Although no one ever caught less steelhead by going deep, I'd also add to Fred's truths that steelhead are far more focused on the upper column than most people give them credit to be. Particularly in the first hour or two of daylight and dusk, most consistently in fall, and most noticably when the fall sedge is emerging. This is not to say that the early stonefly hatch on Cascade rivers won't get those mint bright steelies to roll on a sofa pillow on the fourth of July, they will. Although a summer pink prawn pattern on a light tip may tease a few more to take over the course of a summer, the vigor by which they slam a muddler fished on top of the rapids at dawn is something to behold and surprisingly consistent.
Anyway, my advice would be:
Forget everything you've ever learned about every other fishery. Steelheading is about connecting with the psyche of a fish. Now that might sound silly, but allow me to claim that there is no more noble a fish and making this connection is not something to be taken for granted.
Other fish eat because they are hungry. Steelhead don't. Other fish are fooled by simply imitating food. Steelhead won't. Other fish are caught by average sizes and a trophy is sought through a season, sometimes for a lifetime. Every steelhead is a trophy in a trout fisher's wildest dreams.
My approach to steelhead is simply this: appeal to some hidden remnant of that jubilant parr leaping at mayflies on it's first summer in the stream; way back when the mere thought of stellar's sea lions ripping fangs and a purse seiners veil of death were as remote as Bin Laden to an infant. Yet when the babe returns as the stout and seasoned warrior of thousands of sea miles wearing it's hard-won chrome armor on it's broad flanks decorated with the brilliance of the north pacific streaking through every fin ray - there is still something of that smolt's joy left, to which I work incessantly to appeal to with a fly.
When I hook a steelhead, I've found that something in it's psyche that is still care-free and not at all different from the boyhood joy that remains in me, and will for life. In that sense I've connected with the most noble of fishes by the most honorable means - an honestly swung fly.
So forget everything you know about every other fishery, including steelheading with gear. There is a whole 'nuther dimension to steelhead that you can only discover with a fly, and it will only become apparent after you work it out. Some give up before they do, but it's there for those who persevere, you can be sure of that. It's there hidden in the mystery of the river. You can sense that a steelheader has found it by talking to him, watching him work a stream, and see it in the flies he ties.
I think Duggan said it best, it's a way of life.