Early Summer Puget Sound: Coho, Cutthroat, and Tide Changes

This is Artificial Lure with your Puget Sound fishing report. We’re sitting on a cool, gray early-summer pattern around Seattle today. Light on‑and‑off marine layer clouds, a light breeze most of the morning, and temps easing from the low 50s into the low 60s by afternoon. Sunrise is right around 5 a.m., with sunset close to 9 p.m., giving you a long window to work the tides. Tides in central Puget Sound are running on a decent swing today, so plan around those moving-water windows. Expect a solid morning ebb pushing bait off the beaches, then a mid‑day slack, with the afternoon flood setting up good currents along the points and rip lines. The best bite should line up with the first couple hours of each change. Resident coho and “blackmouth‑sized” Chinook are still scattered but very much around. Anglers working 60–120 feet with small spoons and hootchies behind flashers have been picking off fish off Jeff Head, West Point, and Possession. Productive colors have been green/white, Irish cream, and UV purple, especially when run 20–30 feet off bottom. Inshore, cutthroat fishing has been a bright spot. The east side of Bainbridge, the west side of Mercer Island, and the South Sound shoreline pockets have produced chunky sea‑runs. Beach casters and small-boat anglers are doing well with olive/white clousers, small sand lance patterns, and 2–3 inch minnow plugs in natural baitfish colors. Work the drop‑offs and current seams during the first half of the ebb. Bottomfish action has been steady. Pile perch and shiner perch are keeping light‑tackle anglers busy off piers and docks using small bits of shrimp and worms on hi‑lo rigs. Kelp greenling and the occasional legal lingcod are coming on soft plastics and herring‑imitating swimbaits fished tight to rock piles and artificial structure; just be sure you’re up to speed on current seasons and size limits. For bait, herring is still king offshore. Rig it whole or as a cut‑plug behind a flasher for salmon, or drop it straight down for anything on the structure. Inshore, sand shrimp, pile worms, and small bits of raw shrimp are doing work on perch and flounder. If you’re running hardware, think small: 2–3 inch spoons, needlefish‑style jigs, and slim profile soft plastics matching candlefish and small herring. A couple of hot spots to keep on your list: - West Point: Consistent morning action for resident coho and the odd Chinook when the tide is moving. Work 80–130 feet, zig‑zagging the edge of the bar. - Jeff Head: Still one of the best bets for salmon. Run the contour lines and stay near bait; birds and meter marks are your friends. Water’s still cool, so fish won’t be shy about feeding through the day, but the sharpest bites are lining up early and late, right around those tide changes. Downsizing gear, running lighter leaders, and matching local bait size has been the difference between a slow troll and a full fish box. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a tide or a bite. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn