19 Jun 2026
Early Summer Bite: Chase Chinook and Cutthroat in the Puget Sound Flood Tide
This is Artificial Lure with your Puget Sound fishing report.
We’re in a classic early-summer pattern around Seattle: cool mornings, mild afternoons, and generally light winds. Local marine forecasts are calling for highs in the 60s to low 70s, mostly cloudy skies with a few sun breaks, and a gentle onshore breeze building later in the day. The barometer has been fairly steady, which usually keeps fish behavior predictable.
Sunrise was right around that 5 a.m. mark with sunset close to 9 p.m., so you’ve got long light windows. The best bite windows are lining up with first light and the early part of the flood, then again toward dusk when the current slacks off.
Tidewise, we’re on a moving summer cycle with decent exchanges but nothing crazy. Expect a low early in the morning, building to a stronger mid-morning flood, then another drop off later in the afternoon. Around Puget Sound, that usually means slower currents right at daybreak, then increasingly pushy water through late morning. Plan to be set up and fishing right before the tide turns, particularly on the edges of rips and along current seams off points and kelp lines.
Fish activity has picked up. Resident coho and blackmouth are scattered but catchable; anglers running gear in 60–120 feet of water are picking up a mix of undersized and legal chinook, with the odd chunky coho showing up. Cutthroat trout are cruising the beaches, especially near creek mouths and around eelgrass flats on the flood. Bottomfish—lingcod where still open, rockfish in the allowed zones, and plenty of flounder—are hanging tight to structure and biting well when the current eases.
Recent catches reported in local shops and on the docks show:
- Fair numbers of legal chinook out around Possession Bar and Midchannel Bank, mostly 6–10 pounds, with a few teens mixed in.
- Consistent sea‑run cutthroat action along the west side of Whidbey and around South Sound beaches, mostly 12–16 inches, with some larger fish early and late.
- Good flounder and the occasional cabezon on sand and mixed bottom off Alki and in Elliott Bay.
For gear, think small and natural. Trollers are doing well with 3–3.5 inch spoons in green/white, Irish cream, or cop‑car patterns behind a flasher on 25–40 feet of cable in 80–120 feet of water. Hoochie‑flasher combos in glow green, UV purple, or white are also producing, especially on the brighter parts of the tide.
Bank and beach anglers chasing cutthroat should lean on sparse Clouser-style flies in olive/white or sand/white, small epoxy baitfish, or 1/4‑ounce metal spoons in candlefish colors. For bait, herring is still king for salmon—plug‑cut or whole, slow‑trolled or mooched. On the bottom, a strip of herring or sand shrimp on a Carolina rig will take flounder and other bottomfish all day if you stay in contact with the bottom.
A couple of local hot spots to consider:
- Possession Bar: Work the edges of the hump on the flood and early ebb, staying just off the drop where bait stacks up. Watch your sonar for suspended bait balls; keep your gear just above them.
- West Point and the edges of Elliott Bay: Troll along the contour lines on the morning flood, then switch to jigging or mooching when you mark tight schools near bottom.
For shore anglers, the beach at Lincoln Park and the points around Point No Point can be very productive for cutthroat and the occasional coho, especially on a rising tide with a little chop on the surface.
Today, focus on being in position at first light and again for the evening tide change. Keep moving until you find bait and current, and once you get bit, circle back through that water—these summer fish often travel in small packs.
Thanks for tuning in to Artificial Lure’s Puget Sound report, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next update. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
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