_ SKEENA ANGLER. - ROB BROWN Elk Under Siege hen | picked up my first copy of Fly Fisherman Magazine 25 years aga, it had tasteful artwork and thoughtful, often provocative, wri- | ling. A few years later it turned into an advertising brochure in magazine format, do- } minated by articles of the “where to fish and, how to fish” variety. Punctuating these stories were photographs of. anglers with expansive grins hoisting large fish , aloft with no apparent concern for the fact that, the creatures were drowning in air. It was clear: that the magazine staff had decided to sacrifice , its formerly high standards on the altar of consu- merism so, except for the odd time when | : picked it up and confirmed that it hadn’ t changed, | stopped reading the rag. In May of 1997, Fly Fisherman Magazine published an issue devoted to angling opportuni-. ties on the rivers of British Columbia entitled - “British Columbia: the Last Frontier.” The ma-- gazine was circulated in hard copy and on the, web, where its editors maintain a site called the, Virtual Flyshop where flyrodding enthusiasts may sign on to regional chat rooms, check out products, and even palm their mice and take virtual tours of famous runs on famous rivers. Its electronic version on the world wide web ‘has obviously greatly extended the reach of FFM and taken its exploitive, buck hustling ethos to a very large audience; so it was with the 1997 issue on B.C. where Erik Poole drafted and submitted an article on the little known Elk River. :;; i EET The Elk is located in Southeastern B.C. ovle’s article fairly represented the river and . Pit ‘cutthroat and bull trout fisheries. It men- tioned how the river’s fish populations had reco- , vered and how the quality of the angling exper- ience had improved as a result of enlightened management. Poole also described how problems with .open-pit coal mines, logging, ranching, and mu- ‘editors of FFM, in their zeal to sell advertising, excised those sections of Poole’s manuscript in order to remain consistent with the “last front- ier” theme of that particular issue of their ma- gazine. This is lying of the most insidious kind: lying by telling part of the truth; it’s the stuff used by the most skillful spin-doctors. To make matters worse, the editors snipped a picture of a fat five pound trout from the Chilko River and pasted it atop a scenic photo of the Elk and placed it next to Poole’s piece. There was no mention of the fact that the Chilko river is a day’s drive from the Elk and that the west slope cutthroat trout from the latter seldom get larger that a pound. Even though no pixels were pushed around, this kind of photomontage is a graphic form of lying. in the summer of 1997 the boat traffic on (he Elk jumped from a former high of six boats on a holiday weekend to 30 boats per day. The in- creased traffic came from Montana, which is lo- cated a short distance away from the Elk. The publicity given ithe Elk alerted guides from B.C, and Alberta who applied for and were, amazingly, piven licenses for the river. Predict- ably, illegal guides from the states showed up too. The number of reported guided angler days on the Elk increased from 81 in 1994 to 1,458 in the year 2000. This represents an increase of 1,700 per cent and these are legally guided an- glers representing about 10 percent of the an- ging pressure. And how fare the fish? In the period cited above, the number of cutthroat caught and re- ‘leased increased by 4000 per cent. Last year 27,408 cutts were hooked, some them left disfi- gured in the process. And what about the resident anglers who en- joyed the Elk before the hyperbolic journalism of FFM? They feel invaded according to Erik Poole, the author of the article that, in altered form, started the whole problem. The increased pressure has led to fist fights between fishers in some cases, and last surmmer a number of out- of-province vehicles and boats were vandalized, writes Poole in a letter to John Randolph, the edilor and publisher of Fly Fisherman Maga- zine, We live in the middle of the best steelhead fishing on earth. The angling traffic on the Bulkley/Morice and Kispiox is growing at an alarming rate. On the Zymoetz you will now tun into Coloradans, Californians, Oregonians, i Washingtonians, as well as Italians, French- men, and Germans, most of them unguided and paying peanuts to fish. If we insist on selling our fishing resource at fire sale prices, magazines, like Fly Fisherman will be only too happy to- promote them with the result that what hap- pened on the Elk will happen here. -nicipal waste had compromised the Elk, but the * TERRACE STANDARD. SS PORTS The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 20, 2002 - BS The The road to the a Canada Winter Games 638-7283. Teen curlers prepare fc for battle BY SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN IF ANYONE has had a hard time tracking down Terrace’s hottest teen curling team, it’s probably because the foursome’s practical- ly living on the ice these days. “For this last month there’s not too many days they’ve missed practice,” says Duane Melanson, co-coach of the Michael Dahms rink. “They get maybe one night off a week.” The intensive training schedule is part and parcel of being the ‘best juvenile curling rink in the province. And in less than four months it is poised to face its big- pest challenge ever — the Canada Winter Games in Bathurst, New Brunswick. The Terrace quartet -— Lead Matt Gyorfi, Second Kore Melan- son, Third Carl Haugland and Skip Michael Dalims ~ earned the title of provincial champions in March when they won gold al the B.C. Winter Games. With the title comes some serious attention from Curl B.C. - the spart’s gov- erning body in this province. “I was going to meetings on behalf of teams not yet selected a year in advance,” says Curl B.C.’s provincial development coach Elaine Dagg-Jackson, about developing a training pro- gtam for the B.C. champions. “AS soon as the teams were identified, they go through kind of an assessment program — what areas can use development and enhancement.” Part of the training program in- cludes the Dahms rink having ac- cess to a physical trainer, mental trainer and nutritionist. They’ve taken part in a high- ‘performance training camp in Ke- Jowna and have access to an on- line training diary which monitors their progress. They’ve also picked up another coach along the way. Gord Duplisse of Salmon Arm will accompany the team to the 2003 Winter Games and he’s aj- ready had a chance to see the boys in action. He’s made the trip from Sal- mon Arm to Terrace three times to meet with the team and recent- ly watched the Dahms rink earn $500 for winning the B pool at a recent Abbotsford cashpiel. Duplisse’s presence is a plus on many levels. He has his re- lis -_ | THE DAHMS rink after winning gold at the 2002 B.C. Winter Games. That's Matt Gyorfi, Michael Dahms, Carl Haugland and Kore Melanson at back with Keith and Duane Melanson in front, quired Level 3 coaching certifica- tion and a proven @ [Kore’s grandfather] s when | lived in Ter- m race in the early 1 1970s,” track record at the says Du- Canada Games. i plisse. Duplisse coa- He also coached ched the Deann B Duane Melanson,:;: Bekker rink to a m Kore’s father ‘and? bronze medal at the we club coach, in’ ju- 1999 Canada Win- a niors and brought his ter Games in Cor- m rink to the junior fi- nerbrook, New- A nals in Salmon Arm foundland. min 1981, “We're listening e “Kore is Duane’s to him and drawing son. This is quite a everything we can hrilf far me,” says from him because Duplisse he is experienced Keith Melanson and knows a lot about curling,” says Dahms. Duplisse also has a personal connection to the team via the Melanson family line. “I curled with Keith Melanson stepped down from coaching earlier this year after moving south with his wife. His absence is being felt by the rink. “Since we started curling he’s been there,” explains Dahms. “He Gord Duplisse a got to watch us in Abbotsford, $0 that was good.” Picking up the B paal victory at that junior bonspiel was especi- ally sweet with the senior Melan- son in the crowd. With the Canada Games grow- ing ever closer the boys are hitting as many bonspiels as possible. “Michael wants to go to every bonspiel and cashspiel they can,” says Duane Melanson. “That's about all we are doing here is a steady diet of practicing and bonspiels.” And that's what it will take as the team prepares to take on Ca- nada’s best. Gone are the days when the foursame could quietly enter a bonspiel as the underdogs from the backwoods of the northwest. With little juvenile competition in the Terrace area, over the past three years Dahms and company have supplemented their spotty competitive juvenile schedule by attending men’s bonspiels and playing in a men’s league. With a marked increase in the team’s profile the pressure to per- form is on the rise. “At the tournament you have other teams there and they are kind of whispering behind your back because they know who you are and it kind of puts pressure on you to perform,” Dahms concedes. But he’s quick to add — true to his usual modest demeanour — that putting in an effort his team can be proud of is the most critical part of any competition, be it a- bonspicl or the Canada Games. “I just want to perform to our best and know that I’ve done everything [I can in all of the games, and not look back ‘and this,’ ‘or harder,’” Dahms says. “| just want to look back and know we’ve done our best.” It’s that attitude — one drilled into them by the Melansons over the years - which has helped the Dahms rink come as far as it has. “fd just like to recognize the coaches that have developed this team to the level that they have won a juvenile championship,” says Curl B.C.’s Dagg-Jackson. “It’s a terrific compliment ta the Terrace curling community and to the coached that have brought the team this far.” Terrace hoopsters battle it out hoping to go to All Native ORGANIZERS for this just nine players oa the wm Good start CENTENNIAL Christian School's senior girls volleyball team celebrates a point in a game against Masset's G.M. Dawson schocl Nav. 15. The Ter- race school hosted the northwestern zone single A senior girls volleyball championships here Nov. 15-16, CCS started the tournament off with two straight wins over G.M. Dawson going 25-12 and 25-14. The winner of the tournament goes to provincials in Castlegar In the weeks to come. See next week’s issuep for final zone results. SARAH A, ZIMMERMAN PHOTO Registration deadline looms: for Legion playdowns MEMBERS of the Royal Canadian Le- gion looking to participate in upcoming zone playdowns have until Dec. 2 to re- gister. Playdown action is gearing up in a Variety of disciplines. Terrace Branch 13 is hosting curling playdowns here Dec. 14-15. The zone ctibbage playdowns go ahead at the Smi- thers Branch 63 Jan, 11. And the darts playdowns are. set for Jan. 18 in Kitimat’s Branch 250, terested competitors to register al. the ap- propriate branch. This must be done be- fore Dec, 2. All interested participants must be pre- pared to go-all. the way to Dominion, or zone and provincial levels, . Lewis. The zone sports officer.is asking all in- * national competition, if wins occur at the week’s All Native Basket- ball Tournament qualifier are impressed wilh the amount of out-of-town feams converging on Prince Rupert for the an- nual event. “lit’s looking good we have 23° teams,” said event organizer Conrad Only one of those teams is from Prince Rupert and the rest come from as far south as Ahousat and as far north as Alaska for the Nov. 20-23 event. Two teams from Ter- “race are hitting the court this week in an effort to make it to the big tourna- ment this coming Febr- wary. For the third year run- ning, Terrace’s McEwan GM Predators, an under 20 intermediate team, is tak- ing part in the qualifier. And a women’s team is also competing at the qua- lifier but minus some key players who played for the Spirit Riders in the Jast three years. The Campbell sisters * ¥vonne, Amanda and Pa- mela will be joining the Bella Bella team this year = their father Lorne is ori- “ gtnally from: there. - The Predators aré going -into this week's draw with roster, which doesn’t leave many options for subbing in players. But the team’s assistant manager Don Wells says he has faith the Terrace crew has the endurance to play good ball despite the small numbers. “Their coach is training them hard enough to keep them going through the whole game,” said Wells. “They” ve been practicing since September.” Last year the Predators last two straight elimina- ting them from the qualify- ing tournament and pre- venting them from moving on to the All Native tour- nament. This year, the inter- mediate and senior divi- sions have seven teams vying for a spot at the the Wy ‘Ahink;"*Oh,"i' should” have"‘done ‘IT ‘could have ‘tried © February event while the | women’s division has a whopping nine teams fa- cing off at the qualifier. The women’s division will see a new team from Kamloops participating as well as teams from around the northwest region, said Lewis. ' Because only three masters. ieams signed up for the qualifying tourna+ ment, théy receive. an automatic bye into Febr- iary’s event, he said.