with all hands in 1912, upright and intact in 50 m off Two Rivers with trees still in the hold. Fully protected. |
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.
| S.C. Baldwin | Wreck | 18 m | Intermediate boat dive · panfish and rough fish only | Boat | A 160 ft barge sunk in 1908 and sitting upright in 18 m north-east of town, with hull, hatches and gear intact. Cold below the thermocline; best visibility September-October. |
| Henry Gust | Wreck | 24 m | Advanced boat dive · panfish and rough fish only | Boat | A 65 ft tug of 1893 sitting in 24 m five kilometres offshore, compact and intact. A clear anchor line is needed; cold and often low visibility until late summer. |
| Francis Hinton | Wreck | 6 m | Beginner, snorkel or single tank · panfish and rough fish only | Shore swim | Wooden steamer of 1889 wrecked off Manitowoc, in 6 m of sand within swim distance of shore, boiler and machinery exposed. Poor visibility in an onshore blow. |
| Tubal Cain | Wreck | 3 m | Beginner, snorkel or single tank · panfish and rough fish only | Shore swim | Canal barque of 1866 in about 3 m less than a kilometre from the Two Rivers waterfront — a shore-swim snorkel over 137 ft of framing and planking on sand. |
Yes, inside a narrow list. Lake Michigan is one of Wisconsin's Outlying Waters, along with Lake Superior, Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay, Sawyer's Harbor and the Fox River to the De Pere dam, and the DNR's rule for that class says 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 definition of spearing is broad — a shaft with an attached barbed point, expressly including spearguns — so every hour, season and closure in the book applies to a speargun. Hours are sunrise to sunset; there is no night spearing on this coast.
It was designated in 2021 and covers 962 square miles of Lake Michigan along 132 km of Wisconsin shore, reaching 11-26 km out from it, with Two Rivers as the northern anchor town and Port Washington as the southern one. It holds 36 known wrecks dating from the 1830s to 1930, 27 of them listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and roughly 60 more that have never been found. NOAA notes that the cold fresh water has preserved part of the fleet nearly whole — which is why these are among the best-preserved wooden shipwrecks anywhere. The sanctuary's protection is aimed at those cultural resources: artefact removal is prohibited on the sites recorded here. Treat every hull as look-only and confirm current sanctuary rules with NOAA before you dive.
The Rouse Simmons is the famous one: the Christmas Tree Ship, a schooner of 1868 lost with all hands in the November gale of 1912, upright and intact in 50 m off Rawley Point with her cargo of trees still in the hold. That is a decompression dive on a fully protected site. Working shallower, the Henry Gust — a 65 ft tug of 1893 — sits in 24 m five kilometres out; the S.C. Baldwin, a 160 ft barge sunk in 1908, is upright in 18 m to the north-east with hatches and gear intact. Then the easy tier: the Francis Hinton in 6 m of sand off Manitowoc with boiler and machinery exposed, the Continental spread over sand in about 4 m north of town, the tug Arctic beside the Hinton in about 4 m, and the Tubal Cain — a canal barque of 1866 — in about 3 m less than a kilometre from the Two Rivers waterfront.
Harbours and canals freeze from January to March while the middle of the lake usually stays open. The season runs June to October and the water is clearest from August to October, once the plankton has dropped — the S.C. Baldwin is specifically noted for September and October visibility. A summer thermocline is standard here, so plan thermal protection for the bottom temperature and not the surface; the Henry Gust is described as cold and often low-visibility until late summer for exactly that reason. There is no tide to work with: the Great Lakes astronomical range is a few centimetres and NOAA publishes no predictions for these stations. The nearest CO-OPS gauge is Kewaunee, 9087068, about 34 km up the coast.
A Wisconsin fishing licence covers spearing: resident annual $20, non-resident annual $55, non-resident 1-day $15, 4-day $29, 15-day $33; non-residents under 16 need a licence to spear even though they do not for hook and line. There is no separate underwater spearing licence. Gear: drysuit or heavy semi-dry with hood and gloves, a light and a reliable line for the deep wrecks, and a dive flag. The hazards to plan for are cold-water shock, thermocline temperature on the deeper hulls, onshore wind killing visibility on the shallow shore swims, and zebra-mussel lacerations on old steel. Wisconsin also puts a 200-foot spear-possession buffer around any dam, lock or fishway on inland and boundary waters.
Yes, but no game fish. Wisconsin's Outlying Waters rule allows only panfish, white/yellow/rock bass, bullheads and rough fish, taken while skin or scuba diving in the open rough-fish season.
Off Two Rivers by Rawley Point, upright and intact in 50 m with trees still in the hold. A decompression dive on a fully protected wreck.
A national marine sanctuary designated in 2021: 962 square miles, 36 known wrecks from the 1830s to 1930, 27 on the National Register and about 60 more unfound.
No. Artefact removal is prohibited on these sites. Dive them and photograph them; take nothing.
The Tubal Cain in about 3 m, less than a kilometre from the waterfront — a shore-swim snorkel over 137 ft of framing and planking.
No. Both are game fish and closed to the spear across Wisconsin's Great Lakes coast.
August to October, after the plankton drop. The season runs June to October; harbours freeze January to March.
Yes, in Wisconsin. The rule names skin diving and scuba diving for the panfish and bass group — the only Great Lakes state that does.
