In search of new territory, I grabbed my faithful fishing buddies and we hit Mill Creek (Polk County) on Saturday morning followed by Little Luckiamute in the afternoon. Though we were the first to hit Mill Creek, by the time we left there were a number of others attempting their luck. Little Luckiamute had more bicycle riders than fishermen, but there was still a number of people getting their lines wet.
We saw no fish in Mill Creek from the bridge in the park up to the bridge beyond the gate (about 1-1.5 miles of stream). It was running very clear, not too fast. If there are fish in the stream, they're much higher upstream.
For the Little Luckiamute, we started at the gated bridge at Black Rock Creek (not the bicycle trail), above the church camp and worked downstream. One 7" fish caught in the riffles about halfway between the starting point and the church camp. Water was fairly clear. We then went downstream to the closed park and I caught & released a nicely spotted 8" cutthroat in the murkier water... stream must load up on sediment somewhere between the church camp and the park. I didn't see the first fish and the description my buddies gave wasn't too helpful in confirming species other than "trout-like" and not a brook or brown trout (LOL, usually they're better at id-ing the species! Based on the description, there's a very, very small possibility that it was a bull trout, which is why it's frustrating me that I didn't see it).
Both fish instantly struck spinners, so I'm convinced they were about the only fish in 2 miles of fishing. Never saw any followers like you see when there are numerous small fish.
Beautiful day, though! Water was warm enough that when I slipped and accidentally sat down in the Little Luckiamute, the cold water was not totally unpleasant and having soggy pants wasn't unpleasant.