Welcome to the board Mike! There are a lot of great people here and I think you will find that even the toughest questions get real answers around here!
Yeah, I’ve fished them, thats where I really started fly fishing for steelhead. I only fish them if I want to get out for a while when I’m back home. You are right on the ditches part, but it sure is fun have a skamania jump 3ft. out of the water in a 10ft. wide creek 🙂 I just avoid them this time of year, the salmon run brings out the worst in people.