Apennock, the best time to catch a steelhead is when you are there and your line is in the water. There will be times- first light, last light, midday, sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy- that you know you fished well and absolutely nothing came from it. Then there are those times you fish like crap, bumbling and stumbling through the day, yet still get great numbers (whatever that is for you).
In the first case, be happy that you fished well, and that on another day you would have been handsomely rewarded for your skill. In the second, take the money and run, knowing you were rewarded for just being there, and knowing that it won't always be like that, but for today, it was, because you were there.
Just get out there.