Page B4 - - Terrace Slanar, Wedastay, March 7, 1990

“It's s only a small bend in the
river covering an area not much
bigger, than a child’s bedroom.
-There.is.a long log lying across
the bottom of it and a larger one

just downstream, The backdrop

is.alder, then broadleafed devils
-. ¢lub and behind them stands a
grove of old-growth spruce and
‘cedar. The current pushes trout
food into it and, not surprising-
-~ ly, the spot holds cutthroats in
. all. but. the lowest water, and
sometimes even then.
. The. first time 1 fished there
was ‘the wrong time — midday
when the hot sun had chased the

trout.to the bottom of the shady _

depressions lying under the
logs, Only a brash steelhead
“* smolt smashed the fly, fighting
_. out of all proportion to its size
before throwing the hook,

_« Over time, though, I learned
to fish the bend. I learned those
cutts would no longer accept

hallenge ab

minnows in June, and I learned
too that not just any bug would
bring them to the top. Most im-

portantly, I found the evening -

tise of trout coincided neatly
with the frantic upstream
migration of a tan-coloured lit-

tle sedge whose latin-name was’

Cuematopsyche Gracillus.

My imitations of these abun-
dant creatures. went - through
several instars until “an” un-
pretentious approximation
emerged, ‘It was shorn of all
superfiuity. I knew. it would be
good even before it left the vise.
And it was, but only when the
adult sedges were the main
course; when the fish Were after
the mercurial pupae, my sedge
was a leper.

With the help of books on en-
tymology, I licked that problem
too, As it turned ‘out, old
Cuematopsyche Gracillus was
tan when on the wing but dark

BO FR ce Rt mre ay RR ete ag gg eet peg gen cat agin wag tig

‘brawn when in his underwater

or nymphal form. I ralled up
more adults, but on. heavier
hooks and in brown this time,
then trimmed them: so they:

‘might more easily penetrate the

surface.
. While I was crafting the cor-

_ Tect fly, I was also learning the
correct approach. Now J arrive -
at the river an hour after dinner,

leaving the summer days to
frolicking families and
sunseekers, Even then I ignore
the bend, preferring to prospect

alongside logs and in riffles with

@ miniature muddler minnow.
Only when the light begins to
die and ,the sedges are on the
wing, do I wade slowly into,
position.

- Once there, rod under arm,
fly pinched between my thumb
and forefinger; with 20 feet of
line plus nine feet of leader trail-
ing in a downstream are and 10
more feet of double taper coiled
in my left hand, I wait. A flicker

Makes a nervous foray over the

-After-a false cast,

water and grabs an ertant
stonefly. Bats, a whole family
of them, stream .from the
darkness of the forest and begin
hunting.

The rises start, sporadically at
first; then they assume a regular
rhythm, The rings nearest the
log look the most promising.
I shoot the
line toward them. |
The fly alights. I twitch it. It
disappears in a splash. The fish
is a good one; the pull of the

‘current magnifies its size. I’m

forced to work him carefully or

the tippet might give. The pro-

spect of typing another fly in

‘ the half light is not pleasant.

Finally the net is under him. He
is as large as the handle of my
tod. -
I find a few more fine fish in-
cluding a_ particularly nice,
heavily spotted specimen that
makes the little Hardy Perfect

buzz wildly.

The rises continue, but it’s
too dark now, and it‘ will be
even darker on the trail through
the bush past the bears. I've no
flashlight, so I hook the fly to
the keeper and leave, ~~

Not long ago, after a meeting
on fish and. fisheries: in
Smithers, some.: prominent
members. of the north coast

~ sportfishing community’ met in

the pub. The conversation
naturally turned to angling. We
talked of the hard fighting rain-
bows of the Babine and of those
on other inland streams. When I
spoke up for my coastal cut-
throat, a biologist, in one broad

‘anthropomorphic . sweep . pro-

nounces them easy to catch —
gullible. - :

One day, when he tires of the
pursuit of large numbers of big
fish, I hope to introduce him to
the residents of Bat Hollow.

SPORTS NE

JEFF NAGEL 638-7283

WS,

_ TERRACE STANDARD

-SPORTSCOPE-

Ice men
ski, bike

TERRACE — A Terrace
team out-skied and out-biked
the competition Feb, 18 at
Smithers’ Ice Man winter
triathlon,

Mike Christensen clocked
the fastest team biking time
of 41:30 on the mountain
bike course at Hudson Bay
Mountain.

Teammate Tony Falcao
flew across the finish line
with thé fastest overall time
of 8:54 in the super giant
slalom section of the race,
while Smithers skier Carl
Lutz rounded out the team
with a winning time of 22:28
in the cross-country section.

Their combined time was
72:30, good enough to come
out on top of the four teams
competing.

Bowlers
seventh

The zone bowling team
placed seventh overall in the
province at last month’s B.C,
‘Winter Games.

The Feb, 14-17 games were
held in Penticton.

The northwest team in-
cluded Terrace bowlers
Dallas Prevost, Lisa
| Haugland, Linda Larson,
Lorna. Burkett, and Debbie
Lebeau.

18 holes
distant

TERRACE — Any move to
expand the Skeena Valley
| golf club’s nine-hole course
to 18 holes is a long way off,
‘the club’s president said last
week,

‘Jim Holland said a club
members met last month and
gave the executive approval
to check out the idea.
“We've got the go-ahead
from. the membership to go
and look at it,’’ he said.

Ciub officials spoke to the

owner Of the adjoining pro-
perty — which is being con-
sidered for the expansion —
but the price given was out of
reach of the club, he said,
: Holland said the club will
continue looking at the land,
and may eventually call in
professionals to determine if
the property could house the
additional nine holes,

If the property was pur-
chased, landscaping and put-
ting the holes in could cast
more than $1 million.

As far as this season goes,
the club is aiming to have the
course open by April 15, he

Hendry leads SFU to first title

Meet the
Rocket

cracked down on Jean-Guy Talbot -~
bench with a nine-foot long stick. A trué thriller for young and old.

THE MONTREAL OLD PROS were a guaranteed crowd-pleaser at the Ter-
race arena Friday night. From the antics of a black-Stetsoned Eddy Shack to
to the goal-scoring prowess of hackey hero Frank Mahovlich it was a night to
remember. And referee Maurice “Rocket” Richard (above) eventually
who made his presence felt from the

Sharples returns to minors

TERRACE — Jeff Sharples

‘ bounced back down to the

minor leagues last week as
quickly as he was brought up to

back up the Edmonton Oilers °

defensive line.
The Oilers recalled Sharples

from their farm team two weeks
ago after
defenceman Randy Gregg was
‘injured, an Oiler official said.
Sharples would be on hatid to
play if another defenceman was
injured.

Badminton playoffs —

TERRACE — Caledonia’s
senior badminton team is look-
ing strong and tough to beat as
provincial playoffs approach,
The Terrace team knocked
off the competition in every
division they played in at ares

cent play day in Houston, ac- °
cording to. badminton coach

Robert Cooper...
That was two weekends ago,
and this past weekend they were

to face Prince Rupert’ op-.
ponents in another play day...

Now: it's. tinie for the: Teal

Ang

and Saturday at Caledonia,
Thornhill Jr.’ Secondary, and
Skeena Jr. Secondary. "

“Assuming we win the zones,
then we go to the provincial
championships in Kamloops on

~ the 28th,” Cooper said,

: Last year’ 5 team finished s se-

3 cond inthe , _ provincials —
S Caledonia’ s. -strongest finish
ever — and Cooper says that .
“team’s core of powerful players

returned this year. He predicted

- they. will’ make Terrace's senior: i
-‘badminton team a force to. be ae

reckoned ‘vith once again,
“This year I. think: wer
‘top-elaht anyway

os ’ aso et
SRD STR ee ney Wik pore ey

Edmonton .

Ags it-turned out that never
happened.

He travelled with the team to
games in Calgary Feb, 25 and
Los Angeles Feb. 28. But
Sharples did not dress or play in
either game,

He was sent back to Edmon-
ton’s farm team — the Cape
‘Breton Ollers — last Thursday.

A shoulder separation sidelin-
ed the 22-year-old. Terrace

_ defenceman earlier this season

after the Detroit Red Wings sent
-him back down to thé minors, .
' ‘Then Sharples -was. swapped
to Edmonton as part cf a six-
player trade last November.

. That deal brought Jimmy Car-

son home to Detroit, along with
centre Kevin McClelland and a
future draft: pick. Sharples’ was

‘one of four players Edmonton |
including Petr

picked UP, .
Klima.

-Fecalled again if the:Ollers: find

. themselves. short, on defence, eee

ney ro tie tin a gE Ty DO

Sharples: is ‘fully recovered 1
- from:the injury and ‘could be |

Per ae

“Player- of-

TERRACE — Michelle was _

magnificent.

With another 30-point per-
formance, Terrace’s Michelle
Hendry led the Simon Fraser

_ University Clan women’s

basketball team to their first-
ever district championship title
Friday night.

The 68-62 victory over the
Western Washington Vikings —~

; Tanked sixth-in the nation: —

sealed the. best-of-three chain-
pionship for the SFU. The two-
game win was the final touch in
a week that saw Hendry named
player-of-the-year for the se-
cond time in District One of the
National Association of Inter-
collegiate Athletics (NAIA).

It also put the Clanswomen
only one more win away from

‘the NAIA’s U.S. national tour-

nament in Jackson, Tennessee.

The week began with
Hendry’s 21-point game high
that sparked ‘SFU'to take out
Western Washington 72-56 on
their home court in the -first
game of the championship
series, The loss ended the Vik-
ings’ 28-game home floor winn-

ing streak that’s been
unblemished since the 1988
playoffs.

That put the Clan in position

to pull off the biggest coup in .

the Burnaby university's history

the-year’

"Michelle Hendry

and go on in NAIA playoffs,

The next call to action for
Hendry will be tomorrow night,
when the Clan takes on the
District Two champions —
either Pacific University or
Western Oregon State College.

A victory there will put the
team into the 16-team NAIA
national championships in Ten-
nessee, Mar, 12-16, _

Hendry has averaged nearly
23 points per game throughout
the regular season, and recently
scored 42 points to set a mew
SFU single-game scoring
record.

TERRACE — Terrace’s
atom rep hockey team has
pulled off an upset victory to
win the Tri-City Minor
‘Hockey League champion-

the history books. .

They were facing Kitimat
— who haven’t relinquished
the title for several years,

heavily favoured to win this
year, after outpacing Terrace

_ 2-1 in the win column.
’That all changed two
weekends ago when the local
atoms. took on Kitimat and

two straight.
Incredible Terrace defence

’ and ‘goaltending — courtesy
of goalie Jason. Nosek and
defenceman

Kitimat offence, who were

final series,

Atoms upset
Kitimat

Ship and turn a new page in .

The tough team was again.

-won. the best-of-three final.

_ David’
Bretherick: —: frustrated the

‘held “to three goals in the

“The scores .were 5-1. for:
__ Terrace in the first game, and

4-2 in the second game. °.*
Game one’ saw : Terrace: ’
jump out to a 2-0 lead on
goals by Kelsey Hidber and:
David Kozier. Kitimat came
back with their only goal of
‘the hockey game to make it:
close. © :
The: playoff-catibre play
continued until the ~ third:
period — when Terrace’s”
Marcel Page broke the.
_ deadlock with a goal that...
scemed to demoralize "the :.
Kitimat team. That set the
stage for Kozier to. come:
back with two more. ‘goals’
later in the period. and | secure
the victory. :
. Game two was a replay of
the first that lefta quiet -
Kitimat crowd stunned at.
what had happened. Another
defensive contest, the: victory
rested with Nosek ‘and.

‘Bretherick, who kept the: | -

puck out of thie Terrace meth Fe
and Kozier, who helped: put.
iti in tthe Kitimat end :

Bt