B6 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TERRACE STANDARD. a... SPORTS. 638-7283 | SKEENA ANGLER ROB BROWN Spring Steelhead t's been twenty years since Bill Ashcroft showed me the way to the upper reaches of the Lakelse River. The place has changed a lot since then. The road to the parking area wound under a colonnade of soft woods, The run below Herman Creek was deeper and held more stcel- head. The long rin below the riffle - the area fishermen call "The Flats" - was so much deeper that wading it at medium water levels was hard; crossing it during high water conditions was out of the question. I’m not sure if there were more cutthroat there then. There is no question there were more dolly varden char. I recall long spring days when my partners and I caught a dozen dollies for every cutthroat, These outings would often be fol- lowed by days when the ration was reversed, Sadly, the dolly days ate no more. For a few of those early years I fished the up- per Lakelse for steelhead in the spring months. There is a steelheading ethic that insists the angler must strive to catch bright fish, an im- perative spawned by the realization that dark fish make for poor eating as well as poor sport, Steelheaders know that steelhead spend a Jong lime in fresh water (summer runs will begin their race for the spawning beds in August and spawn in May of the next year), and that the fish slow down and stack up. Because of this, the creatures become more vulnerable as the season .. wears on, In March, April and-May, the steel- head move out of the deep pools and Jakes and make for the spawning beds. This is the time when they are particularly vulnerable. Ii is simply unsporting to fish those fish. I was aware of this ethic twenty years ago, ] could see there were ripening fish, but since late winter run fish enter all our rivers in mint condi-! lion every spring, I assumed a good number of them would make the short run to the top of the Lakelse, I was wrong, I hooked plenty of steelhead. The females were gunmetal gray, the males red or black with pronounced kypes, Time after time I set the hook, waited for the hard run of a strong, newly-arrived fish only to be dis- appointed by the lackluster fight of an aged summer run steelhead. During that time I saw other anglers beach | fish, none of them fresh. I compared notes with other avid steelheaders. Their experiences with the upper Lakelse steelhead mirrored mine. Convinced there were few, if any, bright steel- head in the upper Lakelse in the spring months, 1 began spending my time on rivers were I could find them. A few years ago Doug Webb erected a sign on the trail to Herman’s Point welcoming anglers’ to the river, alerting them to the fact that the river is a prime spawning area for steclhead and urging fishers not to harass those fish. Doug’s sign would have saved me a lot of trouble had it been up twenty years ago, Despite the sign, some fishers are still striking out for the upper Lakelse with the express pur- pose of hooking steelhead that have crossed the goal line and deserve to be left alone. Three weeks aga Webb and I watched from our canoe as two fishermen using heavily weighted flies and strike indicators, goaded ripe steelhead. I picked up my binoculars and watched when one of the men provoked a strike. Every word they uttered skittered across the cold water and reached us with remarkable clarity. ‘‘Oh, he’s a big one. I'll necd some helpl’’ yelled the provocateur. ‘‘He wouldn’t take a stone fly nymph so I] changed to an weighted egg pat- tern,” he boasted. I checked my watch then watched. The man pulled. The fish pulled, It was over twenly minutes before he had the animal ashore and aloft for a snapshot. The fish was a big male, perhaps fourteen pounds, and as red as rhubarb. “‘How big do you think it is?’’ asked the pho- tographer. ‘‘Seventeen pounds easy,’’ said the egg fisher, I’m told this targeting of black fish on the Lakelse is a growing phenomenon, I hope it isn’t because I know for a fact that the people who make the regulations for our fresh water fisheries believe that dragging dark steelhead around by the lip decreases their chance of sur- vival, I know too, that if the problem continues they will simply close the area to fishing until _the steelhead have spawned, That would be a shame for we trout hounds would lose Apri! and May, the best months for culthroat fishing on the upper Lakelse River. PROUD WINNERSI Dan Fisher's Terrace rink took first place in the B Event at the Logger's Bonspiel on the Easter weekend. Ter- race's Keith Melansson and Kevin McDougal! took top spots in the C and E events. Fourty-five teams took part in the finat bonspiel af the season, Pictured from left to right; Andy Weissner, Ross Smith, Henry Rauter, Dan Fisher. Terrace tops three at Loggers If the result of ihe A Event final at the Log- gers Bonspiel had gone the other way, Gary Habinger’s rink could have pointed to the sec- ond end as the turning point. Having given up a single in the first, the Kitimat rink looked like it was going to grab a game breaking lead in the next. However, facing four Habinger counters with his first rock, Houston’s Klaus Kraft pulled off a superb triple takeout to stave off potential disaster. And when Habinger missed with his ham- mer delivery, Kraft’s quartet found itself 2-0 up instead of trying to play catch up against one of the best hitting teams at the Terrace spiel. Bul patience is the hallmark of Habinger’s play and it has delivered numerous event titles over 33 consecutive years in the Loggers. It was to do so again this time. . After tying the score in the third, the quartet of Rob Fraser at lead, sccond Tony Abriel, third Wolf DeSmet and Habinger finally took the lead with a deuce in the eighth. Kraft blanked the next to retain the hammer for the final end but this time it was his turn to blow one by, allowing Habinger to steal two more for a 7-4 victory. Meanwhile one sheet over, Rick McDougall’s Kemano team needed an extra end to nail down the D Event title. After giving up a steal of two on the third to go 3-1 down, McDougall, lead John Rilkoff, second Don Timlick and third Malcolm Hill grabbed back-to-back singles io tie it after five, ; Afier Smithers’ opponent Phil Leroux blanked the next, McDougall pulfed off anoth- er singleton steal in the seventh to lead 4-3: Leroux continued looking for the big end but the Kemano quartet weren't about to let it happen. After blanking both the next two, Leroux was forced to settle for a single in the tenth to force the extra-end:- where: McDougall rink to an 8-3, six-end triumph in E Event over Greg Morgan of Kitwanga. Aud there was a Kitimat connection in that game, Tracy Hiitel playing third for Morgan. A total of 45 teams took part in the four-day Easter weekend bonspiel. A Event Habinger (Kt) 002 010020 2-7 Kraft (H) 110 101000 0-4 B Event Fisher (T). 101 202 004 x - 10 Kennedy (T) 020 010200 x - § C Event . K. Melanson (T) 040 032 xx x - 10 Netzel (T) 1OE 200 Oxx x - 4 D Event 100 110100 01 - 5 012 000 000 10 - 4 R. McDougall (Ke) Leroux (Sm) - be asiek dn came through. with the: poipt .sceded’ for vic-, wer at G Dad Rive suid wre a tory. Among those cheering McDougall on was his son Kevin who had just guided his Terrace K. McDougall (T) Morgan (Kw) 310 622 xxx x- 8 003 000 xxx x -3 cate Linnae Bee College hoops Looking to their futures TWO CALEDONIA high Joe Dominguez STAY OFF THOSE FIELDS! Or this could happen to you. This truck was pouring cement for backstops at the new ball diamonds at Cassie Hall when it became mired in the mud, Steve Scott, the city’s superintendent of parks and recrea- tion, is urging every- one to stay off the school students were among only 60 in the pro- vince to receive a $500 dollar scholarship in a presentation at a Grizzlies game at GM Place on April 7. Linnae Bee and Joseph Dominguez have each been awarded a scholar- ship through the BEST (Basketball Education Scholarship Team) pro- gram, The scholarships are funded through McDonald’s Canada and the Vancouver Grizzlies, and there are only 60 awarded each year; 30 for boys and 30 for girls, *‘T was honoured to get one because so few are given out,’’ says Bee. The scholarships are awarded to top basketball players who also do well academically and who are involved in their com- munily, She says it was very ex- citing to be. part of the half time show at the GrizzliesSuns game, and adds il was a good game even though Vancouver lost. . Bee says she’s looking scriously at going to Grand Prairie College in Alberta to pursue basket- ball. “Pye heard they have an excellent coach and a very good program there,’’ she says. She wants to study bio- chemistry and eventually go into medicine. Dominguez was also very excited to find out he’d won a scholarship. “IT was surprised be- cause only 30 boys get one,” he says. “Tt was kinda cool.’” Grand Prairie college is among those he’s consid- ering. He says he’s also wait- ing to hear from the Uni- versily of Lethbridge. Dominguez plans to study P.E. and math eventually hopes to be- come a leacher, - Unfortunately he couldn’t -go Vancouver because he was al a bas- ketball camp in Ed- monton, ! further j Scott says it's going playing fields until notice. He says the ground is very soft and the grass isn't growing. Using the fields now, he says, would only worsen the situation. to take one full week of dry, warm weather to see the situation improve.