CHRISTIANA WIENS. 'SREENA ANGLE R ROB BROW. | ‘Skeena summers part Ill hite landing a fish the Germans call their guide George, so I do tao, Shortly after we resume our lop- Sided conversation, it becomes ap- parent that George has spent a long time here. - When he first started in on me, I brisiled but as we - talk I start to appreciate George’s frustrations. He . doesn't know about the Byzantine complexities of . fish politics, which includes issues like internation- - al relations and aboriginal rights, but he knows _Suminer coho are almost never caught in the " Skeena sport fishery, and that the fall run stocks ; are robust, Closing coho to the Skeena fishers ; while leaving them open to the high end operations fishing off the northern tip of Haida Gwaii, where . the catch and release mortality may be as high as : 30 per cent, makes no sense to him. More than once I've heard fisheries officers com- ; Plain about finding native nets left unattended, the : fish in them left to rot. George has witnessed that unsavoury phenomenon toa. It really grates an _ him. I tell him. the solution will be found in the ‘ resolution of land claims. He doesn’t think so. The rain is still falling, The river is coming up quickly. I bid gaodbye to the Germans, One of them, Wollgang Edsel tells me in stilted English that he owns a ranch in Baillaroche, Argentina where he fishes the fly for brown trout, rainbows, by the Argentinean equivalent of our fisheries min- istry in much the same way as out provincial fisheries staff view Atlantic salmon. ' The Amazon tributaries are full of wonderful * game fish, fie tells me. The fly fishery for them is new and he is an enthusiastic participant, We swap ‘flies, 1 give him one of my surface flies for steel- head. He gives me a uniquely built streamer with yellow eyes and a rabbit strip for a wing. I climb back to what I now call Lower Saxony. “Any fish?’ ask. | The bearded gentleman, visibly excited, points to ‘the beach where a slab of a salmon lies in a pool _heatly edged with rocks the size of softballs. “Thirly pounds?"’ he ventures excitedly. “More like sixty,'’ I suggest. ‘nodding their heads at each other. I measure the fish for my notes and make my way back to -Shames. Dave is gone. ‘‘Three hours, No fish.’ is written in the sand at the head of the jam. It rains all night, It's cold and the sky close. The next morning Chris Culp and | roar upriver past the Cafe Bars, the two easily accessed strands in the back channel below Gallagher’s Point, then power past the Jog pile below Komabom where a pair of seals have corralled a herd of humpies or sockeye — it’s impossible to tell which — and are feasting on them causing a wet ruckus in the process. Chris , ‘tells me the other surveyors have scen a number of chincok killed and witnessed the release of a few steelhead, the vanguard of this year’s summer run, There is nobody on Shames Island. I make my ‘way upstream again and find George and his ‘clients fisting, They’re disgruntled. The river {s ‘filthy. Every time a fisherman pulls in his line it’s ‘covered in gundge. ‘ The fire George started high up on the beach ear- ‘lier this morning is now half under water. After ‘short time he shepherds the Germans aboard his ‘boat and roars off leaving me in his wake. I ‘whitile, I read until rain makes it impossible to do ‘so. In the distance I can hear the noise of traffic, * Hoping to find a quick route to this spot from the Local teen excels at equestrian and sleclhead. These are all exotics there, viewed | THAT'S PAM GAVAONSKY with Esprit, ¢ an Anglo-Arab horse, on the farm § she trains on in Thornhill. Gaveonsky, Esprit and her own hoarse Bailly are taxing a break until September, when they'll compete in Prince George. events By ALEX HAMILTON PAM GAVRONSKY’S tine: years of horse riding paid off Aug. 7 wheu she wou the basic champion: award al the BC [nterior North Pony Club Championship in Quesnel. Competing ~-against ~ 60 other ~ equestrians, Gavy- rousky, 16, wou both ‘the Basic 2 dressage test aud the Basic 1 test — dressage in- volves riding around the fing in patterns while the horse lengthens * its’ trot, stride and canter. It’s like a dance routine, Gavrousky explained. Esprit, the Anglo-Arab horse she rode during the competition, who is owned by Janet Munsen, is known to excel in dressage compe- lition. “She just kicks in there, ” Gavronsky said of the filly. “Ym more proud of the horse than Lam of myself”? To get to her calibre of riding, it’s taken Gavrousky years of practice. She rides Esprit. and her own six-year-old horse Bail- ly fur about an-hour-and-a- half each six days a week, And it lakes her another hour to clean the stables, tack, and groom the horses. But spending this much lime taking care of the horses isn’t a chore, Gav- ransky said. “T don’t think of Bailly 18 an animal. She’s part of the family.”’ She explained that uo other compelitive sporls is quite like horse riding. Her and the horses must work together as a (cam. “Tes a big thing when you win with horses. You have 638-7283 another mind to deal with as well,”’ Gavrousky, who competes most weekends ‘in the sum- mer, was in: Prince’ George Aug, 14-15 racing Bailly in the cross country even. Gravonsky ‘finished third in the (raining level, the highest level ‘of competition in the northwest. ‘Bailly won the most con- dilioned horse. award, mean- ing she was rated the fittest ofall the horses al.the event. The three-day event fea- lured = as cross-country course, jumping course and dressage tests, “You need a really brave ‘She's talented and dedicated and always has been since she was little,’? — Gavronskys’ coach. horse to do all three eveuls,”” she said. And that's exactly whal Bailly is. “She's bold. She'll jump at whatever I point her at.” Although six-year-old Bailly is. young for a horse it takes two to three years lo get a horse competitive — Gavronsky said the filly has incredible potential, Her coach, Lisa Hamer of Ridgewind Farm, agrees. She added that Grav- ronsky is one of the top jun- ior riders the nerthwesi. “She’s talented and dedi- cated and always has been since she was Hille,’ she said. At this the whole party becomes very excited, Sports Scope Al Evenchick Classic winners TERRACE Cyclist Ernie Hidber took the veteran men’s division of the Skeena River Challenge from Prince Rupert to Terrace Aug. 15. Hidber biked the race in just over four hours and two minutes, beating fellow veteran Brian Keane of Smithers by more that two minutes. Peter Krause, of Smithers, was the events overall winner clocking in a 3:55:51, Bums Lake’s Craig Birk finished the 150-kiJometre trek in 3:59:38 and took second overall. Terrace’s Mike Christiansen took third place with a four-hour, five second cffort, Brandon Smoley, Ray Praught, Vincent Drouin, Dave Cater, Malcolm Fell, Cesario Ciffollili and Chris Walker were Terrace’s other competitors whe clocked in under five hours. Power lifter takes North American title Milhomens adds weight and goes to Worlds THE NEXT time you’re lifting weights al the Lo- cal gym, look around, you might be in the company of a North American Champion. Terrace bodybuilder Emie Milhomens won the North American Power Lifting Championship in Cal- gary Aug. 7, Milhomens fulfilled a life-long goal by lifting more than 600 pounds in the squat and dead lifl ‘highway, | strike out through the woods. I’ve been Ter race speedway competition an . “ ‘here in the winter, River sand has covered the race results ees cnich ‘forest Door. J] emerge from the woods to discover ; Phat means the 198: "the Skeena has carved a channel too wide to cross, TERRACE racers took advantage of clear skies Sun- pound athlete lifted day, Aug. 15 at the Terrace Speedway for fast and rela- tively accident-free races. Gord Klassen, did, however, tangle with (he cement in the A hobby shoot out. Klassen was unharmed and back jn the races after intermission thanks io his pit crew and teammates who furiously replaced damaged and broken car parts, Klassen managed to win the heat and main races Sun- day, while Bob Barnett in car 03 won the shaotout. The B bobby shootout was won by Debby Reinhardt in car 55, while Rauvlic Holman and Elizabeth Cloakey took the heat and main races, Jason King dominated the A strect shootout and heat while Len McArthur in car 351 took the main event. John Algor won all three B streel events, while Yves Thibodeau and Jaret McCabe did the same in the A and B bomber events. ’ Marlanne Munson won the C bomber shootout, Kim Critchley won the C bomber heat and Jannetle Vanden- brock won the main event. Racing, Saturday, Aug. 28 will start at 6 p.m. sharp, because the time tials that day have been eliminated. ‘then reium to the jam and pick up my gear. ’ For the next six hours I watch the Skeena Chan- “nel: river TV. Sticks, fogs and whole trees bob “downstream, Today’s programming highlight is provided by a convocation of cagles who glide from all directions to assemble, crying and ‘squawking, somewhere behind me. I make my way ‘to the top of the logs and look down to see what’s ‘up. A giant chinook bas washed ashore, stressed to ‘death by an angler or a seal perhaps, and the eagles ‘are standing around in pecking order, dining -cafeteria style. : It’s two days before the river is clear enough to ‘fish and three before the foreigners return. One, a ‘former Austrian ski champ with a limp he gat as a ‘result of a skiing mishap, runs his fingers through ‘his gray hair, leans back in his chair, and tells me ‘that while the river was up some of the more than 730 clicuts of the lodge fished the Kitimat for ‘“hondlachs” (the German name for chum), while Others fished the salt water off the Estevans, and ‘others made the tour to Stewart. I tell Hans I’m a more than triple his body weight twice and bench pressed more thant twice his body weight, Milhomens also im- proved tremendously in the last 12 months of competitive lifting, From August 1998 to May, 1999 Milhomens improved his _tatal weight lifted in the three lifis by 77 pounds, Then in four months this summer, Milhomens pumped wp his total again by 85 pounds, for and overall increase of 162 ponds, Milhomens is now training for the World PUMPING JRON: Ernie Milhomens works out ata lo- ‘good friend of Bruce Hili’s, the guide who is skip- Sunday, Aug, 29 races will continue as planned with Power Lifting cal gym after winning the Canadian Power Liting ‘per of the Mi’ah, the salt water craft the owners of time trials at noon and racing at 2 p.m. Championships in Cal- Championships in May. Since then, Milhomens has ‘the lodge have purchased to use as a mother ship in gary this November, added 85 pounds his bench, squat and deadlift total. ‘the salt seas. Continued next week...