Coho Salmon Fishing in Seattle, WA

Coho are the fish that turn Puget Sound into a summer fishery, and Seattle sits right in the middle of the action. We cover 15 spots that hold them, from Admiralty Inlet at Point Wilson down through Jefferson Head, Apple Tree Point at Kingston, Kingston Reef and Appletree Cove, past the Edmonds Oil Tanks and Hat Island's south end, then south to Duwamish Head in Elliott Bay and the South Point rip off Blake Island. Each one puts you on moving water where coho push bait.

June through October is your window. Numbers build through summer as resident coho fatten on baitfish, then the fishery peaks from late August into mid September when mature ocean returns stage off river mouths like the Duwamish, the Puyallup and the Snohomish. By mid October most of those fish have moved into freshwater, and the salt stays thin through winter and early spring. A smaller resident population feeds in the Sound year round, and you'll see a minor bump in mid spring when juvenile smolts pour out.

Plan around light and current. Be on the water before sunrise and fish the first couple of hours hard, then come back for the evening. Fish the run of the ebb or flood with at least 1.5 knots moving. Troll flashers and hoochies, trolling spoons or cut-plug herring in the top 50 feet, drift mooch cut-plug or whole herring on a banana weight, and drop metal jigs when you find bait balls.