The North Shore had a big rain storm move through earlier in the week, so we decided to make one last trip up to see if any new fish had moved in. The Sucker was running low when we arrived and there was a reason for the lack of cars in the parking lot. The fish had come in and went back out earlier in the week and there were very few holdbacks. I would guess there were only 10-15 fish in the whole river, with most of them being crusty. We chased one nice fish in the lower section, but it seems more interest in swimming up and down the river then taking a fly. We decided to explore the upper reaches near Highway 61 and were pleasantly surprised. A male steelhead exploded from the shallows up ahead of me and swam out to the middle of the river. As I prepared to cast to it, I noticed a female sitting right up next to shore where the male had been. I took one cast and it was hooked up. The female was still chrome and had some fight in her. We weren’t sure how we were going to get her in, as we had no net, but the fish bolt for the opposite shore and jumped right up onto it. It was unbelievable, I went over and grabbed her before she could get back into the water. She was 28 inches long and still had some eggs in her. We let her go and that was the only thing we caught all day. Justin had another huge female that took him way down river, but he was unable to get her in.