Puget Sound Spring Tides: Salmon, Cutthroat, and Flounder in Soft Conditions

This is Artificial Lure with your Puget Sound fishing report. We’re working a soft weather window this morning: light onshore breeze, mostly cloudy, cool low 50s at daybreak, pushing into the low 60s by afternoon with a mixed sky and just a slight chop on the main Sound. NOAA’s marine forecast calls for relatively calm conditions, so small boats are good to go if you mind the tide and keep an eye on that breeze in the afternoon. Tides are classic Puget Sound spring swings: a decent morning flood building into mid‑day, then a solid afternoon ebb that’ll really get current pushing around points and rips. That moving water is your fish alarm clock. Work an hour or two on either side of the biggest change for your best shot. Sunrise came early, just after 5 a.m., with sunset landing in the 9 p.m. neighborhood, giving you a long light window. Low‑light edges are still prime: gray dawn and last hour before dark are when the bait comes shallow and the predators get brave. Salmon are still mostly scattered feeder blacks and the odd hatchery chinook in the central Sound, with most chatter coming from folks working 80–140 feet off Jeff Head, Point No Point, and along the Kingston bar. Reports this week from local charter skippers out of Shilshole and Edmonds have been of modest but steady action: a few keeper hatchery chinook in the 8–12‑pound range, plus shakers and resident coho. Trolling green‑splatter or purple haze hoochies behind an 11‑inch flasher, or a 3–3.5 inch glow spoon in herring or cop car patterns, has been the ticket. Tip your hoochies with a small strip of herring if you want just a bit more scent. Inside the bays, the blackmouth and coho talk is quieter, but the sea‑run cutthroat bite has picked up nicely along the beaches. Fly anglers working olive and white baitfish patterns around Lincoln Park, Seahurst, and down toward Point Defiance are finding chunky coastal cuts in the 12–17‑inch range on the flood. Gear anglers are doing well with small 1/4‑ to 3/8‑ounce metal jigs in candlefish colors and tiny jointed plugs in silver and chartreuse. Keep your retrieves quick and erratic; these fish are keyed on candlefish and sand lance. Bottom fishers are scratching up good numbers of flounder and the occasional legal ling where it’s open. Around the Tacoma Narrows, anglers bouncing 4–6‑ounce jig heads dressed with white or root‑beer grubs along rocky edges are reporting a mixed bag of lings and cabezon, plus rockfish where regulations allow. Frozen herring strips or squid on a basic two‑hook dropper rig are still your best set‑and‑forget offerings for flatties on the softer bottoms off Alki, Elliott Bay, and north of the Edmonds ferry lanes. Crabbing is starting to buzz in the local rumor mill even ahead of the main opener, and that usually means there are already a few legal‑sized Dungeness lurking in the sandier stretches. When the season’s open, go with chicken legs or salmon heads in a well‑baited pot, soak through the last of the flood and first of the ebb, and you’re in business. Couple of hot spots to think about today: – Jeff Head: Work 90–140 feet along the east edge, troll with the tide using green‑glow flashers and small spoons. Keep your gear just off bottom; watch that downrigger. – Point No Point: Classic north‑end structure. Fish the edges of the rips on the ebb, especially if you see birds on bait. Hoochies and spoons both play; match the size of the bait on your sounder. On the bait front, nothing beats fresh or well‑brined herring for salmon, rigged whole in a helmet or as tight‑spin cut‑plug. For shore anglers, sand shrimp, pile worms, and squid strips will keep you into flounder and the occasional bonus fish. Scent matters in this green water, so don’t be shy with a little herring or anise gel on soft plastics. That’s the word from around the Sound today. This is Artificial Lure, reminding you to check the regs, play the tides, and treat the Sound like you want to fish it again tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn