Late Spring Salmon and Cutthroat: Puget Sound Tide Window Report

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Puget Sound fishing report for the early-morning shift around Seattle. We’re sitting on a classic late‑spring pattern. A cool, gray marine layer is hanging over the Sound, light southwest breeze 5–10 knots, and air temps climbing from the low 50s into the 60s later today. Clouds will thin a bit this afternoon, but expect that typical on‑again, off‑again drizzle vibe. Sunrise is right around 5:10 a.m., sunset close to 9:10 p.m., so you’ve got a long window to work those tide changes. Tides are doing something worth planning around: a solid morning flood pushing in through mid‑morning, then a decent afternoon ebb that should get current rolling around points and rips. On Puget Sound, that moving water is your real clock. Aim to fish the last hour of the flood and the first couple hours of the ebb if you can swing it. Salmon-wise, resident coho and a few early ocean fish have been showing sporadically along the east side of the Sound. Most of the chatter from local gear shops has been 2–5 fish per boat on a decent tide, with plenty of shakers in the mix and a few keepers in the 4–6 pound range. Trolling small 3–3.5 inch spoons in green–glow, Irish cream, or herring patterns behind a flasher has been putting fish in the box. Hoochies in white, UV, or glow green with a short leader are also worth running. Cutthroat are quietly stealing the show for the beach crowd. Folks working the usual shorelines are reporting steady action on 10–16 inch sea‑runs with the odd bigger fish surprise. Small olive‑over‑white Clousers, sparse baitfish flies, or hardware like 1/4 oz Kastmasters and small spoons in perch or candlefish colors are doing damage. Remember to handle those wild fish gently and keep them wet. Bottomfish are a solid backup plan. Pile perch and flounder are biting along rocky structure and sandy flats; a simple drop‑shot with bits of shrimp, clam, or sandworms will keep rods bent, especially for kids. Out deeper, lingcod are tapering off with the season tightening, but jigging 4–6 oz metal jigs or big soft plastics near rocky humps can still turn up a few if you’ve got the depth and structure dialed. For bait, herring is still king for salmon. If you can get decent plug‑cut herring, run it behind a flasher or naked on a slow troll. Otherwise, scents on your spoons and hoochies help: anise, herring, or krill. For shore anglers, fresh shrimp pieces or Gulp sandworms under a sliding rig are hard to beat for perch and flounder. Couple of hotspots to put on your hit list today: • West Point, off Discovery Park: That morning flood piling into the point, then flipping to the ebb, can stack up coho and cutthroat tight to the contours. Work the 60–120 foot line trolling, or cast from the beach early with spoons and flies. • Meadow Point to Golden Gardens: A classic trolling lane for resident coho. Run a north–south pass straddling the dropoff, keeping gear just off bottom early, then mid‑column once the sun’s up. If you’re staying closer to town without a boat, Alki and the Seacrest area give you solid shore options for cutthroat, perch, and the occasional bonus salmon when bait pushes in. That’s the latest from around the Sound. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a 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