w\ Tecent article in the Van- "‘couver Sun spoke of the plight ~ OF sole in that city’s harbour, It reminded me of the summer ‘days in-the late fifties when my. * boyhood chums and I made ex- ae “epeditions to. Burrard Inlet in search of those flapjack-shaped . fish, © Atmed with solid rods, : ~-tempermental bait-casting réels, ~ and tin boxes of Mustad hooks; _ we made our way down the trail ‘used: centuries earlier by the : ferocious tribe of Indians which ‘tan riot. in our imaginations, Whooping and hollering, and Stopping at intervals to dig. for _ alow heads, we passed the - nondescript cement buildings “we were. sure had not so long ago been filled to overflowing - with ‘dynamite, We crossed the train tracks near the sign forbidding us to do so then waited until the long . freights that bent along the hills ‘sloping to the sea, roared by and flattened the pennies we placed upon the rails. The shanties of the squatters, perched safely above high tide upon. mussel-covered:_ pilings, followed the shore to the second narrows. The mien who lived in- them —— dope smugglers, pirates . and fugitives all — for the most part stayed behind their tar paper covered wails. Sometimes we glimpsed a ~ face in a window or a figure sit- ting on a distant porch looking over the kelp beds to a tanker gliding toward.the ocean, Only a few times did we see one of ihe inhebitants ‘emerge from his shack to cross the rails and disappear into the bush on some mysterious errand. Seaworms were the preferred bait, and finding them was an enjoyable counterpoint to the fishing. We'd roll over a bar- nacle covered bouider sending - at othing left but ‘dus The. Skeena crowds of small crabs rattling off for safety and sometimes triggering a prodigious spurt of salty water from an. alarmed clam. When we did | uncover our quarry, we'd snatch it up, ever- mindful of its retractable pincers, and. stick. its. writing body into a ‘pop bottle to await the hook. Te. Our fishing was, “done ex- clusively from. piers, the best one a two-tiered structure whese lower level provided cover from the rain. The water below -us had levels too: in the highest pile perch, seas bass, - and shiners grazed upon the pil- ings; & few Feet further down we » found tommy cod; on the bot- tom — the sandy land of the sole — we found bullheads, | prickly rock cod, and Jater,’- when we learned how to fi ish: them,, shark, We attached : a sinker, impal- . eda worm, lowered it over the side, and watched it disappear, -wriggling, between the conical shafts of green light. A thump telegraphed up the line meant we had reached bottom. Two cranks of the winch and we waited. It was a simple and deadly technique. The fish were. abundant then, and we caught a lot. The more Terrace Standard, Wednesday, Febrauary 28 1990 — Page 85 savory species were destined for ». the sack and, ultimately, the pot, while the bullheads were -hacked to bits and lashed to a: tireless bicycle wheel which was then lowered over the side ta fish for crabs. We were mer- - elless and cruel — too young to _be thinking about mortality and not old enough to have much ‘sensitivity for the Lower orders; _ After a suitable interval the wheel was brought topside with ‘two pairs of hands hauling rope for ‘maximum speed. Crabs spilled over the side, but the catch was almost always good. As the crabs scrambled . sideways in. all directions, we gave chase, snatching up and checking their undersides before keeping the males which went into the bag with the rest of our captives. They were vibrant days and it was good to grow up in them. The human propulation of the ‘under the weight “memories earth has ‘doubled since then and ecosystems are groaning. of its demands. So it is with Burrard: Inlet. I returned a few years Yeo: and turned over some rocks for’. old time’s sake. Their was no. crabrattle, not one worm, just’: oily ~sand.. On the pier. at Belcarra an ‘olive-skinned man. pulled in a¢rab.trap. As I wat-: ched,’a solitary,’ undersized crab” . fell from the mesh; “Careful or. he'll ‘take off. your arm, *T said, trying to be’ funny, He fixed me with ‘his: dark eyes and straightened. up: against a backdrop of: oil: refineries across the water -'at- Port Moody. “It’s those Chinamen,” ‘hie. said in a thick accent,’? They.. ‘come here and take too many small crab with their nets. That's why crabs no good no more,”? _SPORTS NEWS, ‘JEFF NAGEL 638-7283 TERRACE STANDARD -SPORTSCOPE- Quebec vs. Terrace TERRACE — It's going to be an east-west confronta- tion tonight at the arena. The Inland Kenworth ban- tam reps take to the ice to face a bantam team from Quebec at 7:45 p.m. The Quebec team is in the nor- thwest on an exchange with a team from Smithers. The local bantam reps will use the game tonight to con- tinue their preparation for the B.C. provincials in “Aldergrove Mar. 18-20. ‘Tall order for Cal Caledonia’s Kermode boys senior basketball team face the Prince Rupert Rainbirds in the ‘AAA’: best-of-three zone finals this weekend. _ The 'Birds are ranked well ahead of the Kermodes pro- vincially, and principal Tom Hamakawa says an upset vic- tory to.take the zone will be a tall order for the Kermode boys to fill. The senior girls basketball team‘also took on their tough Prince Rupert counterparts this past weekend. Cal*s badminton team is expected to have a better chance. Last year’s team finished near the top, and this year's players are fired up and ready to do it again, Hamakawa said. Playoff time It’s almost playoff time for the Terrace men's recrea- tional hockey league. The Skeena Hotel team — which has clinched first place — will take on the fourth- place North Coast Wranglers in one of the two semifinal series set to start March ?1. The other best-of-three semifinal will see number- two Norm's Auto Refinishing face Inn of the West. Semifinal winners will meet in a best-of-three final. teams will play a best-of-five series to pick the league's aldtimer champions. Won't bid for games City council has rejected an invitation to make a bid to' host the B.C. Seniors Games ‘in 1992. ; Aldermen said the city ‘might bid for the. games sometime down the road, but 1992 would be too soon after ‘the 1991' B.C. Northern ‘Winter Games that’ Terrace “will host’ next winter. © ’ The league's two oldtimer | € A QUICK wrist-shot puts the puck past a Kitimat defenceman, and the Terrace forwards surge In for the kill. The Terrace bantams overpowered their Kitimat rivals In two straight games on the weekend to capture the intercity championship. They started out wilh a 10-6 victory over Kitimat on Friday and then put the icing on the cake with 9-3 walkover Saturday afternoon. Link Baker led the Terrace charge with seven points In the final game, followed by Chris Wilkinson with six. Terrace's tally could have baen aven higher had it not been for some spectacular glove saves in the third period by Kitimat goalie Tomi Nieminen. Terrace's midgets doubled Kitinnat 4-2 Friday night to take the lead in their final series. Hendry hits yet another high TERRACE — Michelle Hen- dry was named co-district player-of-the-week again jn university basketball actlon last week, - The former Terrace played - ’ In the Slmon Fraser University * Clan's last regular season game | last Tuesday despite having the flu, and scored 37 points. -. “She just keeps on shining,’ ’ SFU athletics spokesman Doug Griffing sald, The 37-point effort wasn't far short of the stunning ’ 42-point total she racked up. ‘earlier this month to set a Tor single-game seoriag record lor EA o athleteoftie year, ihe Cian. ao sl "The final-regular-season vic- tory gave the Clan a 17-2 record to secure second place overall, and bypass the first round of the playoffs. The Clan enters the playoffs this week. = Hendry continues to lead the league fn scoring (averaging , 22,63 points per-game) and field goal percentage (62.09). * Last year she led the Clan to ' a second-place finish in NAIA action, set new team scoring records, was named district ‘MVP, district player-of-the- ~. year, district '88-"89 scoring leader, and SFU. female Michelte Hendry TERRACE — Northwest com- petitors travelled a long way to get to this year’s B.C, Winter ’ Games, but the trip was worth it. They experienced provincial level competition and brought back medals for several dif- ferent events. Members of the Terrace- Kitimat chito-ryu karate club captured several -medals in , karate, In the kumite event — . sparring - —, Terrace's Kip Par- .sons earned a silver'in the 15- ‘|. and 16-year-old age group. And in the 13-14 category, Darcy . McKeown also won a silver. In the kata event, Deb Casey (13-14) won the bronze and Lung Liu (15-16) took the silver, Badminton action saw the zone’s junior team place fifth overall], And the zone curling team beat Richmond in their first Medalists return from Games match, but lost their next two to end up out of the medals. In ringette the zone team, comprised mainly of girls from Terrace and Vanderhoof also ended up out of the medals on a 1-2 record, They lost 9-7 to Cranbrook, and 6-1 to Prince George before defeating Van- couver Island 7-2, The Terrace girls go back to the Okanagan this weekend for the provincial ‘C’ ringette finals, which start on Friday in Osoyoos. te In figure skating competition, Terrace’s Shelley Lefebvre plac- ed seventh overall, and Jessica Lambright placed eighth. Heather Albright — a local gymnast in tyro classification — placed sixth overall i in aggregate scoring. Several local swimmers earn- ed medals in the. masters' events, with Joe Mandur leading the pack. He won four golds, a silver and a bronze, Boxer wins gold on 14-second TKO TERRACE Fourteen seconds was all one Vancouver boxer saw of the ring before be- ing dropped to the canvas by the lightning glove of Terrace’s Joey Losier. The first-round technical knock-out earned the 110-Ib local boxer the gold medal in the junior ‘B’ division at the _ B.C. Winter Games in Pentic- ton two weekends ago. The unfortunate victim — Kevin McCoy of Vancouver’s Astoria Boxing Club — was nailed by Losier’s uppercut just 14 seconds into the fight. Coach Jeff Dilley said the Terrace boxers noticed members of the Vancouver club leaning too far forward and Losier decided to exploit the weakness with an early upper- cut. “It was perfectly timed and perfectly executed,’’ Dilley con- cluded, ‘‘It was perfect.’’ Another Terrace boxer — Darren Bell — had no competi- tion in his 14-year age category, so he was moved up to junior ‘C’ division to face 1S- and 16-year-old boxers. In his first fight, Bell won a unanimous decision over 16-year-old Vancouver boxer David Schuck. That victory put him into the gold-medat round against the host club's J ake Chappelle, also 16, The match also went to a decision, but this time the judges went against Bell, awar- ding the fight to Chappeile in a 4-1 ruling. “It was close — real- ly close,”?. Dilley commented,’ “He .. put. up : three. fantastic rounds.’"..- Joey Losier Bell ‘settled for the silver medal in the division above his own. The Terrace boxers’ médal- winning performances at the Winter Games qualifies them for competition at the Interna: tional Junior Golden Gloves tournament in Burnaby Mar.. “Continued success ‘at that level of competition could give the local boxers provincial card- ed. ‘status, and” make? “them “potential candidates: for ‘na- tional ‘and international : “coms. pelition sometime in the future, Dilley added. ‘It’s a real big step for a couple: of little, Ter “race boys.”