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Puget Sound Fishing Report: Winter Tides, Blackmouth & Coho Bite, and Crabbing Tips
Published 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Description
Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Puget Sound fishing report.
We’re riding a big winter tide swing this morning. The Seattle tide tables on Tides4Fishing show a strong flood peaking a little after sunrise with about a 12‑foot high, then easing to a mid‑day slack and another solid evening high. Those beefy exchanges push bait up onto the breaks and really light up the bite in the first couple hours of the flood and again right before that afternoon high.
Sunrise is right around 7:45 a.m. with sunset about 4:20 p.m. according to the Seattle tide and solunar chart, so your prime light windows are short and sweet. Major feeding period is early, roughly 6:45 to 8:45 a.m., with a minor bump around lunchtime and another good shot around dusk, again per the solunar outlook on TidesChart and Tides4Fishing.
Marine weather from the National Weather Service’s Puget Sound and Hood Canal zone has a Small Craft Advisory up. They’re calling for southwest wind 15 to 25 knots with gusts into the upper 20s this morning, easing to 10–20 this afternoon, waves around 2 feet and on‑and‑off rain. It’s fishy weather but sloppy, so trailer folks will want to tuck into the lee and keep an eye on that forecast.
On the salt, blackmouth and late coho have been the main game. Local chatter and shows like The Outdoor Line out of Seattle have been talking about decent winter chinook on the usual humps when tides line up, with the occasional hatchery coho still kicking around. Figure a mix of legal blackmouth with quite a few shakers; a handful of boats reporting a couple keepers each on the better mornings, plus bycatch flounder and the odd ling still closed for retention.
Best producers right now are the classics: 3.5‑inch spoons in Irish Cream, Herring Aid, or Cop Car behind an 11‑inch flasher in green/glow or moon jelly; or a cut‑plug or whole herring on a 6‑foot leader. Folks running hootchies are leaning on UV white or glow green with a 32‑ to 36‑inch leader. Keep it close to bottom for blackmouth and don’t be shy about tapping the mud.
For the pier and beach crowd, winter resident coho and sea‑run cutthroat are still a solid option. Smaller 2‑ to 2.5‑inch metal jigs, epoxy‑style minnows, and olive/white clousers on a sink‑tip are all putting up fish when the wind lays. Sand shrimp, squid strips, and herring pieces are taking a few off the piers along with shiner perch.
Crabbing is still a big draw in many areas. Gone Fishing Northwest has been hammering on Puget Sound Dungeness tips, and the theme holds: fresh salmon heads and carcasses, oily tuna in a bait jar, and long soaks on that flooding tide are filling buckets. Expect a mix of legal dungies and red rock with plenty of shorts.
A couple of hot spots to circle for today:
• Possession Bar – With that big morning flood and a bit of southwesterly pushing bait, the west and southeast edges should fish well for blackmouth. Work 90 to 140 feet, keep your gear in the bottom 10 feet, and watch your speed over ground on the pushy portions of the tide.
• Point No Point and Pilot Point – Good option when the bigger water is bumpy. Trolling tight contours in 80 to 130 feet has kicked out winter chinook plus the odd coho. On the softer tides, try mooching a cut‑plug herring along the breaks.
Inside waters like Quartermaster Harbor, Hale Passage, and the bays around Gig Harbor are worth a look for smaller craft: sheltered from the worst of the wind, solid crabbing, and some perch and flounder on small bait‑tipped hooks or soft‑plastics along the edges.
That’s the word from around the Sound. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report.
This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44
We’re riding a big winter tide swing this morning. The Seattle tide tables on Tides4Fishing show a strong flood peaking a little after sunrise with about a 12‑foot high, then easing to a mid‑day slack and another solid evening high. Those beefy exchanges push bait up onto the breaks and really light up the bite in the first couple hours of the flood and again right before that afternoon high.
Sunrise is right around 7:45 a.m. with sunset about 4:20 p.m. according to the Seattle tide and solunar chart, so your prime light windows are short and sweet. Major feeding period is early, roughly 6:45 to 8:45 a.m., with a minor bump around lunchtime and another good shot around dusk, again per the solunar outlook on TidesChart and Tides4Fishing.
Marine weather from the National Weather Service’s Puget Sound and Hood Canal zone has a Small Craft Advisory up. They’re calling for southwest wind 15 to 25 knots with gusts into the upper 20s this morning, easing to 10–20 this afternoon, waves around 2 feet and on‑and‑off rain. It’s fishy weather but sloppy, so trailer folks will want to tuck into the lee and keep an eye on that forecast.
On the salt, blackmouth and late coho have been the main game. Local chatter and shows like The Outdoor Line out of Seattle have been talking about decent winter chinook on the usual humps when tides line up, with the occasional hatchery coho still kicking around. Figure a mix of legal blackmouth with quite a few shakers; a handful of boats reporting a couple keepers each on the better mornings, plus bycatch flounder and the odd ling still closed for retention.
Best producers right now are the classics: 3.5‑inch spoons in Irish Cream, Herring Aid, or Cop Car behind an 11‑inch flasher in green/glow or moon jelly; or a cut‑plug or whole herring on a 6‑foot leader. Folks running hootchies are leaning on UV white or glow green with a 32‑ to 36‑inch leader. Keep it close to bottom for blackmouth and don’t be shy about tapping the mud.
For the pier and beach crowd, winter resident coho and sea‑run cutthroat are still a solid option. Smaller 2‑ to 2.5‑inch metal jigs, epoxy‑style minnows, and olive/white clousers on a sink‑tip are all putting up fish when the wind lays. Sand shrimp, squid strips, and herring pieces are taking a few off the piers along with shiner perch.
Crabbing is still a big draw in many areas. Gone Fishing Northwest has been hammering on Puget Sound Dungeness tips, and the theme holds: fresh salmon heads and carcasses, oily tuna in a bait jar, and long soaks on that flooding tide are filling buckets. Expect a mix of legal dungies and red rock with plenty of shorts.
A couple of hot spots to circle for today:
• Possession Bar – With that big morning flood and a bit of southwesterly pushing bait, the west and southeast edges should fish well for blackmouth. Work 90 to 140 feet, keep your gear in the bottom 10 feet, and watch your speed over ground on the pushy portions of the tide.
• Point No Point and Pilot Point – Good option when the bigger water is bumpy. Trolling tight contours in 80 to 130 feet has kicked out winter chinook plus the odd coho. On the softer tides, try mooching a cut‑plug herring along the breaks.
Inside waters like Quartermaster Harbor, Hale Passage, and the bays around Gig Harbor are worth a look for smaller craft: sheltered from the worst of the wind, solid crabbing, and some perch and flounder on small bait‑tipped hooks or soft‑plastics along the edges.
That’s the word from around the Sound. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report.
This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44