Early Summer Coho and Cutthroat: Puget Sound Tides Turn On This Week

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Puget Sound fishing report for the Seattle area. We’re sitting on a classic early-summer pattern. Light morning winds, mostly calm seas, and mild temps topping out in the mid‑60s with cloud cover burning off into some sun this afternoon. Sunrise was right around 5:10 a.m., with sunset close to 9:10 p.m., so you’ve got a long window to work the tide swings. Tides around Seattle today are running big enough to matter. Expect a decent morning ebb, a midday low, then a flooding tide pushing bait right up onto the edges of points, rips, and current seams. Focus your serious fishing around the last two hours of the ebb and the first two of the flood. That’s when the predators wake up. Inshore, resident coho and blackmouth-sized Chinook have been nosing around West Point, Meadow Point, and the shipping lanes off Elliott Bay. Anglers have been quietly picking up small keepers and shakers trolling 3–3.5 inch needlefish and herring‑pattern spoons behind flashers, plus white or glow hootchies. Run your gear 60–120 feet down, just above the bait balls. Sea‑run cutthroat reports from the east side beaches of Bainbridge and the south end of Whidbey have been solid. Folks wading the pockets and drop‑offs are seeing fish slashing bait, especially on the turn of the tide. Strip small olive‑over‑white Clouser minnows, sand lance patterns, or cast 1/4‑oz metal jigs and 3-inch soft plastics in sand lance colors. Keep moving until you find birds, bait, or surface pops. Lingcod and rockfish action has been steady on the deeper structure while the season’s open. The artificial‑reef edges, Tacoma Narrows, and the rocky humps off Point Jefferson are worth a look. Drop 4–6 oz leadheads with big white or root‑beer grubs, or yo‑yo metal jigs tight to the bottom. Keep it slow and close to the rocks, but watch your snags. On the bait side, herring is still king offshore—either cut‑plug or whole behind a flasher. Closer to the beach, think sand lance imitations: small profile plastics, slim spoons, and small bucktail jigs. Tip jigs with a little strip of herring or squid if you want extra scent in the slower periods. Couple of hot spots to put on your short list: - West Point to Meadow Point: troll the 90–140 foot contour with spoons and hootchies on the morning ebb. - Lincoln Park to Brace Point: excellent for beach cutthroat on the early flood, casting toward current seams and little points. Overall fish activity has been best at first light and again on the evening flood. Midday can get quiet, so either go deep for lings or switch to finesse tactics for cutts and resident coho. That’s the rundown from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn