Today's best fishing in Seattle: 6 AM to 9 AM
This page is full of real data to show you what you can see with ReelCaster in Seattle.
The next 14 days in Seattle
Data from: ECMWF + GFS + BlueCasterTwo weeks ahead
Most forecasts stop at the weekend. This one runs a full 14 days, so you can pick the day before you book the time off.
One number, out of 100
The best score anything in Seattle reaches that day. Green is good, amber is fair, red is slow, and you can read it from across the room.
5,376 scores behind it
16 spots, every hour of every day, out to 14. This row is the best of them.
Hour by hour today at Shilshole / Golden Gardens Reef
All times PDTOne real spot
A city has no tide or wind of its own, so this is Shilshole / Golden Gardens Reef, the most fished mark in Seattle, scored for Coho Salmon.
Six readings, one clock
Tide, current, wind, sea, air and sky, all lined up on the same hour, so you can see what is actually driving the score.
Currents, not just tides
Modelled flow for the water off Seattle, so you can see slack coming before you leave the dock.
The spots people actually fish in Seattle
9 more on the mapA year of catch reports
The order here is how much each mark actually gets fished, not today's guess. The busiest water in Seattle comes first.
Today's number too
Beside each name is the best score that spot reaches today, so you can weigh a proven mark against a good forecast.
Every mark has a page
Its own chart, its own species and its own rules, worked out the same way as everything above.
- 84Shilshole / Golden Gardens ReefKnown markBest 6 AM–9 AM · Late flood · Flat · Rock reef
- 91Apple Tree Point (Kingston)Known markBest 6 AM–9 AM · Early flood · Flat · Mixed bottom
- 85Possession PointBest 6 AM–9 AM · Early flood · Flat
- 91Jefferson HeadBest 6 AM–9 AM · Late flood · Flat · Mixed bottom
- 91Kingston Reef / Appletree CoveBest 6 AM–9 AM · Mid flood · Flat · Rock reef
- 89Blake Island (South Point)Best 6 AM–9 AM · Mid flood · Flat · Rock reef
Every spot we score in Seattle
Bathymetry: NONNA-10 + NRCanReal charted seabed
Depth soundings, not a stock map. The banks, reefs and drop-offs are where you can see them.
15 of 16 marks scored
Every spot we cover around Seattle, each one carrying its own number for today.
Point at any of them
The name, how busy a mark it is, and the tide, sea and seabed at its best hour.
Create custom spots
Our full model on your custom private spots.
- Drop a pinAnywhere on the water. The ledge you found, the bay nobody talks about.
- Name itYour name for it, not ours. It stays private to your account.
- Choose speciesPick what you fish there, and it starts scoring from the next run.
What you can keep in Seattle today
- Chinook SalmonKeep in places1 a day · min 22"Open at 1 of 16 spots we cover
- Coho SalmonKeep2 a dayOpen at all 15 spots we cover
- HalibutKeep in places1 a dayOpen at 7 of 8 spots we cover
- LingcodReleaseCatch and release at all 14 spots we cover
- Chum salmonReleaseCatch and release at all 4 spots we cover
- Rockfish (Aggregate)ClosedShut at all 8 spots we cover
Rules differ between marine areas and change in season. Check WDFW for the marine area you are fishing before you keep anything.
What you can catch in Seattle
Chinook Salmon
Open at 1 of 16- Peak season
- Peak Jul-Sep
- Methods described
- 3 methods
Coho Salmon
Open at all 15 spots- Peak season
- Peak Jun-Oct
- Methods described
- 3 methods
Lingcod
Catch and release- Peak season
- Peak Jan, Feb-Apr
- Next opening
- opens 1 May
- Methods described
- 3 methods
Halibut
Open at 7 of 8- Peak season
- Peak Mar-Aug
- Methods described
- 2 methods
That was one day. Pro opens the next fourteen.
Every spot on this map, hour by hour, two weeks out, with alerts when your water crosses the score you set.
$0 today, then $33 USD a year, which is $2.75 a month. Card required, cancel any time.
When to fish Seattle
Each row is shaded against that species' own best month here, so a dark cell means a good month for that fish rather than a comparison between them.
| Species | January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinook Salmon | ||||||||||||
| Coho Salmon | ||||||||||||
| Lingcod | ||||||||||||
| Halibut | ||||||||||||
| Rockfish (Aggregate) | ||||||||||||
| Chum salmon |
Chinook Salmon: January good, February good, March fair, April fair, May good, June good, July excellent, August peak, September good, October none, November poor, December fair. Coho Salmon: January none, February none, March poor, April fair, May good, June excellent, July peak, August peak, September peak, October good, November none, December none. Lingcod: January good, February good, March excellent, April excellent, May good, June fair, July fair, August fair, September fair, October fair, November good, December good. Halibut: January none, February none, March good, April peak, May peak, June peak, July peak, August excellent, September poor, October none, November none, December none. Rockfish (Aggregate): January fair, February fair, March fair, April good, May good, June good, July good, August good, September fair, October fair, November fair, December fair. Chum salmon: January none, February none, March none, April none, May none, June none, July none, August none, September poor, October peak, November peak, December poor.
- Chinook Salmon. Puget Sound Chinook show a resident 'blackmouth' presence through winter and early spring, a building summer run as Hood Canal, Stillaguamish, Skagit and Snohomish-bound fish stage in Area 9/10 from late June through July (peak mid-to-late July), and a secondary September pulse of Green/Duwamish-bound fall Chinook moving through Elliott Bay. Late fall through midwinter abundance dips as mature fish enter rivers before sub-adult feeders rebuild numbers.
- Coho Salmon. Coho abundance in Puget Sound builds through summer as resident 'blackmouth' coho fatten on baitfish, then peaks in late August through mid-September when mature ocean returns stage off river mouths like the Duwamish, Puyallup, and Snohomish. By mid-October most fish have pushed into freshwater, leaving the saltwater nearly empty through winter and early spring.
- Lingcod. Lingcod are resident in Puget Sound year-round, so abundance never drops to zero. The clear peak occurs March–May when mature fish move onto nearshore rocky reefs to spawn and males guard egg masses, concentrating the local biomass; summer through winter shows a slow taper as fish disperse back to deeper structure.
- Halibut. Pacific halibut migrate into Puget Sound and nearshore Washington waters from deeper offshore spawning grounds in spring, with peak biological abundance from mid-April through May. Numbers taper through summer as fish disperse, and most halibut return to deeper offshore waters by fall and winter, leaving only a residual population in inland waters.
- Rockfish (Aggregate). Rockfish are extremely long-lived, sedentary, structure-oriented residents of Puget Sound rocky reefs and do not migrate, so biological abundance stays essentially flat at baseline year-round. Minor variation reflects only subtle seasonal aggregation/dispersal, not stock presence, which remains constant throughout the year.
- Chum salmon. Puget Sound chum are a strongly pulsed late-fall run, essentially absent until adults stage in nearshore Seattle waters (Sound, Duwamish/Green, Piper's Creek) starting mid-October. Peak abundance hits early-to-mid November (weeks 43–44) as fish school up before pushing into rivers, then tapers sharply through December with negligible presence the rest of the year.
Before you go
Water around Seattle falls into 5 areas, and the rules can differ between them. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sets them.
- 8-1 8-1 — Deception Pass, Hope Island, and Skagit Bay
- 8-2 8-2 — Ports Susan and Gardner
- 9 9 — Admiralty Inlet
- 10 10 — Seattle-Bremerton Area
- 11 11 — Tacoma-Vashon Island
Saltwater fishing licence
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife · 2026-27
Annual, Resident, 16 to 69: $40.71
Puget Sound Dungeness crab $11.89, required to drop a pot in Puget Sound, on top of a shellfish licence.
A saltwater licence does not cover shellfish. The combination licence covers both and works out cheaper than buying them apart.
Fishing Seattle
Seattle fishes as a city on a deep, tidal inland sea. Elliott Bay sits in the middle of the Seattle-Bremerton water, with Admiralty Inlet to the north funnelling exchange between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the rest of Puget Sound, and the Tacoma-Vashon reach to the south. North of that, Port Susan, Port Gardner, Skagit Bay and Deception Pass add shallower, river-fed ground. The bottom drops fast off much of the shoreline, so rocky reefs, gravel banks and dropoffs sit close to the beach, and current, not distance offshore, decides where fish stack up. Mooching and trolling cut bait or herring covers the salmon water, while jigging and bait on the bottom works the structure.
Chinook are the backbone. Feeder fish, the ones locals call blackmouth, hold through winter and early spring, then migratory adults bound for the Green and Duwamish, Snohomish, Skagit, Stillaguamish and Hood Canal build through summer and top out in high summer, with a second pulse of fall fish through Elliott Bay in September. Coho run alongside them from early summer into autumn, staging off the river mouths before pushing into freshwater. Lingcod are resident year round but concentrate on nearshore rock in late winter and spring when males guard nests. Pacific halibut move in from deeper water through spring and hold into summer. Rockfish, cabezon and kelp greenling live on the same reefs permanently, and chum crowd the nearshore in mid to late autumn. Dungeness crab, squid and herring round out the shallower water.
Plan around tide, not clock. The big exchanges through Admiralty Inlet and around Vashon push hard, and most of the productive salmon water fishes best on moving water near the turn.
Work the tide, not the clock. Elliott Bay fishes best on the last of the flood into the first of the ebb, with the rip off Duwamish Head stacking bait along the current line. Launch at Shilshole or Don Armeni early, before the afternoon northerly kicks a chop into the shipping lanes. Summer, mooch a cut plug at 60 to 120 feet down the Jefferson Head drop-off. Spring, drop a leadhead and swimbait tight to rock along the Blake Island edge. Fog usually burns off by mid morning.
Common questions about Seattle
›What is the best time of year to fish in Seattle?
Mid to late summer is the strongest all round stretch, with Chinook peaking in August and coho holding at their best from roughly July into September. Spring is the other standout window, when Pacific halibut move into inland waters from April through June and lingcod concentrate on shallow rocky reefs in March and April. Fall belongs to chum, which stage in nearshore water from mid October into November, while winter fishing leans on resident blackmouth Chinook and structure species.
›What fish can you catch around Seattle and where do they hold?
Salmon are the headline species, with Chinook and coho staging in Admiralty Inlet and the Seattle to Bremerton water and pushing past Elliott Bay toward the Green and Duwamish. Bottom species such as lingcod, rockfish, cabezon and kelp greenling hold tight to rocky reefs and hard structure and stay put year round because they do not migrate. Pacific halibut use deeper flats and drop offs after moving in through the Strait and Admiralty in spring, and Dungeness crab are worked in shallower soft bottom areas.
›What fishing techniques work best in Puget Sound near Seattle?
Trolling and mooching are the classic salmon presentations here, both designed to cover water and imitate the herring and sand lance that Chinook and coho key on. Drift fishing and live bait also produce on staging fish, especially near river mouths in late summer and fall. For lingcod, rockfish and other structure species, jigging and drift jigging over rocky reefs is the most efficient approach, while bait fishing on bottom is the go to for flatfish and halibut.
›Can you fish from shore in Seattle or do you need a boat?
A boat opens up the best of the fishery, since trolling and mooching through Admiralty Inlet, the Seattle to Bremerton water and the Tacoma and Vashon area put you on migrating salmon and let you reach offshore reefs and halibut ground. Shore anglers still have real chances, particularly in fall when chum school in nearshore water around the Duwamish and Green system and along beaches near creek mouths. Casting jigs and bait from beaches and piers also reaches greenling, flounder and other nearshore residents.
›When do salmon run through Seattle and how does the timing break down?
Chinook show two distinct phases: resident blackmouth feed through winter and early spring, then a large migratory push builds from late June, peaks in August and carries a September pulse of fall fish heading for the Green and Duwamish. Coho build through early summer and hit their strongest stretch from late August into September as ocean returns stage off river mouths, then thin out quickly by late October. Chum arrive last, appearing in mid October and peaking in early to mid November before tapering through December.
›What conditions should I check before heading out on Puget Sound?
Tidal current is the single biggest factor, and it runs hard through constricted water like Admiralty Inlet and Deception Pass, so plan drifts and troll passes around the tide change rather than fighting the flow. Wind against a strong current builds steep chop fast in open crossings, which matters most for small boats running between areas. Note which regulatory area you are fishing in as well, since the Seattle to Bremerton water, Admiralty Inlet and the Tacoma and Vashon area are managed separately.