Puget Sound Fishing Report: Blackmouth, Chum, and Squid Bonanza on the Late-Morning Flood

This is Artificial Lure with your Puget Sound fishing report. We’re on a small morning tide set today. Seattle tide-forecast shows a pre-dawn low around 5:00 a.m. at about 4½ feet, then a big late-morning push to roughly 12 feet just before noon, followed by a moderate evening ebb. That late-morning flood is your money window for most of the Sound. According to tide-forecast and NOAA tables, sunrise is right about 7:50 a.m. with sunset just after 4:15 p.m., so you’ve got a tight winter light window and long, low-light edges to work with. Weather-wise, National Weather Service outlook around Seattle has us in classic winter pattern: cool mid‑40s, a light south to southwest breeze, cloud cover thickening with scattered showers. Not much wind chop early, a bit more texture as that tide builds late morning. Perfect for working structure and current seams without getting beat up. Fish activity has been better than you’d expect this far into December. Local tackle shops and recent Puget Sound reports are still talking about keeper blackmouth (resident Chinook) in decent numbers, plus a mix of late chum and a few bonus coho hanging on in the north Sound. Herring and sand lance schools are thick; Salish Sea bird reports describe big mixed bird piles on bait, which usually means salmon and hungry resident blackmouth under them. Best action lately has been: - Blackmouth in 60–140 feet off West Point, Jeff Head, and outer Possession Bar. - Chum and straggler coho reported along the Kitsap side — Kingston down to Point No Point — plus some fish inside Elliot Bay on the morning flood. - Squid still going strong at the downtown and Bainbridge ferries at night, with good counts off the piers. Gear and bait: - For blackmouth, locals are running 3–3.5 inch Coho Killer and Kingfisher spoons in Irish Cream, Herring Aid, and Cookies & Cream behind an 11-inch Pro-Troll flasher or a standard purple haze paddle. Hootchies in green glow and UV white over 40– to 50‑inch leaders are also producing. - Bait guys are doing well with small herring or anchovy in helmet, trolled just off bottom, 10–20 feet up. - For beach anglers, 1/2‑ to 3/4‑ounce metal like Puget Pounders or Buzz Bomb–style jigs in green–white and herring patterns are still drawing coho and the odd blackmouth on the flood. - Squid jigs: smaller size, glow bodies with pink or green accents, fished mid‑column under lights. Hot spots to circle on your chart: - **Jeff Head / West Point line**: Work the break in 100–140 feet on that late‑morning flood. Keep your rigger scraping the bottom third and watch for bird piles. - **Possession Bar and Point No Point**: Edges of the bar on the flood have been giving up a nice mix of legal blackmouth and bigger shakers. Up shallow, beach casters at Point No Point are still seeing a few late coho at first light. If you’re crabbing where it’s open, recent notes from Northwest Sportsman mention good Dungeness in parts of the eastern Strait and Admiralty; inside the cent This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.