ee SKEENA ANGLER’ ROB BROWN Typical winter day he cold, snappish winter makes us discontent. Most of the time we cruise the roads in Webb’s truck imagining what the land will be like with the ice gone, On the first Saturday in January things are get- ting colder after a freakish warm spell that brought so much rain to the valley the Skcena swelled and threatened to over run its banks. But before the river could rampage, colder temperatures took hold freezing the river in fload. It’s the first time we've seen it this way, perhaps the first time anyone has. The reformed ice has fishers back on the lake with augers and bait. We make a trip out and talk to a man in a red survival suit, There is a stiff trout, a frozen half moon, eighteen inches long lying on the ice near him. The fisher’s line is yellow, ten pound test he tells us, but even that has been snapped twice by some leviathan swimming under the frozen crust. The mystery fish is no mystery to us. Jt has to be an over wintering steclhead. The man’s line is rotten, we conclude, Even a large summer steelhead, full of power and mad as hell, does nat easily break ten pound test nylon, We slip and slide back to the truck, stopping to watch 4 flock of forty-five trumpeter swans fly high overhead. I tell Webb about the time Mike and I counted no less than 50 swans on a day carly in December, maybe 10 years ago, when we jetted up the Gitnadoix on a day flood waters had the beavers perched on top of their lodges and soggy, disgrunitcd cagles perched in the cotton- woods wings outsiretched. Forty-five in one flock is a personal high, though. After coffee at the Fish Tales Tackle Shop, where we watch a Welshman named John Evans whip hundred foot casts across a beat of the Spey River, we go looking for a place to put our new Sherpa Snow shoes through their paces. We find one at Brecchia Creek, The new improved Sherpa has a sharp-toothed heel on the back and is fully adjustable for racing, the manufacturer’s booklet tells us. Racing is not an issue, traction is, The heel proves to be a dandy improvement on earlier models, With it we walk down and up icy hills like flies on a wall. Webb decides our objective should be to reach the crest of a high hill and admire the view. We climb. A large swamp spreads below us, We look for moose, but see none. We continue until our plan is (hwarted by the sight of a newly fal- len avalanche that has only a short time ago burst through a narrow valley. Distant persistent rumblings issuing from the granite gash con- vince us we should not cross the toe of the slide. We wend our way down the mountain, shed the shoes, and climb back in the truck, Before we've gone very far Webb spots a coyote sland- ing on the train (racks that run beside the high- way. The creature bolts. I notice a tree filled with eagles. ‘‘There must be a kill,’ says Webb. In moments we are out of the truck, heading toward the spot where the coyote stood. The story unfolds as we advance. The frozen, deep tracks of a large moose show where the animal crossed Hwy16. We pick them up on the other side, then follow them along the right-of- way. We are almost upon the eagles before they push off leaving branches bouncing behind them. A few paces from the eagles’ roost we find a gut pile lying under a spruce like a giant cow pie wrapped in intestine, Leading to the spot is the track of a snow machine, We follow that trail to the spot where the gunner wheeled his pickup onto the shoulder. Webb, who likes to hunt moose and has had his scason reduced to one weekend a ycar due to lack of game, or lack of adequate policing, or both, is furious. ‘It’s not right,’ he says. And, no matter how we Took at it, it isn’t. If the shooter was white, he was poaching; if, the gunner was red he was shooting too close to roadway and railway, a practice both dangerous’ and illegal. Did the hunter need the game for sustenance? Not unless the payments on all his machinery — guns, pickup, and snow machine — required putting some meat in the larder, or selling some moose flesh, which is also illegal. The whole episode is particularly offensive to Webb and me since we subscribe to a sporting ethic whose self-regulatory tenets forbid the whacking of animals that are slowed by high snow and have little to hide behind in Spartan winter landscapes. More importantly, though, is the issue of in- discriminate shooting during the closed season whett skiers, hikers, snow, shocrs and fishers are using the woods not expecting to nicet gunfire. I'll take this up next week, THE CALEDONIA senior girls basketball team continues to dominate on the courts, and have won their second tournament in as many trics, The girls were in Prince George February 2 and 3 for the Prince George Secondary Polarettes Classic. In their first game, they beat Ron Pettigrew of Dawson Creek by 18 points, and in game two they downed Nechako Valley of Vanderhoof by 23 points. This was good enough to ad- vance the team to the finals against Prince George, who are currently ranked 15th in the triple A standings. And Cal managed to edge them out 64-57, “This was the only ranked team we'd play this year,’” explains coach Scott Stewart. “And the win could effect how we're ranked in the provincials.”’ Caledonia is up against Charles Hays of Prince Rupert in a week and a half and Stewart says they have to win two of their three games to advance to the provin- cials. “T’m really pleased with the way they played,’ he says. “Because I put quite a bit of pressure on them,”’ Linnae Bee, Becky Heenan and Felecia Arbuh were selected tournament all-stars, and Julie Gillanders made here mark on the final game, netting 18 points. kkk kk THE CALEDONIA senior boys basketball team ran into some tough competition at the Ab- botsford Snowball tournament February 1-3. Cal lost their first game to the number five ranked Terry Fox from Coquitlim by a score of ”" 102-93, Caledonia is not currently ranked in the triple A standings, and coach Cam MacKay said they did an excellent job against such an experienced team, “We're short on height and bulk and we have to rely on shoo- ing rather than inside stuff to get points.’” Terry Fox went on beat Abby Christian and Abby Senior by 22 and 40 points respectively. Abby Christian is ranked 10th, while Abby Senior comes in at 15th. Guard Joseph Dominguez was the team’s high-scorer with 34 points, Brian Demedciros came SAY IT ISN’T SO rear me The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 14, 1996 - B? & eer aa ofr Se TWO-POINTERI Caledonia Senior girls point guard Linnae Bee lines up a shot during prac- tice. Bee leads the team in scoring and is being recruited by colleges and universities in both B.C, and Alberta. The girls have won their last two tournaments, and have now have their sites set on qualifying for the provincials. AEP res away with 20, and Kelly Hidbert shot for 15, In their second game Caledonia beat McNair of Richmond 88-85, MacKay said Cal had led in every quarter but the fourth, when they went down by ten points, but ended up pulling it out of the bag in the last 20 second, Hidbert came away with 21 points, Dominguez 19, and David Kelly 15. And the last game, the guys fell to Kelowna, 95-85, MacKay says he’ very happy with the team’s performance. Dominguez was selected first team all-star. Kkkak THE SKEENA grade eight boys baskelball team walked away wilh a first place finish at a Kitimat tournament February 2 and 3, The Wildcats downed the host team 62-38 in the opening game. Matt Webster led the team with 16 points and 22 rebounds. In game two Skeena morc than doubled Charles Hays of Prince Rupert 63-30, and in the final our guys downed the Prince Rupert Rainmakers 56-48, “This gives us a three and one record against the Rainmakers,’’ says coach Scott Armstrong. ‘We are in good shape going into the Jast three weeks of the season,”’ They’re not wort SURELY YOU can do better than this! It’s hard to believe there are no fine coaches in our town worthy of your nomination to the second annual Terrace Standard/Skeena Mall Coach of the Year Contest. Well, judging from the num- ber of entries we’ve received so far, it seems like that’s ex- acily what you’re trying to tell us, and do you know what? We don’t buy it! Not for a minute! Our Coach of the Year bas- ket in-basket is empty, not a single form has been returned, and all the many deserving coaches in Terrace are now questioning their worth. Don’t let them down! Don’t let us down! To nominate your favorite coach, all you have te do is tear out the nomination form found on page B9, fill it out and drop it off at the Terrace Standard office or maii it to 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace B.C, V8G 5R2 or fax us at 638-8432, Last year we received 16 nominations - let’s see if we can better than that this year. Three judges have been fined up to evaluate what we’re sure will be an impressive number of candidates once all the forms are turned in. When you’re considcring who to nominate, think about some of the following qualities: @ Respect for officials, op- ponents and parents @ Showing the ability to im- prove players both on an individ- ual and team level @ Sctling an around good ex- ample of positive coaching, Our three judges arc Skeena Mall manager Lynda Lafleur, Shawn Krienke with the city’s Parks and Recreation department and school trustee Laurie Mitchell. And they tell us they’re becom- ing lonely, wondering when their work will start. We've promised them they’ll be flooded with applications soon, and we know you won't dis- appoint us! The deadline for nominations is March 1, and we expect to honour one winning coach and two runners up, sometime in mid- March. Local wrestlers finish sirong TERRACE HIGH school wrestlers made a very strong showing at the Northwest Zone School Championships at Kitwanga on February 3, The Skeena girls placed second overall, while the boys came in fourth in the six team tournament. Tanya Middleton, Jamie Striker, Tracy Ridler and Brent Trombley all placed first in their weight classes, ~ Pamela Haugland, Aaron Ferguson and Francis Genereaux, came away With second place finishes, while Candle Russell and Brent Stok- keland placed third in their classes, ; Coach Dave O'Brien said the boys did very well, considering most are wrestling in their first year, “The number of wrest- lers is good, and enthuslasm for next year is high,’? — Four girls; Middleton, Striker, Ridler and Haugland, will be travell- ing to the Proyincial High School Championships in Abbotsford February 22- 24. O'Brien says he expects them to face tough com- petition from Abbotsford, Maple Ridge and Port Al- berni teams. Closer to home, he says Hazelton and Smithers will likely put in very strong showings. mye