It definitely depends on whether you are nymphing or swinging, so all I can comment on is nymphing for steelhead. I prefer to nymph for summers because, to me, it's the coolest thing to figure out what they want. So, here are a few nymphs that I use a lot: big stone flies, tiny to size 6 princes tied in many different forms, possie buggers, various caddis nymphs(since that's what's in western rivers), seal buggers, agent orange's tied in various colors (pretty sure they just like the orange bead, though), and the occasional egg pattern which, of course, is not a nymph. I use switch rods with speydicator line from Airflo to turn over my beefy set up. Good luck, but be careful.....it's insanely addicting.