I know a bit about plastics, (I was a hard-core bass guy for a long time).

The main difference between the worms is this.

Injection molded worms will usually hold up better(like the berkley's) but are not as soft or supple as the hand pours. They will often float.

Hand pours are very soft, supposedly to increase the retention times by fish. But they do not hold up very well.

The other things to keep in mind are this. Plastics, like the ones made by "Zoom" or "Yamamoto" are packed with salt. The salt is actually added to the plastic before it is poured. If you bite a zoom worm in half, you will immediatley tase salt and be able to see salt crystals in the worm itself.

Plastics, like the ones made by "Big poly" aka "seducer" (these are both lines of Griffith Rubber) do not have salt added to the plastic. They are just rolled in salt before packaging. Try the bite test with a seducer worm and you'll see. I don't know about steelhead, but bass seem to hold onto a salt-poured worm twice as long as one w/o salt. Power worms also seem to get better bite retention than non-salted had pours.

Now I just need to start using these things on steelies. What rod should I use, my flipping stick? or do you think my drift rod would be ok

Aaron