Bé - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 25, 2002 SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN . SKEENA‘ANGLER - ROB BROWN Spare the Rod wo summers ago I purchased an ex- quisitely made seven-weight bamboo rod from Ron Grantham. I’d already bought a six weight cane rod from Ron the summer before that and was therefore familiar with his meticulous workmanship and the supple action of the Garrison taper he'd fol- lowed in the construction of both poles. I’m pretty sure that Ron had built this eight and T but was persuaded to sell it because he needed the money for a a medical treatment on his knee. Rumour has it that I can be hard on rods. After my most recent rod mishap, I cast back over an angling career covering most of my 53 years and I’m willing to concede that the ru- mour is true. There is a long trail of broken rods extending through my childhood. Most of them were made of solid glass fibre that, despite its fragile name, was in fact, the plastic equivalent of steel. Ne- vertheless, my friends and J, imbued with the reckless abandon the accompanies a boy’s in- herent propensity to live for the next moment, instead of the one at hand, managed to break tips and wreck reels. Over time our reel seats were kept intact with electricians’ tape, our tip sections shrunk, and our memory-filled monofi- lament rattled through fewer guides. In my de- fense my chums” rods suffered these injuries with as much frequency as mine. As an adult ] did well for years until I ac- quired a hollow glass fibre rod made by the Fenwick Company when they were still owned and built by USAmericans. One day, after fish- ing the Kitimat, I attempted to disassemble that rod and couldn’t. After hours of twisting and turning, | gave up and drove home with one hand on the wheel. and the other clutching the nine foot rod to the side of the car as I drove highway 37 to Terrace. I ruined that pole trying to get it apart. Later, | bought a highly touted Scott rod that developed a hair line crack near the ferrule. De- spite the careful care Mike Whelpley took try- ing to repair it, the rod shattered in mid cast on the Kispiox’ Middle Patch. To replace the Scott I purchased a Garcia with a metal spigot for a male ferrule. Apparent- ly metal and graphite don’t mix. That rod blew up like a firecracker while I was playing a smallish trout. Shortly thereafter, I bought a J. Kennedy Fisher rod from Bob Melrose in Prince George. | loved it. It was supple, durable, and looked as if it would last forever until | backed the truck over it and Finlay’s Fenwick, after a long day ona little lake catching smail trout. I had numerous rods by this time but the two that were called on the most were my Hardy de- Luxe 5/6, which became my trout rod, and a 14- foot Sage two hander with a flimsy tip, that I used for steelhead. The tip of the Sage took a terrible beating, J closed the canopy of the pickup on it, spent $70 on postage to exercise the Sage lifetime war- ranty, and replaced the tip. A short time later the replacement tip snapped while I was playing a fool long Dolly Varden. 1 leaned on the Sage warranty a second time, and paid the postage again. A few months later, Tim Lepp, who was then an aspiring wildlife documentarist, asked me to do a little demo on casting two-handed rods. | took the ill fated 14 foot Sage and its new tip ta the Kalum. Tim clipped a microphone to my raincoat then slid into the water and taped me casting. “Gee Rob,” he said aflerwards, “It would sure be nice if we could gel some footage of you playing a fish.” I looked at the long icy run below us. “It’s January,” I said. “Catching steelhead on the fly in January is a tall order. But ]’Il give il a go.” I fished down river. A nice fish took at mid run. Tim whooped and proceeded to capture the epic battle on celluloid. Puffed with my own importance, [ managed to ignore the fact that the fish on the end of my line was there more as a result of luck than skill. Conscious of the microphone, I began hald- ing forth on the casts I'd used to put my fly be- fore the fish and how one should fight a steel- head. As the fish wound down, I slid it toward shore. | leaned down. The rod had a big arc, “It is more difficult to land a fish with a two- handed stick. In fact, this is the largest disad- vantage of the long rod,” I lectured. No sooner had the words left my lips when the last six inches of the brand new tip section slid down the line and leader and hit the fish in the nose. To be continued... three-quarter foot seven-weight for his own use, , | TERRACE STANDARD - PORIS Taking charge By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN THEY’ RE a resilient group of teenagers who refuse to let not having a coach keep them off the wrest- ling mal. The Terrace Wrestling Club’s first hit came last year when their teacher sponsor Dave O’Brien stepped down because of escalating job action, With the team’s head coach gone, community coach Lak Jaswal stepped in to see the team through the end of last season. This year, Jaswal’s work and school schedule prevents him from being . 4f ongoing presence at the club so the responsibility of running the group has fallen to the teen-aged wrestlers. They've taken owner- ship of the club and in the process have figured out how to get around the challenge of being coach- less. “Not having a coach is ‘kind of hard,” says Lindy MacRobbie, 15, who has been wrestling for two years. “It’s hard to make my- self try harder if no one else is making me.” That’s where her team-.,. mates come in to play. “A lot more people help,” says Robert Wick- ie, one of the club’s veter- an wrestlers. He and some of the other the more exper- ienced wrestlers, have stepped up to heip run practices, even though it takes time away from their own work-outs. But, he says, it’s work- ing out well. “All the people that come out are really dedi- cated,” Wickie says. It’s a testament to the teens’ commitment to the sport and their desire to stick with it. The club’s membership is a mixed bag of exper- ience levels and consists of both male and female wrestlers. The one common link is they all love hitting the mat. The team has recruited Robert Wickie’s father, Floyd, to supervise their three times a week prac- tises, “We always have to have an adult here, so Rob’s dad comes which is pretty nice,” MacRobbie says, adding his presence is much appreciated. “He gives up two hours a night.” Jaswal says if it weren't for the Wickies the club would likely be in jeopar- dy of folding. “They are helping out a lot they aré one of the main reasons this program is continuing,” he says. Jaswal is impressed with the group’s tenacity. “| am proud of them - it Shows commitment on ,, their part, that they’re-not _ going to quit,” he says. “They are working around this obstacle and just doing the best they can.” One downfall is that the group’s membership has dropped but the wrestlers who remain are deter- mined to continue and get out to tournaments and matches around the region. “Trips and real matches 638-7283 ADIE Sankey tosses Lindy MacRebbie in a Terrace Wrestling Cub practise session last week. Both girls picked up medals at the Hazelton Warm-up meet Dec. 7. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO > that’s the best part of it,” says MacRobbie. She and seven other wrestlers recently came back from the Dec. 7 Ha- zelton Warm-Up. MacRobbie picked up a bronze medal after losing one match and winning three straight in the 69 kg weight class. Adie Sankey, 16, a Grade 11 student at Cale- Two points THE CALEDONIA boys basketball team cheers after the bail hits the bas- ket in the team’s first game of the annual Kermade Classic Dec, 13-14. They won that game against Kitlmat's Mount Elizabeth Senior Secondary 84-47 and went on to go undefeated claiming top spot at the tourna- ment, Prince Rupert's Charles Hays school came second after being de- feated by the Kermodes 67-53 in the final. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO . but they couldn’t hold on. Smithers tied it Peewee reps take third at Kitimat tournament TERRACE’S River Industries Peewee reps came back from their second tourna- ment of the season with two wins, two ties and a third place finish. The opening game of the Dec. 6-8 tournament in Kitimat saw Terrace take on Smithers. Smithers came on slrong scoring four goals in the first period. Terrace answered back with four of their own in the second 4. frame to tie the game up. The third period saw Terrace up 6-5 tom. up wilh just 2:37 remaining. Alex Redpath led the scoring with a hat trick followed up by Kevin Haworth with two and Taylor Mallett picking up one goal. Assists went to Lee Muir, Alex Redpath, Taylor Mallett and Ryan Hol- Terrace’s second tie came after facing off against Kitimat. Terrace once again had a late third period lead but with 41 seconds left Kitimat scored to tie it up at Goals came from Ryan Holtom with two and one each for Nathan Soucie and Taylor Mallett, Lee Muir, Curtis DeSousa, Taylor Continued Page B7 donia, and four-year veter- an, came home with a gold medal in the 60 kg weight class after compet- ing in just one match. Amanda Comerford, a Grade 9 student, had a solid meet and Wickie says she conlinues to im- prove on her abilities, Grade 9 boys Keith Ro- binson and Basil Morgan placed fourth in their re- : ye oy ees spective weight classes after hard fought matches. For novice wrestlers, James Weget and “Mark Humle, both in Grade 8, the Hazelton meet was their first and Wickie says they both show promise. Wickie says the local crew did an outstanding job of representing their individual schools and Terrace. Where's the snow? etter late than never THE RUMOURS are not true. Last week, the skiing and snowboarding community grapevine was whirring with the rumour that if snow didn’t come to Shames Mountain during the Christmas break, the resort would remain closed for the entire sea- son. But Shames Mountain officials say that’s not the case, “We definitely are aware the rumour has been floa- ting around,” said Shames administration manager Susan Farwig, “That is totally untrue — we will open when we can, with two days notice to prepare the mountain.” The rumour was based on the assumption that if it doesn’t snow soon, Shames would lose so much money over the Christmas break it wouldn’t apen for the season at all. Not so, says Farwig. “We can’t discount that the Christmas holidays are important to us financially,” Farwig said. “It represents a- healthy portion of our revenue.” But that revenue is not so key that the resort would have to stay closed, she said. Shames is on standby with its groomers and packing machines at the ready. Once a solid base forms - at least one metre al the bottom of the hill near the chalet — the mountain just needs two days to prepare and groom the runs before cranking up the chair lift and getting people up the hill. As of Dec. 18, Sharhes had 10 cm of snow al the cha- let and more than one metre at the top of the T-bar, The earliest Shames has ever opened was Nov. 24 in 1994. Just two years ago, the resort opened its latest ever ~ Dec. 22. Last season's first day of operation was Nov. 30 - the second earliest the resort has opened. Farwig also noted that the show situation here is not out of line with other mountain resorts in British Colum- bia. Kimberley Alpine had a paltry opening Dec. 19 with only a portion of one run open — accounting for less than one per cent of the resort’s ski terrain. That resort was suffering from a lack of snow and was only able to open by using 80 per cent man-made snow. — “We're not delighted with the situation but there isn’t: : Farwig conceded, “Us. | a great deal we can do about it,” people in the ski industry are very optimistic people in: the first place - we Just keep praying for snow.”- :