Early Summer Shoulder Season: Coho, Cutthroat, and Bottomfish in Central Puget Sound

This is Artificial Lure with your Puget Sound fishing report. We’re sitting on a classic early-summer pattern around Seattle. Light morning breeze, cool starts in the low 50s, warming into the 60s by afternoon with a mix of high clouds and sun. Marine push is weak, so visibility’s good and the water has just a light chop in the main Sound, calmer inside the bays and ship canal. Sunrise hit right around the very early 5 o’clock hour, with sunset landing in the late 9 o’clock range, giving you a long window to work the edges of low light. The best bite has been that first two hours after dawn and the last 90 minutes before dark. Tides in central Puget Sound are running a solid mid-morning flood after an early low, then easing into an afternoon high and an evening ebb. Think “moving water or go home” today: work points, rips, and current seams where bait stacks up. Salmon-wise, we’re still in the shoulder season. Resident coho and a few blackmouth are nosing around Possession Bar, Jefferson Head, and the oil docks. Most fish are short, but there’ve been enough legal keepers to stay honest. Trollers running small 3-inch glow or green/white spoons behind a flasher 30–80 feet down over 120–180 feet of water have been picking off the better fish. If you’re mooching, cut-plug herring in a slow, lazy spin has outfished artificials on the softer tides. Bottomfish are the steadier bet. West Point and the edges off Alki have been good for lingcod and rockfish on the structure. Swimbaits in white or herring patterns on 2–4 oz heads, or flutter jigs bounced right on the rocks, are getting hammered. Remember to fish tight to the structure and be ready to lose some gear. Inshore, the sea-run cutthroat bite has been solid along the beaches from Lincoln Park down toward Seahurst and up around Golden Gardens. Small baitfish patterns, 3-inch olive-over-white soft plastics, and #8–#10 streamers have been the ticket. Focus on creek mouths and current breaks on the flood. For flatfish and table fare, Elliott Bay and inside Shilshole are giving up sand dabs and the odd sole to folks drifting small pieces of clam, squid, or shrimp on simple two-hook bottom rigs. Not glamorous, but great action for kids and a good way to put something in the pan. Hot spots to circle for today: – West Point: work the drop-offs for lingcod and the occasional salmon sliding by in the current. – Possession Bar: your best shot at a legal coho or blackmouth if you put in the trolling time. Best lures: – Small glow spoons and green/white hoochies for salmon. – White or glow swimbaits and metal jigs for lingcod and rockfish. – Slim minnow-style soft plastics for beach cutthroat. Best bait: – Fresh or properly brined herring for trolling and mooching. – Squid strips and shrimp for bottom rigs. That’s your Puget Sound report from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next tide change. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn