B.j - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 15, 2003 . SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN SKEENA-ANGLER | ROB BROWN Spare the Rod Il have no idea how my 14-foot, nine- weight, double-handed Sage fly rod broke for the third time. [ had learned the hard way that one cannot bend a rod back on itself at an acute angle without mishap when a trout I’d hooked from the port side of Doug Webb’s yellow canoe went hard to starboard, bent my rod like a buggy whip and snapped it. But Tim Lepp’s videotape of the sor- did affair will show that my two-hander wasn’t bent that way when it gave way at the tip. Again, I dutifully shipped off the rod and grudgingly paid another 70 bucks in postage. This brought the running cost of the no-question- s-asked-we’ ll-repair-your-rod-for-lree warranty to $210. Six months later I took the same 14-foot pole to the Copper River where I released two bril- liant steelhead then stuck the fly in the keeper, and started for home. One of the many guides on the rod caught on an alder branch. I tugged. The rod broke four inches from its tip. Unwilling to pay more money on a warranty that was more of an insurance policy with a hefty deductible, I took it to North Coast Anglers where Randy Murray sawed another two inches from the tip section and stuck a new tip-top on the newly crealed tip. The rod is still intact. At 13 feet six inches, it casts as well as before and appears to be a lot stronger. History suggests it needs to be. phites and two bamboos - remained intact. All was well; the fishing was good until the day I made my way out to the Lakelse carrying my Grantham seven-weight bamboo. Because the temperature had dropped, I took the Hardy St. John reel carrying a sink tip line. When I got to the river [ assembled it. I screwed the new fighting butt Ron had kindly made me at my request and discovered it wouldn’t make it over the lower reel foot. Strange, I thought, the other St. John fit like a glove. Assuming that all St. Johns have the same shoe size, 1 twisted hard. The bird’s eye burl reel seat broke in my hand. ‘To make matters worse [ wasn’! packing a backup rod. Traced home worried whether I’d be able to mend the reel seat. Fortunately, I was able to fix the pole with a dollop of epoxy. Fer the next month I used the pole to catch a lot of fish. My confidence in my repair work rose to the point where [ stopped worrying it would come apart. A month after the reel seat mishap, I arrived al Herman’s Point to find a pair of lure fisher- man swimming their spoons past steelhead. I waited until they were done then fished through the same water. Under Ted Rawlins’ Tree, there was a large boil. “You got one!” said one of the anglers. 1 leaned into the fish. Something dropped into the water al my feet. ] looked down to see my reel bouncing along the bottom. I reached into the cold water and grabbed it. The handsome fighting butt had preceded the reel into the drink and been swept away along with any real poss- ibility of securing the reel. I stuck the St. John in the upper part of the seat, not the easiest thing to do with a whirring reel that has no out- side drum, and turned the red upside down, en- listing gravity to my cause. The reel fell in again. | retrieved it again, paying for the move in extreme knuckle pain. “My reel seat broke,” I called back to my audience in order to help them make some sense from this dizzy dance | was doing. “Man,” said half of them, “if you land that fish you’ve really earned it!” At this point, I'd let my beloved bamboo drop into the shallows and was holding the reel feet and cranking madly. The fish was a few feet from shore. f looked at it. T could swear that it was looking at me askance, eyeing me like | was some kind of lunatic. I looked at my rod again and recalled from bitter experience that these screw-ups tend to expand like mushroom clouds on a desert. The possibility of breaking the remainder of my rod loomed. | pulled on the line like a troller haul- ing in tuna. It snapped, The fish vanished. ] gathered in my ruptured pear, then made my way back to the truck and exchanged the bamboo for my Hardy de-Luxe. | stopped to talk to the lure fishers on the way. “Hey,” said the one calied Ben. “You're the puy who writes in the paper.” I confessed to it. “T really liked the one you wrote about breaking a shock on the Copper River Road when you were guiding.” Next week: more trials... All Stars By SARAH A, ZIMMERMAN THE NEW year is looking bright for two local tingelte players who've been chosen to play for an elite northern all-star team. Chloe Curtis, 12, and Amanda Bedwell, 13, worked their tween tails off to get there too. The girls played a gruelling seven games in just three days Jan. 3-5 as they attended the all-star tryouts in Quesnel and took part in a tournament playing for their Terrace team the same weekend. “I didn’t think I would make it but I just kept going,” says Curtis of the exhausting ex- perience. Their tenacity paid off. The girls are on their way ta the Tween AA All-Star playdowns in the Shuswap next month. This is the second year in a row Bedwell, Terrace’s top tween goalie, has been selected to the team. While last year the petite redhead saw only eight minutes of ice time as a back up goalie, this year she’s full time. CHLOE CURTIS and Amanda Bedwell made the cut for the Northern Tween All-Star team. They'll be hitting the ice with the best in the north. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO Bedwell, who also defends the net in the bantam house hockey league, is sure to be an asset to the team, says her ringette coach Karen Kuemper. “Boy, when she’s hot nothing gets by her,” Kuemper says. Playing between the pipes in ringette is trickier than in hockey, Bedwell says. “It’s faster than hockey. [ think it’s harder for. goalies because the ring’s more slippery,” she says, adding playing on the same team as athletes from other northern cities is exciting because for once players who are usually op- ponents come together as teammates. Kuemper is proud of the two girls. “Chloe is just an awesome role model,” Kuemper says of the outgoing young lady. “She’s only been playing for a few years and she’s just phenomenal at what she does.” Curtis’ strength lies in her team-orientated attitude and her uncanny ability to set team- mates up for a goal. “You have to watch the plays,” Curtis says. “You have to keep moving.” For the next two months my rods — four gra- Kermodes on the prowl for payback this weekend By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN THE CALEDONIA girls basketball is looking for a chance to prove itself as it prepares fo host its annual. tournament here this weekend. The Extreme IIT tourna- ment will see the girls meet two teams they found tough to solve on a recent road trip. - The Jan. 3-4 Vanderhoof tournament saw Cal start out slow losing twice in a row, first to Bulkley Val- ley Christian School (BYCS) then to Nechako Valley Secondary (NVSS). | The first game saw the Kermodes leading by one in the third quarter but they let it slip away losing 60-46. Sabrina Dosanjh picked up 15 points and Alison Smith logged 11. Next up was NVSS - a strong squad who domina- ted in the first haif. Cal pulled up their socks and managed to have a more even second half but the game ended with a 64-49 score for NVSS. Alison Smith logged 12 points and Amandeep Dhaliwal nailed 11. But Cal showed they’ve got what it takes to win as they faced Prince George’s Duchess Park. “This was an intense defensive battle where we fell behind by six at the half,” says coach Dave Crawley. “The girls came back and played tough and hit some key baskets down the stretch.” The Kermodes won this one 52-45 with Shelley Muir picking up 14 points and Alison Smith getting 11 more. The last game of the tournament saw the Ker- modes meet Kelly Road from Prince George. Playing just half an hour after its game against Duchess Park, the girls had to battle exhaustion in order to come out on top. Amandeep Dhaliwal led the scoring with 12 points and Alison Smith hit lucky ie Mm Zone champs IN TRUE TERRACE fashion, the Kore Melan- son rink is on Its way to the provincial juvenite boys curling finals after going undefeated at the zone playdowns here last month, That's skip Kore Melanson, 15, second Alex Vogel, 15, and in front, lead Jordan Johnson, 13. Missing is third. Andrew Dahms. The team goes to the provincial championships in Lan- gley Mar. 20-23. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO number 11 for the third game of the tournament on the way to an impressive 44.40 win over the Prince George squad. : “We struggled offens- ively but handled a much taller team well at the de- fensive end,” Crawley said. The Kermodes have a chance for a little retribu- tion this weekend as both NVSS and BVCS travel to Terrace for the Extreme II! tournament. Other teams coming to town for the annual event include Smithers Senior Secondary, Hazelton Sec- ondary, Kitimat’s Mount Elizabeth Senior Second- ary and Prince Rupert schools Charles Hayes and Prince Rupert Senior Sec- ondary. The action kicks off Friday Jan. 17 at 3 p.m, at the Caledonia gymnasium with plenty of seating available for basketball fans. The final is slated for 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18. Hockey players make cut THREE TERRACE hockey players will be hitting the ice as part of the north- west’s zone seven team. Terrace goalie Eric Bevan made the cut as did defenceman Colby Link and forward Taylor Quinn. Tryouts were held in Fraser Lake Jan. 3-5 with 57 bays born in 1988 at- tending the camp. Only 20 players were selected — two goalies, six defence- men and 12 forwards. The team plays in the CCM Cup in Salmon Arm Apr. 10-13. “Phere were some very tough decisions to make on the weekend and it took a long time to come to the final decision on which 20 were selected,” says head coach and Terrace resident John Amos. “There were some very talented players that weren't selected, but they shouldn’t be too disappoin- ted, they all: worked hard on the weekend and ‘can hold their:heads up for the effort they pave.” Sports Scope ! \ eee: Home ice advantage TERRACE’S PEEWEE rep team had a little home ice advantage last week as it hosted a pair of games against Smithers. The local squad managed to hold its eastern rivals to a 5-5 tie Friday, Jan. 10. But the next day, it was all Terrace’s game as the reps dominated throughout and won 4-2. The peewees are back on home ice, again against Smi- thers, Jan 31 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 1 at 10 a.m. Olympians coming to host biking workshop LOCAL BIKING buff Lucy Praught is organizing a bik- ing camp unlike any which has come to Terrace in re- cent years, ; She’s managed to convince Olympic athletes Lesley Tomlinson and Andreas Hestier ta come to Terrace to host a three-day training camp for biking enthusiasts Feb. 7-9. . Tomlinson was on the 2000 and 1996 Canadian Olympic team and has placed in the top 15 at both the 2000 and 1998 world championships. , Hestler was a 1996 cross country mountain bike Olympic team member, is a three-time Canada Cup champion and two-time national champion. The will cover everything from mental strategy, to health and fitness, race training and a bike mechanics session. ; ; Participation is capped at 20 people and registration forms are available at McBike. Fore more information call Lucy at 638-7603 or Mc- Bike at 635-5225. We’re the best THE Terrace Curling Club received its award for Curl B.C.’s club of the year for 2002 Jan. 11. That’s Marge Stead, chairperson of last year’s wildly successful Senior Ladies Provincial Championships, with the award. Curl B.C, representatives say Tetrace received top honours largely for the hard work and dedication that went into hosting that event.