B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 15, 2006 — _ dot, it was noon. a a, | KEENA AN R ROB BROWN , re Hugh. at 62. m. going: out to fish the: Lakelse on n the: sev- | . ‘enth, ”. Hugh wrote me a week before that date. ““T always go out there on March the seventh.” ~ “Tl meet you there,” I wrote back. vv Ul try to ~ get up earlier this time.” > _ T gave him: that-assurance because. Hugh and I. had made a plan for the previous Monday. We'd. . agreed to meet on the river and spend the better part . of the day convincing ourselves that spring hadn’ t quite begun.” - The night before, 1 got tangled up in some re- search. When I looked at my. watch it was three in ‘the moming. ° «When I got up it was still morning, but’ barely. .. By the time I arrived.at the Herman Creek, parking © The river was low and rimmed with i ice. Two ~ anglers I didn’t know were working the Herman’ 8 Point Pool over with two handed rods. , “You see another fisherman?” I asked one of ‘them. “An older guy?” © ae a “Yeah, I guess so,” I said, never having thought ‘of Hugh as old. . “He was here for a while. Went downstream.” - I thanked him and made my way down river. "Hugh wasn’t at his favourite slot on the Flats. Some puddle ducks leapt.into' the air somewhere . around the bend near Hai Creek. | Thinking Hugh may have spooked them I con- tinued down river, but when I reached Upper Cold- water, Hugh wasn’t there either. ., Lhinking he'd headed back.to Herman’ 's on the | . trail, while I ‘was. making my_..way. downstream via. the river,.I walked back to find the same two, an- glers there, but no Hugh. After grilling the older of the two fishers and. learning that they were down from Mackenzie, I sat down, regrouped, had lunch, threw a stick for the dog and made my way back to the parking lot, only to discover Hugh’s truck was still there. I wrote a note of apology in my waterproof . notebook, tore the page out and stuck it behind the windshield wiper of Hugh’s truck. No apologies necessary,’ said Hugh later. He’d had a nice day, caught a couple of fish, one old, one ‘brandnew. On 7 March, I arrived on time. Hugh had just _ Started down the run. The river was as skinny as it had been the last time we were here, and, if any- _ thing, the air was colder, but for some reason it felt like spring. . -T thought about why’ this was so as I watched my line’ sweep downstream in the emaciated current, - then realized that it was the birds. Last week the soundtrack’ to our fishing was scored for eagles and rattle of pine siskins, now the -woods were filled with songbirds. A steelhead grabbed my fly. I beached it. Hugh . _ took a finery clipping, then we let it go. The next steelhead came free. We agreed that. . it was just as well because it appeared to be a dark fish anyway. ' After we broke down our rods in preparation for the hike through the. woods, Hugh pulled out one of his fly boxes and popped it open. “Here’s the fly you were asking about,” holding up a sparsely dressed dark pattern. '. It was tied meticulously, as.all Hugh’s patterns - are. He talked about how well he’and Vick had done with it over the last few seasons, but not in a boastful way. ©. I'd have forgiven Hugh for boasting about his angling accomplishments.. - He’s earned bragging rights for attainments like landing over. a hundred steelhead in a single winter on a fly rod equipped with a floating line, a feat to which I can attest, having been on the stream with Bill and him on many of those days. I slipped the fly in my wallet. Hugh didn’t pro- test. He knew I'd keep it. When it comes to Hugh’s “flies, I'm a mooch, an unabashed thief, because. they work so well, . ‘Over the last few years I’ve collected a half a dozen of his patents, made respectable copies. for frequent use and squirrelled away the originals. _ We made our way to the Flats, doffing our hats at the memorials to Finlay and Edger Brock. “T guess we’ re the elder generation now,” I ob- served. “Yeah, 62 today,” said Hugh, which explained his March seventh tradition. “I'd like to fish out my days on this river. That’s By DUSTIN QUEZADA he 2 said TERRACE STANDARD - Here comes the mayor wee ~DARRYL BJORGAARD, whose nickname is “the mayor”, shows off his freshly painted hit-to-pass car that’s all set for the upcoming | Stock car racing season, which kicks off May 14 with Thunder, Bomber and Hit-to-Pass races: » . ‘SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO ny 4 THE TERRACE River Kings took a big step in their second year by advancing to the 2006 Coy Cup Tournament in Kitimat but their inexperience -.. at the top level. showed: as..Terrace’ failed ‘to~ -advance beyond the round robin stage. ‘The River Kings began the week on a winning note, defeating the Fort St. John Flyers 4-2 on the strength of two goals from Troy Farkvam and strong play from young goalie Brad Norwood. Rolling four lines, the River Kings seemed to have more energy than the travel weary team representing the North Peace Hockey League and never trailed in the game. Farkvam’s second goal of the game, at 6:38 of the third period, put the Kings up to stay and Mike Dibbly: provided an insurance goal -with three minutes to play. Terrace outshot Fort. St. John 39-32. Players of the game were Farkvam and Flyers ” keeper Derek Metteur. The opening night’s second game was.a spir- ited 2-2 tie between the host Kitimat Ice Demons and the North Island Capitals. On day two, the River Kings. faced arch rival ~ Kitimat, trying to land their first win at Tamitik Arena. In perhaps the best period of River Kings | hockey of the year, Terrace kept the speedy Ice ‘Demons at bay with key saves from Norwood and the teams finished 20 minutes of play tied at 1-1. Darcy Allison scored for Terrace on a rebound after Farkvam did well to win a puck battle on the side boards before throwing a shot on net. At the 3:35 mark of the second period, a long slapshot from King Terry Zaporzan eluded De- mons keeper Bret Vilness and it appeared Terrace Bowlers aim for perfect games at provincials © _ Kitimat’ scored. on a 2-on-1 ‘break just three minutes later though and the wheels would fall off for the Kings after forward Richie Rogers was whistled for a 5-minute major penalty for check- ing from behind a minute.after that. A questionable tripping call to Terrace’s Ken Johnson gave Kitimat its second extended 2-man advantage and this time the slick Kitimat power play hit the mark behind Norwood three times during the major penalty. — The Kings didn’t quit in the third but the game was put out of reach when Trent Bossence ex- tended the Kitimat lead to 6-2 at the 4:18 mark. . Phil Morrison got one back for Terrace, start- ing and finishing a rush as Johnson and Ryan Watson picked up assists on the play. Kitimat would score one more on an odd-man > rush to round out the scoring. Final shots were 47 to 35 in favour of the hosts. ° _ Allison was picked as Terrace player of the game and Demon captain Chris Vilness got the nod for Kitimat. The day’s early game, saw a much more deter- mined Fort St. John Flyers team than the one that lost to Terrace. ' ‘The team from the Peace chased North Is- land Capitals starter Greg Fox from the nets after building a 3-0 first period lead en route to an 8- 2 thrashing. On day three, the last of the round robin action, the River Kings needed a tie against, North Island to advance to the Coy Cup semifinal on Friday night. Lose or tie and their fate would rest with the outcome of the later Kitimat-Fort St. John tilt. The game wasn’t even close, though, as Ter- race was hammered 10-1 by the skillful islanders. North Island forward Randall Smisko was a one- man wrecking crew against Terrace, scoring six goals against the outclassed River Kings. _| Terrace ¢ out early, Kitimat keeps Coy Smisko opened the scoring three minutes into” the game and North Island never looked back or let off. Brad Norwood again started for Terrace and was replaced by Burny Carlsen with the score 3 0. te There were few bright spots in the game for the: - Kings, though defenceman Toby Mitchell spoiled goalie Fox’s shutout bid in the third period with . a power play slapshot from the high slot that got under Fox. The goal was Mitchell’s first of the season. Not surprisingly, the Capitals also led in the shot count by a 42-27 margin. Winger Ivan Laschenko, one of the few Terrace players that played with energy throughout, was named player of the game for the River Kings and Smisko the obvious choice from the Capitals. The late game proved to be a disappointment for both the River Kings and the home fans as the Fort St. John Flyers handed Kitimat its first loss since a league game on Nov. 20, 2005, winning 6-3. The opportunistic Flyers won n despite being outshot by Kitimat 41-28. The result left Fort St. John atop the round rob- in standings, enough for a bye into the Saturday final, and Terrace packing its bags. a In the Friday, March 10 semifinal, Kitimat and North Island put on quite a show in a thrilling 6-5 win for the Ice Demons that was settled in double -overtime. The Saturday, March 11 final game between Kitimat and Fort St. John for provincial bragging rights in men’s senior AA hockey looked as if it was going to a laugher with the Demons leading 5-1 after two periods. The Flyers made a valiant comeback but fell short, losing 6-5. Q Despite a slow start to the season, Kitimat re-- peated as league and Coy Cup champions. SIX YOUNG BOWLERS will be the first from Terrace _ to compete at the provincials — in Kamloops this weekend. © Bantam Kiyle Iveson, 10, qualified at a singles tourna-. ment earlier this season with a total score of 890. The Junior boys team of Jeremy Lopushinksy, Eric Iveson, Travis Van Kough- nett, Blake Smith and Taylor Baker won gold with a total score of 3400 at the zone fi- nals Feb. 18. - Coach Mark Viveiros _ believes the boys-have the potential to win provincial m@ Sweeping success TERRACE. LIGHTNING teammates, from left, Dave Marten, Medrick Duncan and Reynold Starr guide a stone into the house at the BC Spe- cial Olympics curling qualifier. The two Terrace rinks came in second and third behind first place Kitimat/Burns Lake, who will move on to the BC Special Olympics Winter Games. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO why I’m hoping we can get this upper river set aside as a catch and release area for all species year round. “When it’s time they can scatter my ashes by that tree ~ no ceremony, no service — just scatter them,” he added, gesturing toward his favourite slot. “March seventh. That makes you a Pisces,” I said, thinking how appropriate it was that Hugh Storey should be born under the sign of the fish. gold. - The team will compete against teams from Castle- gar, Port Coquitlam, Ver- non, Nanaimo and Surrey March 18 and 19. A win would send them to Nationals in East Sud- bury, Ontario May 5 to 7. . ar WS S Coach Mark Viveiros, back row left, believes junior boys team Taylor Baker, Jeremy Lopushinsky, Eric Ive- son, Travis Van Koughnett, Blake Smith, and individual bantam bowler Kiyle Iveson, front, will win gold at pro- vincials this weekend.