dumb question

Here's my dumb response, yes, I have used this technique with streamers and muddler minnows on waters other than the SR but is it permitted on the SR?  I'd rather not take the chance of finding out due to the fact that some DEC officer may misinterpret my intent. 

Not a dumb question at all, possibly some dumb responses such as mine..
I would not be worried at all about an issue from the DEC, actually if they were to observe you it would be easily recognized as fly fishing.
So here are my thoughts :
It's all about the time when it would be effective.. I base that on water temps and how long a fish has been in the river..
It is and would be effective towards late march through drop back season.. You all know my feelings as to why the SRS is effective..  In the spring (anywhere from late march -April ) the salmon smolts and fry are in the system, steelhead key on this as it will provide a much larger substance then say a caddis larva..
Also water temp plays a role, Now when the temps are still up, the fish are more actively moving and not just hunkering or moving when necessary.. Downside to this time such as now, is that thy are keying in on salmon eggs so your competing with the natural food source.
I find it very hard to get a fish to move very far to "chase" food down during the lethargic times from late November -mid march.. Typically they are wintering over and using fat reserves or feeding tight to the bottom on insect life..
 
This is all just some B.S. through my observations..
 

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A point to The reply Gerry gave .
On some adk waters I will rip and yank a rapala through pockets and runs that would make a SR snagger look like a saint.
It's a totally effective method to rip-jerk-pause the lure causing a reactive strike , as opposed to a follow and mostly refuse ,we watch the fish in action.

Are we snagging fish , heck no . We are intentionally provoking a reaction .

hot tuna
Just to add a little more:
 
 
When I was a bank angler I always LOVED when a drift boat would plug a hole I was working.. If I was not getting results , the pluggers would "shake" up the fish and it usually resulted in a hook up from the bank due to repositioning of the fish , hence they are seeing my bait/fly from a different vantage point..

^
This
 
I do it for coho.
I don't do it more since it can give the impression of stealth lifting and I would rather not catch anything than even appear to be trying to "hit" the fish rather than have the fish hit.
 
Good question!

this is actually a great question and think it deserves some more discussion and learning, such as what Fichy just gave me..
I say the window opens back up pre spawn, sometimes as early as late Feb if the sun is high and ticks that temp in some areas back up a few degs on the water in the afternoon..  I have had success with the streamer (SRS) if the winter starts to break up early and the steelhead start to spawn early.. I also think you (fichy) seen some chrome chasing baitfish in a warm feb day after a mild winter..
While I didn't , don't strip my fly, rather just swung it, I don't see why stripping wouldn't be effective..
Another reason for my march-april timing is largely due to the amount of salmon  fry in the river.. When Fran V says it's his #1 spring pattern from back in the late 80's-90's  while he was guiding, well guess what, I listened and bought his book about the Salmon River and patterns..
I believe he also held (holds) the world record coho on 2# tippet, at least it was back then ..
Finally a third element into this is that my Dad, the great one, didn't like using bait.. He liked casting spinners, spoons and lures for steelhead, he caught plenty from mid march-april while I struggled with egg sacs & flies (on spinning rod) ..  Of course some of his favorites were panther Martin single hook with beads on the lure shank before the hook, his spoons were blue fox pixie and little cleo, lures were of course rapala in rainbow trout..  
 
Now granted, you fly guys can whip loops around me /cast and swing patterns FAR better then this old spinner so some things I may say are irrelevant to the knowledge you all possess.. The words you type and speak are ALL influential to me..

pafisher

Lucky13
If I'm fishing a zonker, or a big intruder, I strip back once in a while as HT says to maybe wake them up.  But most of the time I'm fishing smaller wet flies, or concoctions designed to have some action on a dead drift and swing, so I just mends and swing.  Good article on this (active presentations) in the new Flyfisherman, though.

According to that article you send your dog for a swim in the pool,that stirs them up and then they get interested in your strip retrieve,if you don't have a dog throwing rocks at them works too!Since my Boxer dog doesn't care for swimming I guess it's rocks for me

Stoning, herding, driving are against the law in NYS.  I don't know about dog swimming !

Hot Tuna, you're spot on in regards to SR pluggers "waking up" a pool. Always glad to have them plug the pool I'm fishing. Heck, even drift boats going by will get a couple active.
PerchEyes

PE,The Ma. coast north of Beantown-  Cape Ann, and Plum Island Sound,  Use to fish South County RI, and have  chased them from Maine to the Chesapeake. Though, I've pretty much given up the surf stick, I'm no stranger to Bombers. Ever try a fly on the surf stick? Something I picked up in RI from one of the crazy people who fish the end of the breachways on the incoming is using a baseball with an eyelet bolted through it. About 4 feet of leader and a Rhody flatwing fly or any 5-7" salt pattern you like. Casts a mile and you rip it in pretty much as you described.  It doesn't hurt to keep a few small flies and have a surface plug with the rear hooks removed when they key on little bait, like smaller sand eels, peanut bunker and juvy herring.

I rarely get shots at albies, not much shore action for them north,  better off the islands. Need to get to Nantucket and the Vineyard someday. Have got them from a boat. I have got a bonita from shore.  I decide to go, I'll be asking some questions. If you try throwing a fly behind a plug again, try a clouser. The weight and pretty sparse materials (good for a sand eel imitation) make it follow the lure out and behave, as they don't have as much wind resistance and some weight to help them fly on their own.

I've had some horrible experiences with horseheads and greys. The mouth of the Merrimack gets loaded with them, they f'in ruined an early May trip for me, and have scared the sheet out of me night fishing. The most frustrating for me may have been at the mouth of the Saco and Scarborough rivers in Maine. I had gone out on a minus tide at least a 1/4 mile out on the mud  flats to reach what i figured would be a great concentration of fish in the channel. i got out there, made one cast and hooked up on a good fish. I got it taken care of, looked up to find the  area now  dotted with evil little seal heads.  Long walk for one fish and done. I don't mind the sharks coming in closer. Let 'em eat! 

I thought a little about it and have come to a partial  conclusion why I've seen no one doing it. If you have a bunch of weight on to dead drift, you increase your chances of hanging up  markedly by lowering the rod tip and stripping. That knocks about 80-90 percent out of the box, right there. In defense of some, eggs and flesh don't swim or twitch. Others are swinging and getting movement via the swing and feel the extra movement isn't needed or wanted.  5% to cover that group? The other 5-10% has never seen anyone else do it so it must be wrong. I guess I fall in that category. 

Fichy, give it some time... Now that its mentioned on the internet, give it about 3 years and its all anyone will be doing and talking about :)