Salmonbelly,

Well, my age doesn't quite reach the pinnacle of yours! This is back in the mid to late eighties -not THAT long ago.... We were not intending to fish for salmon or steelhead but we often caught them accidentally during our late summer early fall fishing episodes for cutt-throat. A buddy of mine even caught a sockeye in there! I even hooked a couple of nice squawfish in there! -One that I swear I thought I had a pretty good trout on. Yes, the Bear Creek is a vital natal spawing stream to our andro-fish of King County..... I couldn't agree more. They did however, have some open regs on it during some of those years for trout ...maybe they re-opened it from when you last looked at it back then. We'd often drive onto & park on the ol' golf course(I remember when it was a running golf course -now it's the supermall) and walk in by the hobo shacks made of plastic in the woods...Can you actually believe that people were living in their where the mall is now!!!!???? -Wow!
Your absolutely right about the Sammamish Slough though.... What a screw up that was, kinda like the Grand Coulee Dam -not well though out. Not to mention the Ballard Locks Hershel sea lion disasters.... Well, one good thing is finally there are many groups and cities/county planting new trees and native plants along the banks of the Slough which should improve things a bit and keep the summer water temps down. Maybe one day, they'll "curve-up" the Slough again....? Did you ever fish the Slough for steelhead...I heard it had big ones in the day!!
Good Fishing, Darin