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- SKEENA ANGLER -
ROB BROWN

The best of times

ACH YEAR there is a shert,
elusive period that sometimes falls
entirely in August, sometimes in
mid September, but usually
straddles both months, It’s a time with the best
atiributes of two seasons: leaves start to tum,
the sun no longer bums, the wind is an air con-
ditioner, not an irritant. A time when ravens
mingle with eagies and sea birds, @ special sea-
son when the tracks of bears litter the stream
banks, when cutthroat are leaving the big rivers
for the smaller streams, and pink salmon are
Starting to melt into cracks between the rocks.
- ‘The mist that sprawls over the valley bottoms
each morning is another facet of the seasonal in-
terregnum; on August 6th the floor of the
Skeena Valley was covered with it, I rode over
the Kalum Bridge, listening to Joe Pass and his
quintet stitch together three piece suits from
' material woven by Ellington and Mercer. Out-
~ side mountains appeared and disappeared,

Every creek was sure to be full of salmon and,
trout. ] had my six-weight trout rad, a floating
line, lots of clever impressions of single salmon
eggs and the kind of thoroughbred confidence
bred of past successes, Yet, just when I thought
I'd made all the right bets, no horse would run,

_ The salmon were everywhere, but cast after cast
* into the riffles yielded nothing.
The Skeena was only a short walk, so I went
there. Two fly fishermen were working the best
,- fife. I glassed them from the top of a log jam:
;»,Marshall Perrin and Ed Chapplow. Two accom-
| plished anglers, ta be sure. Save for the oc-
‘Veasional pink salmon they didn't seem to be

SE |

having. much success:- Sill this; Was dhe Skeena ==

where fishermen fish over moving fish. Just be-
cause there are no fish in a riffle one minute
' doesn’t mean there won't be the next,

I put up a Road Kill Streamer, a crafty lure
shown me by Lower Mainland angler, Jim
Webb, and started in. The small rod laboured
bebind the long, wind-resistant fly. First a
ragged humpback came to it, then, a steelhead
parr. No char and no trout moved for the Road-
_ Kil: until I'd fished a hundred = yards
downstream, where a large silver fish boiled up

. out of the riffle and inhaled it. I lifted the rod
"setting off a hefty splash. The pole dipped then
straightened. As if to show its displeasure at
being stung, ithe fish leapt free of the water once
more then disappeared,

Its silvered sides and the way it came to the

fly said the fish was a steclhead, ] stripped the

fly in close. It was still there doing a hula in the

current. T sent it out on another mission and
continued working down stream. When I was
almost out of the riffle another fish rose up in a
manner very similar to the first. Again there was
a flash of silver and a big boil. Once again I was
left holding limp line. I brought the fly along-

‘ side once mare, took into my hand this time and
gave it a close inspection. Unlike every other fly

_ know, the Road Kill has a trailing hook. It was
-gone, Clearly, the knot connecting the hook had
come unstuck, I'd left it in the first fish, leaving
me nothing with which to hook the second,

One doesn’t often get a crack at two steelhead
in the mainstem Skeena with a fly. I tumed to

‘Laurie Parr, who had slipped in behind me and
by now worked his way down to where I was
-standing, and explained what had happened. He

~, sympathized, “Tomorrow,” I said, ‘I’m com-
_ ing back with the fourteen foot rod, some well
‘tied Road Kills and chest waders,”

The morning next day was as evanescent as
the first, The backiil mist glowed white, tike
gauze, Through it I heard the sound of an

. engine then made out the silhouette of a boat.
~The skipper turned on two rows of running
- lights decorating the bow, as if he wanted to
-°show me they were there. .

As it turned out, he was doing a creel census.

* When I mentioned that I’d hooked two fish. the
aed before, he looked interested then asked me
what I was using, Black flies under the surface,

-I replied, ‘which: was sound, honest, if not

“specific, advice, After he left I fished hard
“through the same beat without so much as a

~ sniff, The mist evaporated.
Far out, on the end of a ninety foot cast I
could sce the streamer wiggling under the

presets: te

SPEED, AGILITY and precision c cutting: Brad Laughlin showed all three in n winning.

TERRACE STANDARD |

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 13, 1995 - B7

the Obstacle Pole Bucking, Canadian Championship event at the Loggers Sports.

Sports set to keep c on growing

WHILE describing this year’s
Loggers Sports as a “‘total
success’’, Ray Tremblay says
the Downtown Lions are plan-
ning changes they hope will
make the event still bigger.

In particular, the organizing

group would like to see more
locals taking part.
'“'We have a lot of loggers
here,”’ Tremblay pointed out,
“but we don’t get enough of
them entering.’””

The reason for that, he sug-
gested, was for a number of
years there was a pattern of
high calibre out-of-town com-
petitors coming in and taking
all the money. That left local
loggers wondering, ‘‘What’s
the point???

The consequence has been
an entry for the Terrace sports

Sign up Saturday [

THERE’S going to be a wide choice of winter sports to choose

from at this year’s Clubs’ Day,

The annual registration event takes place at the Skeena Mall

that’s half the size of
Smithers’ — which isn’t even

a Canlog sanctioned event.

So, in an effort to change
things, the Lions will next
year introduce more events
where entry is restricted to lo-
cal loggers: only — there’s
only one at the moment.

However, Tremblay empha-
sized out-of-towners will still
be as welcome as ever, “It’s
great to have those: ‘competi-
tors here.’”

The addition of more

restricted-entry events is only .

one of the changes being made
to widen the appeal of an al-
_Teady popular day.

Added to the line-up this
year were -an Intermediate
class, a stepping stone be-
tween Novice and Open, and
the Jill and Jill Crosscut.

this Saturday and runs from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m,

were hidden’ -nail
prizes plus a free Pop. fo all:

George Jackson and Leigh
Black also put on a demonstra-
tion of the springbcard chop,
an event which will be added
to next year’s list.

Another change this year.

was the introduction of kid’s

nail driving and foot races,
_ Getting the younger mem- |
bers of the audience directly
‘ involved is important, Trem-

blay said. “We want to make

it more of a family event,’’ he
_ explained.

And those who took part in
the inaugral children’s events
found out, getting a: prize
didn’t depend on where: you
finished in the. event. ‘Every-
one of the racers took away.a
small cash prize..and there

participants, .

Penner taking third there,

_Witzke of Denmark went,onescant ais
‘bélter than last year in-the*Un- >? ney

Board on page Bd.

‘pate, you're a winner.’”

‘out now so the kids can start’
Downtown Lions put in-a lot

tribute to the efforis of local:
logging | industry’ volunteers”

driving

~added.

_NALCOLM BAXTER 5367283 |

AXE, SAW or choker: it was
all the same to Brad Laughlin -
as the Lake Cowichan raider
cruised to his second consecu-.
tive Loggers Sports title, . .

Laughlin took top spot in six
of the Open class events. The
victories included the Obstacle
Pole Bucking, designated: by
Canlog as the Canadian —
Championship event at ‘this
year's sports, where he nar- .
rowly edged out Terrace’s
Gerry Lambert...

Laughlin opened - his.
campaign with a win in the
Axe Throwing, repeated his
"O4 first place finish in the
Chokerman’s Race, | then
added the Single Hand Buck-
ing, Open Bucking and Pole
Falling events,

Topping the points tally in ~
the Novice division was Roger
Briscoe of Burnaby who won |
the Power Saw Bucking for
stock saws and Obstacle Pole
Bucking. .

Gerry 1 Lambert scored alocal
victory in the Novice
Chokerman’s Race.

He was also in the money in
the locals only Power Saw
Bucking but had: to’ setile for
third behind father Andy with
Vic Devost splitting the pair.
Richard Lindstrom. of Kitimat
took fourth.

Noela Devost gave the home
crowd something to cheer
about when she beat out Crys-
tal Johnson of Sayward inthe
Ladies Nail Driving, Diana. -

"Int other Open results, Jesper ~' >".

we

dethand Log, then teamed
with Leigh Black to out cut. i
all-comers in the Double Hand |.
Bucking. Previous champion
George Jackson of. ‘the:
Hazeltons picked up his ‘lone
win when he successfully de- -
fended his log burling title... :.
For. full results, see the: Score :

That was intended to send a:
message that the important
‘thing was ‘‘the spirit of com-_
peting, not whether you win or *
lose,’’ he said. “If you partici- |...

Youngsters aged 11 and. 42.0.
years will also get a chance...
next year to compete in a Log- ©
gers type event - a chokerman
race. “I want to get the word

practising,”” Tremblay said.
While Tremblay and fellow’ °

of hours organizing ‘the annual ‘~~
sports spectacle, he paid

like ‘Andy Lambert, Reno Pel-

letier and Vic Devost. : :
“You’ve really got to be.

thankful to those people a naa

have got ‘Youth Soccer

start. -

Playoffs see upsets

UPSETS and ~ nail-biters-

playoffs away to an exciting -

alty kick decider!’ °° .
And that was followed by |
a tough 2-1 defeat at the feet f°

liey

of the Surveyors, ending. the J.
Lions’ second season...
Penalty kicks ‘ weré: also -
needed in the , Under-14:
Boys division opener where
. Terrace» Builders’ upset
league’ champions ‘Brady S|.
FC 3-2... A
“And ‘another “Teague
champion went down in..a-
Shoot-out in the Under-14..[
Girls, Braid: Insurance, fall<”
ing to Rossco Ventures, Te

Among those on hand and ready to sign people up will be rep-.
resentalives of Terrace Mini-Basketball. That program is open to
both boys and girls in grade 5-7, the instructors being members

_ of the Caledonia Kermodes Senior basketball teams, :
Terrace Ringette will also be there offcring boys and girls 5-16
years a chance to return to the sport or try it out for-the first time,
Ringette is introducing a developmental program for newcomers. .

The Blueback swim club will be looking for a strong intake for -

its novice and developmental programs, continuing the trend of.
last- year which helped bring a better across-the-board age

balance to the club, ame

. Also confirmed for the big annual sign-up are the Peaks Gym- .

a ab, club, ‘Terrace ¢ Skating, club. and.Terrace 2 Women’ 8 3 Hockey

- waves, A female herring gull did too. As I
watched dumbfounded, the bird stopped,
_ dropped, and picked up-the fly. I yelled like a
"banshee, hoping fervently that the creature
~ would not get hooked, which, thankfully, it
*. didn’t, Later that fishies morning a palr of male
gulls moved some fifty fect off course.to eye the
fly. Now I was interested to see if one would
take. I thought about removing the hook ‘and
deliberately throwing the Road Kill in front‘of
these harbour hawks in an attempt to bring them
down, then stopped to wonder if this odd, com-
pulsive behaviour is a. result of going a long
time without good fishing or putting a at least one.
good fish on the beach. . oe

— Coming off'a ‘regular Sea-
son that saw them lose only
one game, Centennial Lions
were warm favourites in the
Under-10 division. °..-'.
But hopes ‘of. the: double
were to be dashed «in two.
tight battles. With the score’
tied at five after “fegular
‘time in their first match, the
'. Lions were © outshot’ by
Skeena Sawmills In the Pet