I'm not an expert on reading water but I'm doing a pretty good job of reading water for the summer steelhead. I think your chances increase 1000% when you can see the fish. Use polarized glasses except during the early or late hours. Sometimes its hard to see when the sun hits the water at a certain angle during the day. Then it might be better to move to a different hole with shade. It gets easier if you are familiar with a certain stretch of river. Make sure you look at different spots where fish lay and look for fish moving up into a new hole. Usually they lay in the tailout before the sun gets on the water and then move into the middle of the hole as the sun comes out and then into the riffle. I spotted a steelhead Sunday moving in the tailout of a hole. the fish was moving up, back down, and looked real spooky. We tried for it but it was too spooky. My partner moved up to the next hole and got a summer run, in the tailout, while I was wasting my time with this fish. It was unusual that the fish were in the tailout around noon. I moved up to this fast slot early in the afternoon, and caught and released a native that I hooked about halfway into the hole. We moved around to different holes and I spotted another one in the tailout of a hole moving up. Gave up went to a different hole and returned in early evening, told my partner, and he caught one about halfway into the hole. May have been the same fish. Monday morning we fished our favorite spot for a couple of hours with no bites and didn't see anything so we moved on. I went to the same hole we fished the night before and fished the hole and tailout. My son was catching crawdads at the tailout and I was using the tail meat as a change to the eggs. I tried the whitewater above the hole and got a bite and saw a steelhead. I tried again and the trout took the last of my crawdad tails. I switch to eggs and I hooked and landed a little hatchery buck in the whitewater. Kind of unusual to have the fish laying in the riffle pool at 9 AM. Always make sure to look at the rocks laying on the bottom of the river, the summer steelhead will lay over rock bottoms and behind or beside boulders. Remember to fish everything, except for frog water. Hit the head of the hole first and then the tailout. Also make sure to cover the whitewater riffles because they can hide there without being seen and they are more agressive in fast water and will hit your bait faster. I like to cast above the riffle, reel in quickly to avoid snagging, let my bait drop over the break wait a few seconds and then reel in fast again to avoid snags. It sure is fun hooking a summer steelhead in the fastwater because they fight real hard, then you hold them in the hole and they seem to tire faster. I find it tougher to read water for winter steelhead. I think they tend to stick closer to slower water especially when the water is high and they are not as agressive biters because of the cold. The summer steelheading should improve with the next big rain of the fall and there will be more salmon also.