This is Artificial Lure with your Puget Sound fishing report.

We’re riding a big winter tide swing this morning. Tide-Forecast’s Seattle table shows an early **low of about -2.9 feet just after midnight and a strong morning high around 8:15 a.m. pushing 13 feet**. That big flood will have bait and gamefish tight to structure and current seams. Sunrise is right around 7:50 a.m. with sunset just after 4:15 p.m., so you’ve got a short, punchy winter window to work with.

NOAA’s marine forecast for Puget Sound and Hood Canal is calling for **breezy conditions with Small Craft headlines rolling into Gale-level winds later today**, so anyone leaving Shilshole, Elliott Bay, or Des Moines in a small boat needs to watch that forecast and pick leeward shorelines. FOX 13 Seattle is also talking about an atmospheric river and steady, heavy rain over the lowlands, which means colored water in the shallows but good movement in the rips.

Catch reports the last week have been classic early-winter Puget Sound:

- **Resident coho and early blackmouth** have been picked up off West Point, Jeff Head, and Kingston on 3–3.5" silver/green or cop-car spoons and glow hoochies behind 11" flashers run 80–140 feet down.
- **Pile perch and flounder** have been steady for folks soaking pile worms or pieces of shrimp from the Seattle waterfront piers and down around Des Moines.
- **Squid** are the star of the show. A recent Bashi Fishing video shot in early December at a West Seattle water taxi pier showed fast daytime action and 4–5 pounds of “banana” squid in about an hour and a half, using blue and green jigs worked deep.

On the lure front, think **small and bright** in this dark, rainy water. For salmon, run 2.5–3.5" spoons in Irish cream, Herring Aid, or green/glow patterns, or white/glow hoochies with a short 28–32" leader. Tip them with a sliver of herring strip if you want extra scent. For shore guys chasing sea‑run cutthroat or resident coho, toss **chartreuse/white clousers, small olive baitfish flies, or 1/4 oz metal jigs** in herring colors.

For **bait**, herring and anchovy are still king behind the downrigger; sand shrimp or pile worms for bottom fish, and a small piece of shrimp or smelly jelly on your squid jig can make a difference when the bite is finicky.

Couple of **hot spots** to consider today:

- **West Seattle / Elliott Bay piers**: Good cover from the worst of the wind, solid squid action, and a shot at flounder or a bonus shaker blackmouth on a herring strip off the bottom.
- **Edmonds and Mukilteo area**: Tide-Forecast shows a similar strong morning high around 8:10 –8:15 a.m.; those rips off the ferry lanes and the oil docks can stack resident coho and early blackmouth. Run your gear just off bottom on the flood and along the drop-offs as the tide turns.

Fish that **first light into the peak of the flood** for salmon, then slide inshore or to the piers for squid and bottom fish as the wind ramps up and the barometer drops.

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