Rich,
Cead Mille Failte!
What you just did is roughly equivalent to walking into a pub in Sneem, ordering a Guinness, and asking "So where can a fellah buy a jar of the crayture, eh?" It may take a while before anyone tells you which rock to leave your ten euros under. Do you take my meaning?
Read the boards, this one, Kiene's,
http://www.kiene.com/forums/ e.g.
http://www...s/showthread.php?t=21597
even Westfly
http://www.../ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm
even though it's mostly Oregon and Washington.
You're home ported in San Francisco, so drop by Leland Outfitters and the Orvis shop downtown. Buy a few flies and talk to the guys behind the counter.
Think about joining a fly fishing club in the city.
Many of the streams that run into the ocean have some steelhead, and some of them are legal to fish, as long as you have a license and a steelhead card, and are there on the day the stream is open. I am NOT pulling your leg. The Carmel River, south of me, is open from 15 Dec to 7 Mar, on Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, if the water flow on the day before the legal day is more than 85 cubic feet per second. Strictly catch and release, barbless, artificial lures only.
Reading the regulations or dropping by a nearby Department of Fish and Game office works too. Many of the warden are suckers for a soft brogue.
You thought private beats on the Blackwater were confusing, eh?
On the Trinity these days there are three to six guide drift boats in each decent run, and if you want to wade you practically have to bring your own rock.
There are steelhead in the rivers joshfish mentioned, and if you keep yours ears open, you'll eventually begin to figure out where they are. I think. I'm not sure I have.
See you at the Plough and Stars some night, or maybe O'Nealls or Ireland's 32. If so, I'll be happy to give you a few tips in person. I look just like my avatar, God help me! If I put them on the board here, there'd be ten people standing on my personal rock tomorrow an hour before daybreak.
Slainte'