I have a couple oif questions for you... first of all, what are the rivers you would be targetting? as well what time of year... the chromie's tend to be good when all else is slow because they tend to be in the water more often but take alot of energy for so little food for trout... A trout would much rather eat the hendrickson than 10 chironomids which could be equal in energy value because it takes much less energy... Chronies are one of the main things out west as you have mentioned for many reasons, which I am not fully familiar with... Best thing to do though here is to Match the hatch and give the trout what they are used to eating and what is hatching...
Feel free to PM me any other questions as I am more than happy to help if I can... Either way I hope that helps some, maybe we can hook up sometime.
Bill