Tippet material

Steelhead don't care about tippet, at least for swinging flies, so I stick with 8-lb to 12-lb Maxima Chameleon.

Also, consider in your fishing that fluorocarbon is much, much slower to break down than regular mono, and is therefore even worse for the environment. If you don't use/lose much, perhaps not a huge deal, but if you do, it's something to consider.

I'm happy with the Maxima for my steelhead fishing.--Bill

I tend to shy away from flourcarbon as it is my opinion that steelhead are in general not leader shy but 'diameter shy' (too large of a diameter for certain flies in low water will reduce movement and a 'nautral look').

However, will large amounts of steelhead stacked in a popular terminal area this summer...fish that were getting tons of pressure, I resorted to 6 pound Umpqua Deciever and landed fair share of fish without breakage, even though the tippet went threw loads of abuse.

I know many people who swear by the Seagur Grand Max...but that may end as Umpqua's latest flourcarbon that is about to hit the shelves could end up being the best of the best from early tests.