Maryland

Matoaka Beach Cottages

A semi-private cliff stretch with day-pass access. Famous for prolific Hemipristis and the occasional sizable meg fragment.

⚠ Partial inputs

today

Good

Cliff site — continuous erosion baseline · low tide during daylight · best low 58

Today at a glance

Updated 2026-07-21T08:46:57.391Z

Solid hunting day. Best window opens around the 2:52 PM low (0.6 ft). Moderate S winds (10 mph).

Heads up: a second low at 3:31 AM is after dark — bring a headlamp.

Next 3 days: Tomorrow is the pick (72); today runs cooler at 58.

Best Window Today

2:52 PM

Plan around the good low-tide window. Cliff site — continuous erosion baseline · low tide during daylight · best low 58.

Hunt score

Good

Astronomical low

0.6 ft

2:52 PM

Predicted real low

0.7 ft

Near NOAA prediction

Low-window wind

2 mph

Light — negligible effect

Tides: NOAA Broomes Island, MD (station 8577123)

Best window this week

Wed, Jul 22 · 3:29 PM

Offshore 4mph — more beach

Score

Great

Confidence: Partial — on-site outcomes, dossier verification. Hover the badge above for the input-by-input breakdown.

Tonight's moon

First quarter

49% illuminated

Sunrise 9:59 AM · Sunset 12:27 AM

Wind right now

10 mph from S

Gusts 22 mph · best from W

Wind is mostly offshore — slightly more beach.

Past 7 days

Compare model output to your actual visits.

Next 7 days

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Tide times: NOAA CO-OPS station 8577123 (Broomes Island, MD) — local time, MLLW datum. Click to verify on NOAA. Cards show LOWS only (best for hunting); highs are visible on the tide curve below.

🌤️ Weather & Wave Forecast

Impact on visibility and stir-up over the next 5 days.

Onshore Wind: Pushes water in (tide sits higher) and stirs up the bottom. Good for "new" teeth, bad for visibility.

Offshore Wind: Water blown out (tide sits lower). Maximum beach exposure for hunting the low tide line.

Why today scores 58

Cliff sites score from a baseline plus recent storm stir, daylight low tide timing, wind exposure, and seasonal events (only when storms are actually shedding cliff material).

Best low

2:52 PM at 0.6 ft

Predicted real low

0.7 ft

Wind deviation

Less beach by 0.1 ft

Explain this scoreShow breakdown ▾

💡

Analysis

Solid. Reliable productivity expected.

Cliff baseline + tide depth

43.2 / 50

Constant 45 baseline (cliffs always shed) plus ±5 from how deep the best low actually pulls back.

Storm stir

3.6 / 25

Past 72h wind churn (peak gust 30 mph). Offshore = +, onshore = −.

Light at best low

9.0 / 9

Daylight low = +9, twilight = 0, headlamp-only = −9.

Wind exposure at best low

1.7 / 12

Wind setup piles 0.1 ft of water around the low.

Spring tide

0.6 / 5

Closer to a new or full moon = wider tidal swing.

Recent rainfall

0.0 / 12

No measurable rain in the past 48h — no slump signal.

Event boostadded

No active events for this site today.

Why not higher? The biggest unused headroom today is storm stir (+21.4 pts available). A day with that maxed out would score around 79.

Show the math

components: 43.2 + 3.6 + 9.0 + 1.7 + 0.6 + 0.0 = 58.2 final = 58

What's NOT in this score

We are deliberate about which factors to include. These are not currently in the model:

Hunt pressure. A “hunts this week” chip is shown on each location page for transparency, but it does not change the score yet. We need more outcomes per site before a penalty would be statistically meaningful.
Wave period / swell direction. We use wave height only. Long-period groundswell sorts material differently than short wind chop, but Open-Meteo doesn't expose period reliably.
Barometric pressure trend. Falling pressure = approaching storm = building stir. Currently we wait for the wind to actually arrive.
Water temperature, clarity, salinity. Affects comfort but not (directly) what teeth wash up.
Weekday vs weekend. A 70 on Tuesday is often better in practice than a 70 on Saturday because of crowds, but we don't adjust for that.
Beach renourishment. Fresh sand buries everything. We capture this only when an admin logs a manual event — there's no auto-detection.

If you think we should add one of these, log a hunt with notes — every rated outcome helps us decide which signals actually predict tooth count.

Hunt Score

Sum of components, clamped 0–100.

Score model 2026.04.29 · how this is calculated

Hunted here today?

Rate this hunt

We predicted 58. Tell us how it actually went — your rating calibrates the model.

model 2026.04.29

Asking SunCalc when sunrise hits…

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Event timeline

⚡

Calvert Cliffs Spring Freeze-Thaw Erosion Window

ended

Late winter freeze-thaw cycles destabilize the Chesapeake Group cliffs. March–early May historically produces the most fresh fall material on the beaches at Brownie's, Matoaka, and Westmoreland.

2026-03-01 – 2026-05-15

- Freeze-thaw cycles loosen cliff matrix

- First low tide after a heavy rain or nor'easter is prime

+10 pts

Geology

FormationsChoptank Formation, St. Marys Formation

EpochsMiocene

Age~14-8 million years

Star speciesHemipristis serra

Technique

Wrack-line walking + light sifting at the cliff base (NEVER digging into the cliff).

Access