Everything Else in Deboullie (PT. 2)

Ever wonder what a hailstorm is like in the mountains? Ever wonder what one sounds like? I'd heard hail roar from a long tracked hail and tornado producing supercell thunderstorm way back in 2009. But even that monster didn't prepare me for what a smaller storm in a big, echo making, anthropogenic noise free landscape would be like.

On our last day in the Deboullie area, Noah and I left our little base camp area to fish some new areas. I knew Togue Pond and the surrounding bodies of water had species neither of us had caught. Though lake trout would have been the ideal catch, the weather wasn't good for being out on the open water trying to vertical jig lakers. In the swampy, shallow ponds nearby though there were supposedly threespine stickleback and fathead minnows. I was particularly pumped to try to get a stickleback.

I found one loner almost right away, but I struggled to both get past the northern redbelly dace and to get that stupid little stickleback to eat. It wasn't working. After finding a couple more very finicky targets and almost intentionally dooming my super fine tenago lead on a tailing bullhead in inches of water, I happened into a fathead minnow. It was a female, pretty typical looking, but very cool to get a fourth lifer from this area.

Lifelist fish #138, fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas. Rank: species

As I photographed that fish, thunder echoed off the mountain behind me. A couple small thundershowers had rolled through and put a brief pause on things, but with a quick look, this one looked mean. Not only did it look like dangerous storm, it sounded like one. Not just thunder... from miles out I could hear the sound of heavy precipitation pummeling trees. I walked down to the lake to get a better look.

The roaring, waterfall like sound got louder and louder, and in a short time....

That wasn't a massive storm, really. It didn't even impact our camp just over the ridge. But it was mean. Not all that much in the way of wind, but violent bright positive CG strikes, torrential rain, and pea sized hail all made it feel bigger than it was. In a short time, it was gone.

And I was back to the futile exercise that was trying to get a nesting threespine stickleback to eat a tiny little fly. Unfortunately, the photo below is all I've got to show for it.

My bitter consolation was a much more distinctly colored fathead of the male persuasion. The males go through a crazy transformation to spawn, like many fish do.

Noah got his lifer a short time later, and it was even more crazy looking than mine!

I set out on my own to check out another pond. It didn't really have what I was looking for, but it sure was a pretty hike. Actually, I could have caught at least another dozen fatheads in there. Every boulder had at least one male guarding a nest. I just didn't feel like messing with them any more. I wanted a stickleback. But I wasn't getting a stickleback.

The last long sunset at our camp in Deboullie was beautiful, but it was bittersweet. There are a number of things I'd wanted to accomplish, and it had been a testing experience. We hadn't even gotten to see a good, clear night sky. It clouded over every night. We didn't catch a laker. We didn't find any longnose sucker.
But I had caught a blueback. There was no way I could complain about anything after that moment.
I wouldn't trade experiences like this for anything. Rare trout. Big scenery. Loons singing every morning and evening. Hailstorms. Cool new cyprinid species. Bear tracks in the mud.
At those times, I'm the richest man in the world.

Until next time.
Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live.
Fish for you.



 If you enjoy what I'm doing here, please share and comment. It is increasingly difficult to maintain this blog under dwindling readership. What best keeps me going so is knowing that I am engaging people and getting them interested in different aspects of fly fishing, the natural world, and art. Follow, like on Facebook, share wherever, comment wherever. Also, consider supporting me on Patreon (link at the top of the bar to the right of your screen, on web version). Every little bit is appreciated! Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, and Christopher, for supporting this blog.