I like large flies for steelhead but NEVER use large hooks...you will lose more fish on a long shank hook because of the leverage it must endure during a battle. A Large fish rolling will come free of a long shank hook as very little pressure is required to leverage that hook free. Think of adding a cheater bar to a socket wrench to loosen a tight bolt. It doesn't take much effort to loosen that tight bolt with the cheater bar, yet without the cheater bar, you couldn't budge that bolt. The long hook shank acts just like a cheater bar against the hook point.

Stinger patterns MOAL, Intruders, and tube flies that use a short hook are the way to get a large fly with a short fulcrum point and more fish landed.

http://flyfishnw.com/content/view/97/60/