Northwest Fishing Reports

Hi Everyone, I'm new to fishing the puget sound and wanted to start doing so this summer but had a question on how to do it safely since I'm new to it. I'll be in a 18' nw style aluminum boat and wasn't sure how to determine when is a good day to go out and when is it best to stay home. I'll be fishing the narrows area and I've been over the narrows bridge before and seen white caps, and also been over it and seen it look like glass. My question is, what causes the change in the waves out there? Is it just wind? Is it tide change? Is it both? Is it something else completely? I have seen people say to check the forecast before going out but what should I be checking? For example, if I were to go out this Friday it looks like low wind conditions, does this guarantee that the waves won't be crazy or do I need to look at something other than the wind? Just trying to stay safe out there and try going out a few times before I take the kids out, thanks for the help!

Hi osprey12,
I can offer some general advice and sites, I fish in MA10 mostly and haven’t been in narrows area before so can’t help with specifics unfortunately.
I’m in a 16’ with 40hp main and a safety first kind of guy. Doesn’t take a lot of wind/weather before I pass on the sound. Beyond safety there’s a comfort and fun factor I consider too, could probably be out in rougher weather than I’ll typically fish but what’s the point if it’s miserable? I only enjoy being miserable for steelhead.
I like the saying: “there are old fisherman and there are bold fisherman but no old, bold fisherman” or something to that effect.
An 18’ with a 60+hp? main should get you out safely in almost all the weather you’ll probably want to fish in. Having said that I’ve heard the tide can rip through the narrows, with the right wind conditions against the tide I’d imagine it could stack up pretty bad. Hopefully someone with experience will chime in with the conditions to avoid for that area.
In the meantime I check this site religiously when wanting to fish the sound:

https://forecast.weather.gov/shmrn.php? ... syn=pzz100

For me, 2ft wind waves and 10-15 knot winds are the max I like to go out in. Doesn’t sound like much but with wakes, tides, wind gusts sometimes stacking on those waves it can get sporty in my 16’ pretty fast.
Here’s the site I check for tides, there are a lot out there:

https://www.saltwatertides.com/index.html

To start learning the narrows I’d start by stopping by the area regularly, observe the water conditions and check those two sites to start building a knowledge bank of what weather conditions and tides do to the water.
Or in reverse if you see upcoming weather and tides that you think would push your safety and comfort make sure to stop by when it hits and observe the water.
Given enough observation you’ll know when to go or hit freshwater instead.
Hope that helped a little.
Good luck out there and stay safe!

I am still learning myself so someone with more experience will likely chime in and correct me if needed. Also I am mainly in the north sound or Islands.
Both the wind and current will greatly affect the waves (especially if they oppose each other) so both weather and tides need to be checked, ideally right before you leave. Look for days with low tidal coefficient, that will mean less current, a couple of my favorite sites are Tides for fishing and NOAA (weather.gov), but just because the forecasts say it will be good, local conditions can vary. Case in point last Friday the NOAA forecast was for 8-10 knots with 1-2' wind waves out of Deception pass (that is about as windy as I would want to be in in my 18'), but when we arrived at the Cornet bay launch the guy just pulling out in the 28-30' Hewes said he was taking waves over the bow and it was very rough. Then the next guy pulled their 22' Hewes out and the wife and husband could not agree if it was 9 or 10' waves, so I did not even get the boat wet. Always good to talk to someone just coming in.
Also just the current alone can generate quite a bit of waves, water was glassy and smooth all the way to Partridge bank, but once we got there it was 3' rollers, did not even calm down much at slack tide that day as there was pretty high tidal shift that day.
Just stay close the first few times so you can head back quickly if conditions change until you get a better feel for what wind and current you are comfortable in.

Maybe fish out of the Point Defiance launch. Fish Clay Banks to the Slag Pile. 2 minutes from the ramp and productive. That said always error on the cautious side.