Our Guide to Point No Point Salmon Fishing
The scene at Point No Point is one of the most diverse, busy, chaotic and fun salmon fishing places in Puget Sound. Uniquely, the Point offers something for everyone, from trollers to moochers, jiggers to shore anglers.
This is one of the most popular and productive places in Washington State to mooch for Chinook Salmon, but Pink and Coho Salmon are also caught here with regularity. We love the backdrop of the Point No Point Lighthouse, the forested bluffs of distant Whidbey Island, and the misty morning marine atmosphere that often frequents No Point and the rest of Admiralty Inlet.
One of the bigger Hatchery Chinook we've caught mooching at Point No Point.
Where is Point No Point?
Point No Point is the most extreme northeast landmass of the Kitsap Peninsula, and salmon that are migrating into Central Puget Sound will quickly ride in and round the point on an incoming tide, headed to points south like Pilot Point and Kingston.
During the more extreme outgoing tides, the currents pushing northward create a huge slack pool on the backside of the lighthouse, sucking in large amounts of herring and giving salmon a really good reason to pause and feed here.
Dozens of boats travel here during those optimal tides, as do dozens of bank anglers, all casting metal lures or bobbers with herring, and catching! The tightly packed fleet of jigging and drift mooching boats leave no space for trollers to join, but they do work the outer edges of the area and catch plenty of salmon as well.
Point No Point Fishing Map
Point No Point Fishing Seasons
Point No Point is part of Puget Sound’s Marine Area 9 and follows the area’s seasons and regulations. The most popular season is Chinook Salmon, and we typically have a fast and furious summer season that begins in mid-July.
Catch rates are usually high here, and after the first couple days, opening dates are set as the season progresses. That is, if there is available Chinook quota remaining. Chinook will continue to transit through the area well into August, when Coho and Pink Salmon can be caught here. On any day that there isn’t an opener for Chinook retention, the best spots at Point No Point are not busy, but there are still fish to be caught.
For quick reference, here is the Marine Area 9 Regulations Page and Marine Area 9 Emergency Regulations
Lighthouse at Point No Point and a few fishing boats.
Seattle Fishing Co. has the gear you need for Point No Point
Mooching and jigging is popular here, and most of the salmon are caught very close to the beach. Check out our recommendations below, or if you want to see our full selection, visit our Saltwater Salmon Page.
Our favorite Midchannel Trolling setups
Pro-Troll Lighted 11" Flasher, P-Line CFX Fluorocarbon Leader 30 pound - 40", Gibbs Skinny G Spoon
Gibbs Highliner Flasher, Gamakatsu Herring Leader 2/0 3/0 - 25 pound - 42", small herring in a Krippled Anchovy Helmet
Oki Tackle Big Shooter Flasher, P-Line CFX Fluorocarbon Leader 30 pound - 40", Silver Horde Coho Killer Spoon.
Mooching Setup for Puget Sound
Sinker: Fisherman’s Gold Coated Mooching Sinker 3 ounce to 5 ounce
Bait: Green Label or Red Label Cut-plug Herring cured with Brine N Bite, make sure you have a good bait knife and a bait cutting guide.
Leader: Gamakatsu Herring Leader with 2/0 3/0 hooks or 3/0 4/0 hooks and 20 pound to 30 pound fluorocarbon with a length of 48” to 60 “
Boat Jigging at Point Wilson
Puget Pounder Jig 2 ounce to 3-1/2 ounce and P-Line Laser Minnow 2 ounce to 3 ounce
Replacement Hooks: Gamakatsu Big River Bait Open Eye Hooks size 2/0 to 4/0, split ring size 5, barrel swivel size 7
Leader: P-Line SS Fluorocarbon 20 pound to 30 pound with a length of 33” to 40”
Shore Casting at Point Wilson
Buzz Bomb 2.5" or 3L", check out our Buzz Bomb Rigging Guide
P-Line Laser Minnow 1 ounce to 2 ounce and make sure you replace the hooks!
Mooching for Chinook at Point No Point.
Learning to fish Point No Point
The area around Point No Point can offer up some great fishing, but the tides in this area great complex current patterns that you need to understand if you want to have success here. For the most part, fishing is best on an outgoing tide, the stronger the tide the better.
Once the currents really start pushing out around Point No Point, strong tide rips form outside the point, and create a backwater from the Lighthouse westward towards Skunk Bay and Hansville. This immediate area will be stacked with mooching and jigging boats during prime salmon season. Once the tide slacks out the action usually dies, as all the concentrated salmon and bait scatter.
Trolling is not suggested in the tight area of mooching boats, but can be really productive outside of the mooching fleet, north out in deeper water. If you are trolling, you'll probably be in 140' to 200' of water, trolling a westerly and northwesterly track line.
After the tide starts flooding back in, most anglers will move to Possession Bar across Puget Sound, or to the next good fishing spot to the south which is Pilot Point.