Good questions Steel.
Getting some intel from MRO is great advice to get a sense of what may be going on in terms of flows and hatches that you may run into. Knowing a bit about the hatches helps a lot too--- in terms of when in the day they tend to happen, and also what parts of the stream they tend to happen over- fast water, below riffles, slow water with muddy bottoms etc. They should be able to tell you that too if you ask, (or post here if they don’t).
If you have a limited amount of time to fish, try and hit it when you have the best chance and things are most likely to be popping. For example a lot of the big deal hatches out your way like hexes and brown drakes might bring up every fish in the river. But if you’re out fishing in a fast water section of the stream mid-morning you maybe wonder what all the fuss is about, since they rend to come off in slow sections at and after dusk into late evening after dark.
This time of year a lot of the hatches tend to happen in the morning or evening as opposed to early season hatches that come off midday. I’d also think you’d be better off trying to cover some water rather than camping out in one spot, unless you’re waiting for something specific to happen. A pool can be hard to fish, and a lot of casts will eventually put fish down.
You’d be better off running and gunning and casting to likely looking spots as you move., hitting current seams, undercut banks, deadfalls, fronts and backs of rocks, etc. Try a couple casts at each spot and move on, or if it’s really fishy, change your angle by moving a bit.
Depending on time of day of likely hatches, you may want to work your way down stream nymphing and swinging wets, and then work back upstream over the same water casting dries. This way, if the hatch starts in late afternoon and you'll be mimic-ing the behavior of the naturals as nymphs get active, start to emerge (wet flies), and then finally start popping later when you work your way back with dries.
If you’re fishing and nothing is going, on prospecting with standard dries like a size 16ish Parachute Adams or Elk Hair Caddis, swinging a wet fly, soft hackle or caddis pupa below riffles, and hitting riffles with a Green Rockworm (caddis larva pattern also a good steelhead pattern) are good ways to dredge something up.
As far as fishing streamers, I’d say practice on bass since they should be all around you. Find some small mouth streams to fish ‘em in moving water. The techniques for trout are the same and you'll have more of a chance to fish them if you do limited trips for trout. Although you can fish streamers anytime, personally I go to them more in early spring (high water) and late fall for trout.
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