4salt, right about the tides, sometimes I get carried away with details.

Good info Plunker.

A little more on the back flows in the Skagit. Any back flow is related to the level of the river and the height of the tide. With the river at 10-12 feet at the Mount Vernon gauge and a 10-11 foot high tide you will see a back flow up to about 1/2 -3/4 miles above the bridges on both forks. From there up to the forks you will see a rise in the river and flows slowing to slack but no back flow. Obviously higher river and lower tides will change the back flow to varying degrees. A suggestion for the rowers would be to put in at Conway or Blakes(the north fork gets more fish) just before high tide and row/troll up river with the back flow and as far into the slack as you feel like. This way you have the whole outgoing tide to fish your way back to the launch and not have to worry about miscalculating the tide and have a hard row against the current.

While we're on the subject of river flow, here's a question. Going by the rule of thumb that the fishing is better when the river is dropping, what is the effect on the bite when the river is dropping but the dams suddenly release a large amount of water thus causing the river level to rise for several hours. From my experience I'm inclined to think it has an adverse effect on the fishing but there are so many variables that I still wondering. Any thoughts?