I did not repond earlier because you indicated you were going to the great lakes area, and my steelheading has all been west coast.

That being said, I caught way more steelies nymphing than any other method, by far, but I have caught them on everything from dry BWOs to streamers to deer hair mice,a nd rod wts from 1 to 8. I would advise a new steelheader nymphing on the waters I used to fish to use a 9' 7wt, floating line, indicator, 7'6" 3x leader to a bug stonefly nymph, ~30" 4x dropper to a glo bug. I would advise a well-seasoned flyfisher to do the same thing but use a 5wt unless the water is high or the fish are over 10#.