Bs - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December.27, 1995 o SK EENA ANGLER _ ROB BROWN A legendary fighter TEELHEAD are hoist by their own petard, victims of their explosive ap- petites, their aggressive nature. Consid- er, for example, what happened to Webb and me on a fall day when warm tempera- tures for late November had turned the air to ganze, We crept gingerly over and down an armoured bank then laboriously Jaid tracks across a snow covered bar. lined gum boots we'd recently glued on the end of my latex waders, woolly pants, and matching un- derwear, but it was Doug who hooked the first fish, which he lost, then another, which he beached. It was a reddening summer steelhead. As Webb struggled to disgorge the hook with his icy hands and turn the fish upright so I could take for a quick portrait, he noticed a yellow spaghetti lag protruding from between scales next to the fish’ dorsal fin. This was one of the summer steelhead lagged by seiners working the approach waters to the Skeena. **What’s the number??? I asked. *“Tcan’t read it,’’ said Webb. ‘“The tagi is covered with algac.’’ He scraped at it and squinted. ‘“‘Twenty- two...uh... Twenty-two...Forty-two, Yeah, that’ s it, twenty-two, forty-two.’? 2242. We repeated the number a number of times secure it in our decrepit memory banks. “So, what is wrong with my fly?” I asked, Doug shrugged, “I’m using, a Seafood,’’ he of- fered. | bit off the big marabou contraption I'd been ., using then fastened on a small, dark blue favourite I _ call Something Blue. and, started i in at the top of the mun, Five minutes later I was sharing some ‘observation with Webb when my rod began bobbing slowly and thythmically. It. was the kind of motion you feel when you've hooked a sizable branch or snag small! enough, or not so well embedded, that it can be lifted off the bottom. I reeled and pumped the rod. There was a gentle resistance. “It’s a fish, Webb — No kidding — a lazy fish.” Even at that somnambulant pace it took me about five minutes to slide the creature to shore, There she lay, fatigued, It was twenty-two, forty-two once more. We shook our heads as the stcelhead hesitated for a few seconds then bolted. After considering the question of steelhead ag- gression for quite a few years naw I’ve come to the conclusion thai fish like 2242 are more the rule than the exception. In all but the most restrictive conditions — times when the water is an icy gel or as hot as bath water or opaque — all steelhead will bite on even the crudest of Lures, My good friend Dionys deLeeuw, who, as a fisheries biologist, has spent much more time on this question and subjected to scientific scrutiny, agrees, with the well being of these fish do when faced with a situation like that on the Zymoetz River where 2242 and her summer run counterparts have moved into holding pools for a full six months be- fore spring spawning. This is the dilemma facing regional biologist Bob Hooton. Every year some Zymoetz fish are poached; every year squads of very skilled catch-and-release anglers hook many of them once, and Some more than once. To many anglers this kind of angling over a cap- tive pool of fish is uncthical. It’s doubtful whelher a fish can be played to death — but playing with them certainly doesn’t do the animals any good. What is more imporiant, increased pressure upon the fish unquestionably increases the risk of inflict- ing a lethal wound. To test the vulnerability of these steelhead, Hooton recently dispatched Ron Tetreau and Mark Beere to the middle reaches of the river. They returned to Smiibers and reported catches which in Bob’s professional . opinion justified closing the winter months, T can appreciate Bob’s concem, but there is an altemative. Reduced bag limits imposed on the Copper years ago reduced mortality, - Banned kil! even further, The next logical step is to impose a fly fishing only restriction. Hooking winter fish on the fly. {n the dead of winter is a daunting proposition. Far fewer fish will be hooked, I’ve never had a bleeder when using a fly for steelhead, and I can only recall sccing one ficers will be simplified since anyone not packing a Ayrod will be breaking the law, There will be anglers on the river to observe and report poachers, those few selfish men who are im- pervious to regulation of any kind. Finally, we will still have an opportunily to caich the few Chrismas steclhead that enter the river in late November and early December. -- hibition I was first in the cold water, cherishing the felt- . Given this situation, what docs someone charged | Zymoetz to angling above the first canyon in the . organic baits from the river years ago reduced the - fish killed that way. The task of. conservation of- GREAT GAMES and a few disappointing defeats — that was the summary of the Kermode boys’ basketball team trip to a Prince George tournament Dec, 14-16, But the team didn’t have to wait until: the tournament to get into some really great ball. On the way to Prince George they stopped in Vanderhoof on Dec. 14 for an impromptu ex- game with — the Nechako Valley ieam. ~ The Vanderhoof team is ranked No, 3 in the double A division, said Kermode’s coach Cam Mackay. However that proved no obstacles for the Kermodes. They handily defeated Nechako Valley 95- 87. “The kids played really well,’ said Mackay. Guard Joseph Dominguez was ‘‘real- ly hot,’’ scoring 27 points, He _ would continue to play well over the weekend. © Other top scorers were David Kelly with 16 pts. and Todd Kluss and Brian Demedeiros, each with 14 pts. . Friday, Dec. 15 saw the mae POWERHOUSE: Joseph Dominguez has bean a tap scorer for the Kermodes in most of the key contests so far this season. shames gets ink in ski A DECEMBER 1995 “Ski Canada”’ article has given a compliment to Shames Mountain for its powder and runs. Billed as a grunge tour of places where there hasn’t been major government money in- vested in facilities, the article included an examination of skiing at Powder King north of Prince George and Westcastle Park in Alberta. “For them, mere survival is an achievement. Come April, i’s often an open question whether there’ll be a next sea- son,’” wrote author George Koch ‘of the idea behind the TERRACE STANDARD. | TIME OUT: Caledonia coach Cam Mackay calls. in . the team to go over strategy before the Kermodes 9° back out on the court. The team finished third at a recent Prince George tournament. Kermodes playing Quesnel Secondary in the Duchess Park Tournament. Although the Kermodes easi- ly beat out Quesnel 91-65, Mackay was disappointed with tour. Koch loved Shames cnce he got to the mountain but had less than kind things to say about the “dirt bag towns’’ leading along Hwy16é to Ter- race. “T’d been intrigued by Shames ever since I began hearing hushed, cult-like whispers about it in bars at Apex and Red,’’ said Koch. **Those areas have no need to give a second thought to any second-rate mountain.”’ “But driving to Terrace seemed like going to the ends of the earth. And, in way, it their performance. He benched his starters in the third quarter, and relied on the second string after that, which he said played quite well, Once again Dominguez was the lead scorer with 25 pts. Demedeiros followed with 16 pts, Kelsey Hibder sunk 11 pts. and David Kelly came in with 10 pts. Saturday’s game pitied the Kermodes against toumament host Duchess Park, Duchess Park, is ranked No, a1 in the double As, and. they. . ‘ beat the Kermodes 86-60. Dominguez got nearly half of those pts. — 29 in total. But the Kermodes redeemed themselves in a game Mackay described as one of their best all year. The Ketmodes were matched up against College Heights, the #2 ranked team. The battle was for third place in the tournament, and the Kermodes came oul ahead, 105-84, The Kermodes had lost 109- 95 to this team in a tourna- ment on the previous weekend, so the win was even sweeter. ‘When we played them last time they were pretty well polished,’ said Mackay. “‘We’re still shopping for some polish.’’ was. Once there, I realized the only remaining stop is Prince Rupert — after that, water ‘til Tokyo,”’ Koch continued. The writer became really im- pressed with Shames —— and the amount of powder that falls on the mountain —- once he tried the snow outside of the mountain’s cut runs. What he encountered were “‘some of the finest glades I’ve ever found in Canada, with the deepest, most fre- quently replenished snow- cover,” Koch also said skiers going fo Shames should walk Dominguez and Demedeiros split 50 of those points down the middle. John Crawley, Fraser deWalle and Neil Hailey also played excep- tionally well, added Mackay. kkk k The Caledonia boys weren’t the only local high sctiool bas- ketball team in action. The Caledonia senior - girls team also finished third at a tournament. in Prince George over the weekend, Terrace beat D.P. Todd 95- 39 in their first game, then lost ~78-49* to fourament-winning:~ - Duchess Park, The Cal girls beat Vander- hoof’s Nechako Valley girls for third place. kk kkk AND A THIRD local basket- ball team placed third in recent action. Thornhill Jr. girls hosted an eight-team tournament here and took the number 3 spot behind Bulkley Valley Chris- tian School and second-place Kitwanga. BVCS beat Kitwanga 65-47 in the final. Thornhill defeated Kitimat by a wide margin for third place. Thornhill also was named the most sportsmanlike team, The team’s next game will be in Smithers Jan. 13. beyond the areas covered by its lifts to enjoy the full skiing experience, “‘Shames is gripped by irony and paradox,'’? Koch con- tinued, ‘‘The mountain holds a lease to 2,833ha of terrain. Of that, precisely 60ha is marked, patrolled area. The rest is tour- at-your-own-risk.”” hk kkk Shames also drew mention in the ski magazine’s annual biggest and best list for ski areas across Canada. It’s been called one of the coun- iry’s best kept ski secrets and drew praise for being the fastest . open after heavy snowfalls, Knights edge out Terrace all-stars TERRACE ALL STARS fought a close battle with the Whitehorse Knights last Fri- day before falling 6-5. The exhibition game raised about $1,400 for the Rick and Paul King Foundation, Troy Farkvam opened the scoring for Terrace in the first period, and was fol- lowed by goals from Mitch Shinde and Ken Newman, to build a 3-0 lead going into ‘the first Intermission, But the Knights came back in the second period scoring four goals to Terrace’s single marker netted by Marlo Desjardins. Going Into the third peri- od, the score was tied 4-4. Davey Jones scored | for Terrace in the third period, but a goal by Whitehorse’s Daryl Sturke evened the game at five apiece, The - Knights’. Randy Merkle then scored to give Whitehorse the 6-5 win, It was a good, fast back- and-forth game,’’ said Brian Downle. He said about 500 people turned out to watch, The Knights were coming ¢ off 13-6 defeat the night be- fore at the hands of the Rus- slan National under-{8 hock- ey team. | - An evenly played first peri- od ended tied 2-2 that game before the Russians took ad- vantage of power plays and sloppy defence to pump in 11 mere goals, There were a number of scraps resulting In a total of six players ejected from the game, The loss of players hurt the Knights hard who went into | the game wiih only three lines, whilé the Russians had 21 players on the bench.