A solid and well thought out question CP. I will be curious to hear from answer on this one as well.

Personally, I try to not miss any of the likely water, which means some shenanigans at the head of a typically fast steelhead run. Setting up high enough to back them into the good water from the top, to me, seems ideal, even if that means digging bottom a bit. In water than is too fast to hold and/or deploy in, i will often try to anchor and then lower the plugs into the slot from the top and then start backing down. More than once I have had plugs hammered in the fast water well above where I would expect them to be given water conditions.

It also seems the slower you can work them down the better. Ideally you would be moving down the river inches at a time, with intermittent pauses where you are holding the boat completely still.

Or you could play it like Kaiser D, drink a beer, wrap the tips, foul the plugs and float through the good water sideways with oars thrashing