Here's another trick. When you tie on your tippit with a blood knot, make one end (the farthest one) about 18 inches long. If you pull the blood knot good and tight it holds well. With a dry and a nymph you can fish either one on top, depending on the circumstances.
The mention of steel rods brought back a lot of memories. In the 1950's my dad had an old steel (solid, not tubular) casting rod. The agate guides were shot and wound on with wire, so my brothers and I decided it would make a better sword than fishing rod. We filed off the guuides and ground the thing to a three foot foil with a wicked point. This was fun until my brother manufactured a "shield" and dared me to try to stab it while he held it against his leg. You can guess the rest. A solid parry went right through the three pie plates and about three inches into his leg. A lot of hydrogen peroxide and a couple of bandages and all was well. Of course we didn't tell our parents though we had to bribe and threaten our youngest brother not to rat us out. We are all in our 70's and it still comes up in old guy conversation.
I have several of my dad's bamboo fly rods from the 1930's, and a 7'6" glass fly rod that I made 60 years ago. Still works though it is on its third set of guides.
It also depends if you cast right handed or left handed. If you can switch you can use the same casting stroke on either side of the river. Most people spey cast with their right hand so then you have to change your method to avoid hitting yourself in your face with your cast. I speak from experience.
There's always an exception that proves the rule. Sometimes dead high or low tide is the only time you can fish certain spots, particularly when you are bottom fishing. In places where a big riptide channels through a narrow spot you can drop down only at slack tide, even with a monstous sized sinker. For example, ling cod fishing in places in Puget Sound or some Alaskan salt water.
The next question is which side of a bar or obstuction do you fish in the pre or after high tide? Hint, figure out which side the bait is going to pile up.
A friend and I just climbed out of the water after wading an indian River lagoon when we turned around to see a pair of eyes about the size of tennis balls (or it seemed they were that big) about a hundred feet out. This was about 25 years ago in October. So yes, there are gators.
But the real problem surfaced about an hour or so later when we started scratching every bit of bare skin on our bodies. Mosquito Lagoon is well named. I stopped at a drug store and bought a ten pound bag of Epson Salts and every anti-itch cream they had. Soaked about three hours in salts bath.
Oh yeah, had a school of jacks chasing bait fish right up to the bank.
First, your fly reel has nothing to do with shooting line or casting, except that it should balance your rod. Get a decent large arbor reel (many good ones sell for less than $100). I like a reel that is one or two sizes larger than the rod's line size, but I just like to reel in line faster and easier and am a little crazy on having way more backing than a sane person would need. With streamer fishing you just might need it. As to line weight, unless you are going to fish large bulky or heavy flies, a six weight will be more enjoyable. A five weight is my all around rod as it is more fun with small trout, throws most of my streamers very well, and has helped me catch several trout over ten lbs. A size 10 unweighted streamer will attract some mighty big trout.
Just take a bunch of golf tees, cut off the spike, drill a hole top to bottom, and sting it on a wire with a hook on one end and a loop on the other. You can become a lure manufacturer. That's how the first ones were made. Really.
Was it making a funny noise? That would confirm Grunt.
Recent battery advice is you don't have to worry about putting them on concrete. That was true for the older battery cases, but the new materials don't leak charge through them. I have tried this advice and have not had a problem with any of my batteries. Of course it doesn't hurt to be safe.
Believe it or not, maybe these regs will make it possible for you to continue to catch steelhead in future years. I wade fly fish for steelhead, and there are many drift boaters who are smart and considerate, but there are also those bozos who will come shooting by ten feet away, dragging anchors through spawning beds and bait fishing with barbed hooks when they can get away with it. I owned a 16ft drift boat for many years and have and a cat float raft now so I can appreciate their virtues, but you can thank the irresponsible boaters for the need for these regs. I'm 76 years old so wading is not easy. Hey, fishing isn't supposed to be easy.
The other advantage of barbless hooks is that they are easier to pull out of your cheek or thumb. Or ear, or neck, or .... . The classic Alec Jackson steelhead fly hooks are really fun.
If you flyfish I found a small bright yellow fur shrimp with small lead eyes worked on ladyfish and even fooled a snook. Ladyfish fight like miniature tarpon.
The are called "totally useless duolock snap swivels." The snap is Ok if it is not made out of brass, and the swivels don't. They just don't. Together they just mess up your lure or whatever you snap them to, except perhaps to snap a sinker to the end of a dropper rig.
If you don't have fish cleaning leftovers try a local supermarket. Our Safeway/Albertsons has a 15 lb box of farmed steelhead carcases (head and spine.) They come all the way from Norway for 15 bucks. This bait worked even when the commercials surrounded our pots with theirs as close as 75 feet.