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SKEENA ANGLER.
ROB BROWN

3 .

Angler’s Spring

don’t remember dates well. Be-
cause my birthday falls on it, I re-
member the official first day of

Spring. ] suppose it’s spring at
some southerly latitudes in the third week in
March, but here it’s still winter. Here it’s spring
when the buds begin to open, which usually
doesn’t happen until late April.

Spring feverish, unable to resist the pull of the
river any longer, I left the house late last Thurs-?
day moming. Pollen lay atop the lawn furniture
and filled the air. Hummingbirds darted around
the feeder. The swamp robins were soloists in:

an avian oratorio. The other distinctive voice in .

the mix belonged to a bird I call the hysterical
thrush. It may not be a thrush at all, ve never

seen one but its song, starting with a gentle trill .

then modulating abruptly into a frantic, up
tempo-like chorus of chirps and squawks, like
the climax of a Charlie Parker sola in some
otherwise mellifluons tune like Lullaby of
Birdland, is unmistakable and bizarre.
Everything seems to happen at once in a north

coast spring, an illusion that owes a lot to the

fact that the season is set against recent
memories of winter, the season of silence and:
stasis. I cruised along between the soft.
shoulders of the Beam Station Road. A dog ap-'
peared ahead —- or, rather what appeared to be a!
dog, but turned out to. be a prowling coyote —|
emerged from the brush, so focused on a hunt
for hares, that he allowed me to get very close’
before springing into the woods once more.

A scrap of snow sheltered from the sun by a
thicket of small trees barred access to the river
to anything but a four-wheeled drive vehicle
with plenty of clearance, so T pulled on the
waders and vest, grabbed rod and staff and set
out for what I knew would be a tiring and hot
trip before it was over.

Two fishers, armed with poles too big for
trout strode on ahead of me, continuing on past
the branch of the trail where I tumed off.

The trail quickly got lost under snow that is
usually gone by this time of year. Further com-
plicating matters were the young trees that were
dent or had fallen under the snow load. Soon |
was sinking into thigh high snow often enough
to work up a beads sweat and plenty of irrita-
tion. Finally, I reached the log Bob Garrett had
‘cut out of the trail the shortly before his untime-
ly death. Minutes later I was sitting before the
river, fiddling with a piece of leader, when I
was startled by voice of a young man who later
-tald me he was from Kitimat.

Here was the first fisherman with an earring
and one of those fashionable hair cuts we called
pig shaves when they were vogue in the late
fifties I’d met on this or any stream. He asked if
I minded whether he stepped in ahead of me. I

didn’t, and J was pleased and impressed that he
asked.
__ As it turned out, angling ethics were not the
only aspect of the sport at which the young man
'was adept. Later in the day, over a sandwich, he
‘showed me an impressive array of neatly turned
out fiies he had pieced together. The dressings
all reflected the current canon as set out in fly
fishing magazines of the ‘‘how-to-fish-good va-
‘riety’’: there were rows of well executed Hare’s
Ear Nymphs with flashy shellbacks pulled over
their thoraxes; there were bead headed caddis
flies, there were two rows of lead armoured
stone fly nymphs.

Looking at this arsenal started me thinking
about how much information on flyfishing is
available in hooks, magazines, videos and the
World Wide Web. Almost all of it is driven by
marketing and merchandising and geared for
growth. There is the constant striving for a bet-
ter reel or a better Oy, better waders and better
rods, but really, nobody has built a better winch
than a Hardy Perfect, and graphite of the highest
modulus doesn’t fish any better than cane,
moreover, it won’t stand up as well and is
downright deficient when it comes to the
pleasure of performance.

The new high powered flies will catch fish,
but not as well as a partridge and olive or some
other appropriate wet fly fished by a skilled
angler. The young man had a graphite rod built
-by Thomas and Thomas. Like most con-
temporary rods it was stiff, making it unsuitable
for everything but overhead casting, which
removes the ability 10 spey casts, the most use-
ful available to an angler.

] thought about such things as I tramped
through the bush then up the trail on the way
back -—— about how those new to fly fishing
would be well served by a renaissance, a rebirth
of thé old ways, a Fisherman’s Spring.

TERRACE STANDARD.

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 30, 1997 - BS

SPORTS.

Golfers tee off new season

Perfect weather lures
fairway fanatics to our
rapidly-growing club

THE GRASS was a luxurious green and the skies a deep
blue last week as golfers at the Skeena Valley Golf Club

teed off for the first time this season

Ecsiatic golfers couldn’t believe their luck to have the
year start wilh warm weather and they hit the fairways

with great joy,

Of course, their swings were a little musty from a long
winter’s hibernation, so spectators were treated to some

fairly spectacular missed shots.

“Don’t tell my wife 1’m here,”’ joked Brad Benson as he
smacked a worm-burner about 10 yards,
Benson’s second shot, however, rang straight and true

down the first fairway.

By next year, Benson and all the other golfers at the club
will be playing on three new holes as work continues on

638-7283

“Once again, a tremendous amount of work
was done by the volunteers. We have a great
bunch of people here.”’ -Bruce Carruthers-

the back nine.

The new holes are now ready for seeding, and workers
are busy finishing work on the new pumping station which

will provide water for irrigation.

“We should be able to seed by midsummer,” says club
“And once again, a
tremendous amount of the work was done by volunteers.
We have a great bunch of people here.”’

Carruthers says once the new holes are ready for play,
the club will start work on the third, fourth and fifth fair-

manager Bruce Carruthers.

ways and greens..

“We're moving the entire third hole up the hill,’’ Car-
ruthers says. ‘‘From the green you should be able to sec

parts of Terrace and up the valley.””

Over the winter crews also worked on the normally-

boggy Pine Forest area of the course.

“We had to do it when there was still frost on the ground
or it would have been way too wet,’’ Carzuthers says,

The Junior Club is ready to start the season too, They
will be holding their first meeting of the year May 4 at the

clubhouse.

Two days later the club will host the first Junior’s day on

May 6 from 3-6:30 p.m..

Swimmers score at Moose Meet

GEORGE WARNER tees off for another season at the Skeena Valley Golf Club,

TERRACE BLUBEBACK swimmers proved
once again they can hold their own against any-
one in the province at the annual Moose Meet in
Prince George two weekends ago.

The swimmers competed with others in the
region as Points North and they swamped the
competition to take first place at the tourna-
ment.

“It’s certainly a boost ta know we can come
to a meet of that size and win quite handily,”
says coach Mike Carlyle. ‘It was lots of fun
too,””

Points North swimmers made up about 80 of
the 330 total athletes.

picked up two medals, even though many of
their fastest swimmers didn’t altend the tourna-
ment

“Tt was just a small group of us,” Carlyle
says, ‘‘But it was a really good opportunity, es-
pecially for the development kids.”

Carlyle points out that these larger meets offer
the Bluebacks a chance to compete against
swimmers from outside the region.

“Ti gave them a bit of an exira push,’’ he says.
“They race against other kids in our region
every month, but they only get to see the Prince
George kids a couple times a year.”’

Two Bluebacks picked up medals at the event.

Petra Robertson, 10, carned a silver for her 38
point tolal, And 11-year-old Thomas Demetzer
also picked up a silver for his 35 points.

Other Bluebacks who fared well included
Jenine Barton, Audrey Erb, Marina Checkley,
Dylan Evans and Seth Downs.

‘William Shack also had an exceptional
meet,’’ Carlyle says. “A litle extra push made
.the difference.”

A number of swimmers made provincial
qualifying times too.

The Bluebacks were in Edmonton over the
weekend, look for results in an upcoming Stan-
dard,

CENTENNIAL Christian was one of
220 schools across the province to
take part in the annual Milk Run last
week,

The run is a three kilometre
fundraiser for charity. And students
this year were eager to beat their 1996
mark of $2,500 — which was more
than any other school in the province.

A few students from the school
wrote in with their own versions of
the event. Here’s what they reported:

kkk kk

On April 23rd, Centennial Chyistian
School did the Milk Run to raise
money for epilepsy and the Sports
Council for the Disabled.

To raise the money, students went
from door to door asking for pledges.
There was also a hockey game on
Monday in the gym, where grades
four through six played the firemen.

Blueback swimmers

Charity run raises big bucks

On Tuesday, grades seven through 10
played basketball against the RCMP
and teachers.

Last year CCS raised $2,500 and
was the top fundraising school in
B.C..

The first girl and boy to cross the
finish line at the Milk Run cach got a
prize. There were three categories,
Grades 4-5, 6-7 and 8-10. In the first
category, the girl was Alyda Nutma
and the boy was Tim Braam. In the
second category, the boy was Kolten
Taekema and the gid was Leah
Kumpolt. The winners in those two
categories won a Milk Run t-shirt.

In the Grade 8-10 category, the prize
was a gift certificate for sporting
goods, The winning boy was Nathan
Freeman and the girl was Pam
Vandevelde, But the very first person
to cross the finish line was the fourth

THE MACARENA? No, that's just CCS principal Frank Voogd helping the 8 stu-
dents stretch before the Milk Run fast week, :

grade teacher, Mr. Buxton,

This year, CCS hopes to be the top
fundraising school again.

Written by: Adriene Bartley, Grade
four.

kk hk

The Milk Run collects money for
those who are sick and have diseases
with lo cure.

Last year CCS raised the most
money out of all the schools in the
province, This year CCS hopes to be
top collectors again.

The grade five class collected the
most money in the school. Our school
collected more than $2,400 this year.

The classes were awarded with
pizza a couple of days after the min.
Thanks to all our sponsors.

Written by: Jeff Hull, Scott Faw-
drey And Annette Rolleman.

teacher — 10:55
First student:

Second '

Milk Run firsts.
First runner finished: Gord Buxton,

Nathan Freeman,
Grade 10 — 11:09

First female: Pamela Vandevelde,
Grade eight — 13:04
female:
Grade six — 13:45

Top fundraisers:
and Justin Stiksma — $328. Megan
Brown — $118.50. »

Leah Kumpolt,

Grant McKenzie