Peter Charles wrote

4X isn't the problem, a 6 wt. singole hander is. I land much larger
steelies on 4X but I'm not using a little, wimpy six weight when I
do
it. Those steelies in the photos I posted were landed on the
equivalent of 4X.

Unless one is fighting wind or using weighted flies, I think a good
6wt with backbone is plenty of rod to handle steelhead in the 5-12 lb
range. My regular summer steelhead rod is a 9ft Sage VPS 6wt. Using
8-10 lb tippet, I can quickly bull even hot fish in with it. I recall
being undergunned only once, and I broke the fish off with no qualms.