I have some questions/comments about learning river fishing.

[Joe_Hill]

My former experiences with fishing have been king salmon on party boats off NorCal coast, spin-casting off the beaches of lakes/reservoirs and floating eggs for trout on small mountain streams in the Sierras. I've casted some spoons and other lures into a couple Idaho rivers with no luck but many expensive lures lost to snags. My grandfather was an avid deep-sea angler out of San Francisco and so was my father. That's the only kind of fishing they knew. I was never mentored well on river fishing and other types of inland/freshwater fishing.
 
I've been skunked most of my life and my best luck has been on salmon party boats off shore. What tries my patience the most fishing is wind knots, tangled lines, snags and lost expensive terminal tackle.
 
I've been poking around on Google lately and discovered, to my surprise, that flies can be used on spinning rods so I have a few questions and comments.
 
1. Can flies on spin tackle be used successfully for salmon and steelhead on rivers and streams, both shallow and deep and narrow and wide? I gather a clear water bobber that spooks fish not is key here along with a gentle cast. The idea of flies interests me because flies are clean to handle given that natural bait like worms, herrings, salmon eggs and roe is messy to handle. Lures like spinners and spoons get hung up a lot on snags and they are costly to lose. Spinning reels and rods are fairly easy for me to handle and it's common knowledge that fly rods are complicated to master and can't be used in tight areas with low tree branches.
2. Can a closed-face spin-casting reel like a Zebco Omega be used for flies in the manner above? They are much easier to deal with than a bait-casting reel and open-face spinning reels tend to have line management issues with short underhand casts. Sometimes the bail is open on a regular spinning reel to allow the line to drift in certain presentations. Does pushing the cast button on a "bullet" reel to feed out more line have the same effect?
3. Are there any modern good books and video training series that cover river/salmon/trout fishing in depth and also covers the use of flies on spin tackle in depth for these highly-prized freshwater/spawning-season salmonid species?
4. I want to learn the proper gear and technique for flies on spinning rods in pursuit of river/mountain lake game salmonid species. 
5. I need to learn about: dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, tying fishing knots, leaders, line selection, reel and rod selection, nets, waders, other fishing clothing, footwear, tackle boxes/bags etc.
6. I need to also learn how to scout for proper places to fish, what terminal tackle to use based upon seasons, lighting conditions, weather, climate, etc.
7. I need to know how to identify each species of salmonid by sex, age and any special metamorphosis that occurs during spawning seasons
8. I need to learn proper fishing terminology and need a good glossary for it so as not to sound like an amateur
9. I want to learn when to fish, how to fish, where to fish, and how to target what I'm fishing for through proper gear selection and method

If you're looking to catch salmon from rivers to eat, I'd suggest sticking closer to the Pacific. Salmon that have traveled hundreds of miles to Idaho are going to be far from prime fish to eat. Fine for the smoker but far at best otherwise. Have you considered Alaska? Plus you can still land some primo quality fish in salt. If you fish smaller waters fly fishing with a fly rod is super easy for salmon. You tie a weighted streamer to the leader and cast in upstream of the fish and let it come down in the current to salmon moving upstream or holding. It's that simple with 4 of the 5 pacific salmon. My son and nephews got this down by age 10-13 within 30 minutes on the water. Unfortunately sockeye don't really bite in fresh water so you snag them by the mouth typically with a bead on the line- only it's called flossing. Not really something that takes any effort to become proficient with either. Fly fishing is a lot easier than it looks even if people frequently make it more difficult than it needs to be. The hard part in Alaska is fresh fish can be 10x harder to land than the dregs in Idaho. But with encountering many thousands of them you get plenty of chances.