steelhead fishing with a flyrod is quite possibly the most difficult undertaking you will ever do in your fishing career.... and catching one will most likely be the most rewarding.. traditional styles make it very difficult, sink tips, swinging, slowing down your presentation and getting down into the bottom 6 inches of a run is very difficult, and fun, finding good water that also has fish in it can be a challenge... but once again very rewarding. a lot of the fish you see posted on here and ifish and many of mine come from a style of flyfishing called "dredging" dredging requires the use of external shot.. or weight, traditional descriptions, such as the ones used by montana, do not consider using weight not tied into your fly, as flyfishing.. dredging is by far the most effective way to catch a winter steelhead on a flyrod. If you choose to take the river runs through it angle with sink tips and attractor flies I would estimate it to take you around 2 years to hook and land your first steelhead.. I suggest you do it traditionaly first, its kinda cool. I use a 6wt for winter steelhead, but it is glass and will take the punishment, in febuary I switch to a graphite 8wt designed for fishing bonefish, a 16-22 lb native winter will beat your 5-6 most of the time.. and it will be a heartbreaker. But this is fishing, and you can use whatever you want if it is fun for you, landing a steelhead is a bonus... just hooking one on a flyrod is an accomplishment worthy of a ear to ear grin and a war whoop... nothing worth doing was ever easy... I wish you success- Brad