“INSIDE. _ SPORTS MENU. SKEENA, ANGLER © ROB BROWN Low water tales AST SATURDAY afternoon, which, as it turns out, was the hot- test September 16 since meteorologists have kept records of . such things, I found myself Standing above the . Lower Potato Patch cursing my camera for hav- ‘ing the effrontery to run out of battery power ‘* without letting me know earlier. -s-So far the little, ergonomic, waterproof Pentax “has performed wondrously and well, When the - subject has been backlit it has automatically . | filled the dark space in front of the subject with | . flash. When I’ve slipped the film into its back, “» the litile shirt pocket sized fellow has wound it onto the take up spool automatically while si- multancously reading the film speed then making the required adjustments. This last fea- ture is especially important for a photographer - who has been known to open the shutter before thirty-six splendid scenes’ then opened the back only to find his film sticking its dark little un- exposed tongue out at him from within its pristine canister. Though it won’t pick out the retina of a griz. aly bear at a hundred yards, or take in the entire Telkwa Range in one snap, it can been zoomed from 35 to 70 millimeters, focal lengths that . nicely cover about ninety percent of the pictures most folks shoot. If the instruction booklet is to be believed, my Pentax is capable of as many trick shots as the most expensive of cameras. It even has a remote for those tacky family group shots; all this for four hundred bucks. But, without batteries my neat little camera may as well be a lump of coal, Before me was a fine photo. op;..a parade of nattily clad fly fishers shy iting slowly/through the low-and clear water at the top of the lower’, patch —- the very spot where Karl Mauser beached and killed his world record thirty-four pound buck — and here was 1, perched a hun- dred feet above them staring at the icon of a. dead battery on my LCD. Fortunately my fly rod is not battery powered, but there was no use putting it.in action cither, Although I could see steelhead in the deepest — part the run, the chance of persuading one of ihem to take a fly was about as likely as grow- ing bananas on Baffin Island. Watching the angler at the head of the line pitch his Dy over and past the fish reminded me of the similarly clear, sunny days on a similarly low and clear. Coquihalla River in the days before it was muined by the men who, paradoxically, won ‘an. environmental award for wrecking it. The engineer who designed the Kettle Valley . Line that once threaded its way through the val- . ley had a fondness for Shakespeare, thus he named the first set of tunnels Othello. There are also points along the way named for Tago and Portia and other characters. It was by sitting on the bridge at Lear and watching men fish the fine pool underneath it that I first leamed about steelhead reactions ta light and low water. [t was fascinating. Again and again fishers © swam their baubles over fish that could be — ’ clearly seen hovering just off the gravel bottom: Some anglers managed to sink their flies deep- — ly. Others, by accident or, by design, I could never be sure, drifted their lures only inches un- der the surface. Every once In a while one of the fish would quiver or rise a few inches in the direction of a fly, Though other fishermen told me a few fish had been taken at midday in the Lear Pool, I didn’t see it happen once. When the sun sunk behind the mountains and shadows covered the water, things changed dramatically. Then we routinely caught the same fish that had spurned everything shown them earlier; often laking them on floating lines and small flies. It’s not hard to appreciate why a fish recently returned from an ocean, where there are lots of places to hide, would feel as skittish as a catina dog pound when it finds itself in some diminu- tive pool within a shrunken river brilliantly lit by the sun. Steclhead are victims of their ag- gressive nature. With the lights dimmed they will move to strike. The genileman I watched on the Kispiox was ” probably a tourist, so it is understandable that he would want to spend as much time on the river as possible, To have any chance at all in those challenging conditions he needed to make a few corrections. Instead of wading up to his waist — something, unless you are crossing the river, you almost never need to do — he should have crept up on the fish and began casting to it on a steep angle from a good distance upstream. His fly should bave been small, drab and sparse, ' possibly a ten or twelve. And, the leader needed to be twelve feet at least. With that equipment and a delicate presentation exclusive of false *” casting, he might have successfully performed -.the considerable feat of moving one of those sil- ver fish, but given the conditions he'd be better : off doing something else? =: ae Like © taking pletures, say. ; "ance | ‘came closest. With the “scored tied at 2 after both f LEAGUE CHAMPIONS got - _ he playoffs finals. vin’ te’ Under-12 division be - ~ hams Copperside 6-3. nial Lions gave up only 20 for TERRACE STANDA The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 27, 1995 - B7 FRIENDLY RIVALS. The northwest's Internationals primarily of ex-Vancouver Whitecaps, during the an- squad pose with the Columbus team, made up nual Oldtimers soccer tournament in Vancouver. Oldtimers tie Whitecaps THE INTERNATIONALS retumed from the annual Oldtimers tournament in Van- couver happy with their performance but mourning the loss of a friend. The Internationals are made up of players from around the northwest and led - by player coach Tom Filtziakis of Ter- - race. With. the: round ‘robin completed, the “team was due to take to the field on the Sunday to play off for third place. It was then they learned Jim Ciccone, a ~ Prince’ Rupert teammate who was sup-. posed. to be joining them for that game, ‘had been killed in a car crash. “We had a minute's silence before the ; - ga,” Filtziakis said. ‘It really affected: _.the team.’’ The Internationals ended up _ going down to Croatia and settling for fourth in the eight team toumey. But the northwesterners had earlier come as close as it gets to repeating their 1990 appearance in the final. In the same _ Group as Columbus - primarily made up ' of ex-Vancouver Whitecaps - the Interna- tionals had held that squad to a draw and beaten both Chile and Aldergrove. Unfortunately, The ex-’Caps finished _ with the same unbeaten record and got the nod on the narrowest of goal differences. Whatever: the - ‘outcome, Filtziakis’ said : the trip had, as always, been worthwhile. “It’s a great tournament,’ he said, noting it also draws teams from the US west coast, “‘It’s nice to play against those guys, you learn a lot,’’ Although the ’95 season has only just. been completed for the local Oldtimers, _No doubles this time Ay \é tt "no respect in this year’s Youth Soccer playoffs. None of the seven regular ‘season powerhouses managed to pull off the double and only :.tWoO were even able to make “OF that pair, Braid’s Insur- AY _ Tepulation and overtime, * Braid’s and Terrace Shell had “to go to a penalty shootout to " decide the title, the latter com- ing” ‘out on top by a 2-1 __Anargin, _ It was Terrace Shell’s second “successive | playoff _ championship in the Under-14 Girls division, ~-There was no such close call ~ where Finning Tractor had all * guns firing in dropping league ‘Another 2-2 score after over- time. forced a shoot-out to - settle the Under-16 Boys final, A & W taking it away from Bandstra Transportation. _.-Regular season runner-up Carlyle Shepherd came out on top in the Under-10s second season, doubling Surveyors 4- 2. Tt was the second straight year Surveyors had made the final only to come up just short, ’ It was also a 4-2 scoreline in the Under-19 Boys showdown where another regular season _Tunner-up, Councillors, proved too strong for the Bavarian Inn. The Girls side of that age group saw Tide Lake outscore Pizza Hut 5-3. Having averaged only four goals a game during the sea- son, Terrace Builders found the scoring touch with a ven- geance in the Under-14 Boys final, blitzing Carpenters United 7-3, Carlyle Shepherd were top scoring team across the seven divisions, putting 105 between the posts in 16 games. The Stingiest team was also in the Under-10 division — Centen- a goals against average of only 1,25: ‘on their way. to, the league “title, * ao JUBILATION. Above, Terrace Shell Under-14 Girls ‘players celebrate victory after the division’s playoff final. It was the second consecutive title for the squad. Below, Charmaine Dozzi holds the most sportsman- like trophy handed out each year by Tide Lake coach Blaine Kluss to one of his own. Kluss is seen holding the playoff championship trophy @ earned by the team. Filtziakis is already looking ahead ‘to next year. And hoping it's one that will see © more players coming back to the game... - Many one-time players, he agreed, de-,. . cide to drop out of the game because of the demands of growing families. However, he suggested by the time they reach the ‘qualifying age for Oldtimers — 37 years old and up — they might have the time to take the sport up again. “*There’s a lot of talent here,”’ Filtziakis said. “Why are. you. hiding?’ : His goal is to draw. enough players. back: . that Terrace will be able 'to field its own - - Oldtimers team. 7 He said anyone who wants more in- formation on Oldtimers soccer could phone him at 635-5752, Nick. Kollias (635-9231) 0 or Dick Springer (635-2880). "MALCOLM BAXTER 638-7283 moos ye ary a Sports Scope Running wrap up is here . THIS SUNDAY the 1995 running season closes out Marathon... annual event, participants can also opt for the Skm walk/cun and 10km jog/run. line forall three distances is at Northwest. Community College, the Half Marathon other two an hour later: |: Age divisions include under-13, 13-19 Open (20-39 men’s and women’s) and Masters (40 years and up men’s and women’s), The entry fee is ‘$20 ($18 for BC Athletic Association members) for . advance. registration, $2 more on. race day. All ‘entrants receive a commemorative long sleeved T-shiit “Entry forms can'be found at All Season Sports. © Soccer. AGM. seeks ideas * YOUTH SOCCER. is - cr come out in force to its annual general meeting next week. ;. dren involved in soccer next year, now is the time to offer spokesman Vai Belina. And she emphasized there was no need to fear being bullied into volunicering for anything, At the same time; Belina added; TYSA’ always welcomed new volunteers.':: The meeting, takes place in the Happy Gang Centre at 7:30 p.m. vy Wednesday, October 4. with the All: Seasons, Half Although the 21km “foad 7 ; race is the headliner at the. The start ~~ and finish — | kicking off at noon and the _ " years, | couraging parents of players to] “IF you plan on having chil- cee suggestions to. TYSA,”’. says |.