Best Bead Size & Colour for Steelhead in High & Coloured Water

Steelhead anglers know the water tells you what to tie on before you even reach the run — the fish of a thousand casts — a sea-run rainbow, not a salmon. When the river is running high & coloured, the usual rules about matching a natural egg shift, because visibility itself has changed. Low visibility — go big and bright; the bead is an attraction beacon the fish has to find. For steelhead specifically, that means leaning on bright pink / cerise, orange-roe, red in the 14–19mm range rather than a one-size-fits-all pick. Quick ID if you're new to the species: white mouth; fine spots on back and whole tail; chrome with a pink cheek/stripe. The recommendation below (built around a 16mm bead) is the starting point — every Steelhead trip still rewards experimenting once you're on fish. Water conditions shift day to day and even hour to hour, so treat this as a confident starting point, not a fixed rule. This page covers steelhead specifically in this water condition — use the interactive Bead Match tool linked below to compare all four conditions side by side, or to switch species entirely.