Partridge and
greens

he cancer that started in Finlay’s
blackened miner’s lung had aimost
wrestled him to the ground. It had
him by the throat now; he spoke in a:
whisper frayed at the edges.

“How you feeling?’’ I asked. ‘‘Not good,” he
answered, For Finlay, who didn’t like to burden
anyone, a ‘‘not good’? meant he was in agony.
“You want to go for a drive down the Skeena?”’ I
asked, .

The river was low and clear as the sky. There’
had been no fal} storms yet. The leaves were bril-
liant, Most of them were still hooked to the trees.

Fin loved the Skeena west of Terrace, He loved
the surprises and the complex fishing along the
long, gray bars. Two years ago, at 83, he was still
making the walk and wade down the Shames
River to fish the riffles above Komaham. I was
sure that getting him out of his dark trailer would
lift his spirits.

“YT don’t have the energy for it, Rob,’’ he
rasped, I knew, then, he wouldn’t be here much
longer.

During the next week I visited Finlay a couple
of times. His energy was waning along with his
ability to talk. We watched Lani Waller catch

Clinton’s woes on CNN, watched hockey and a
couple of middle weight bouts on TSN. I made
coffee and gave Finlay reports on the salmon fish-
ing at Remo, on the Copper steelheading and on
the Kilimat cutthroat, which, I told him, was poor. |
. This declaration fired him up. He pulled himself
of the sofa and walked into his bedroom. In the
last 10 years Finlay always walked slow, weighed
down by that bad lung, but now his pace was so
slow it was agonizing. 1 waited a long time. He
reappeared, carrying a peppermint tin, made his
‘way back to the couch, sat gingerly, then pried it
open. The skin on his hand was smooth, shiny be-
tween the blotches put there by years of work and
weather: grave spots, I thought, recalling an im-
age of my dad looking at his and laughing sar-
donically. .

Finlay pulled a small fly from the tangle and
held it up between us. ] squinted. I don’t see well
up close,

“This is the answer,’’ he said in a voice that
sounded like the wind at the tops of the trees or a
distant riffle.

The fy was a partridge and green dressed on
one of those ring eyed Japanese hooks that he'd
grown so fond of. It took me back, in quick drifis,
to the November moming on the run below the
Cee Zed Bridge when the morning mist was just
above our heads. Finlay quietly catching trout
after trout behind me while I worked hard to per-
suade one — only one — fish to take a minnow.
Finally, I turned to him.

“What're ya using for God’s sake?’ “Partridge
and Green,’” he said,

For a Scot bom in Callendar, it was the right
fly. A frugal fly in the manner of Stewart and
Pritt; the cutthroat thought so too.

But, this Partridge and Green was different: it’
had the sparse grouse hackle and the dubbed
thorax supporting it, and it had the green body,
but over top it Finlay had wound a narrow gauge
of green vinyl that gave the thing a watery trans-
fucence. «

I stopped at the Fish Tales Tackle Shop on the
“way home. Finlay often shopped there, I
. suspected he’d found the vinyl there, and I was
right. I took the spool home and dressed some
Partridge and Greens on size cights.

The bugs looked so appealing that I wrapped

some orange, yellow and red versions.
- The next day I fished one of them through the
Bread and Buller Run on the Zymoetz on the end
of a long Jevel leader and a floating line: the Fin-
; lay Ferguson approved method, the one I’d
' watched him use day after day, on the Skeena, the
: ‘Lakelse, the Kitimat, and right here, on this very
run, one September 10 years ago, when he caught
two steelhead on a number ten Partridge and
orange while I went fishless with a big leech.

At mid-run one fish boiled under the Ay. Seon
after that another took then came unstuck. Late in
the aflernoon with the water covered in the
.° Shadows built from the long, dark reflection of
' trees, I fastened securely to a powerfui little fish
: and subdued it. I drove home quickly, listening to
-+ Muddy Waters, thinking about Kitimat cutthroat
‘and how one might improve on other sparse wet
"* fies, and yearning to tell Finlay how well his fy
: had performed, Before I could tell him anything .
: Bruce phoned to say his dad had passed away In.
his sleep. -

of _ Pil have to wail and tell him, I thought

steelhead in the Babine, ‘listened to analysis of

OOS

NT: $

RU ARR

THE ANNUAL EVENT: Skee

na Junior Secondary students
ward to the Milk Run every year. Teachers chased students to the finish line as
they turned out to compete in the charity event. Above: Sukh Dhaliwal takes a
quick peek to see how far behind him the competiton was. Dhaliwal won the race
in an easy 15 minutes. Top right: Teacher Joset Graham promised to shave her
head if the school topped its 1998 total. Bottom right: School organizer Kari Sted-
ham congratulates runners on their home stretch back into the Skeena parking lot.

HAS REN LER EE i

5 Said
and teach

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 5, 1999 - C1

ers look for-

nA

wes

Milk Run brings in
$4,386 for charity

Skeena almost
doubles money

raised last year

AS ONE of B.C.’s seven kick off
schools for the 1999 Milk run, Skeena
Junior secondary students knew the
pressure was on.

Their goal? They had to prove they
could meet or beat last year’s school
total of $2,300,

And, with a little cajoling from
teachers, they did it By 4 p.m. Tues-
day, April 27 the school raised
$4,386.91 and counting,

Teachers and principals shaved their
heads, students performed dance
routines to Alvin and the Chipmunks
tunes and one student even dressed up

as, you got it, the school cow,

“It’s part of school culture,” said
principal Rob Greenwood. “‘I’s
something we all get into,’’

He said after awhile the amount of
money collected almost becomes
secondary. Teachers said they were
impressed with the amount of moncy
raised because of the poor economic
conditions in Terrace this year.

Many of them hope Skeena will be
B.C.’s top school this year,

“We usually don’t find out the
resulis until September,’’ said Green-
wood. “But this year we'll be phon-
ing them.’”

One of ways Skeena managed to be
so successful was by cliciting a little
classroom rivalry. , :

Mr, Gasser’s class raised $607.05,

‘

Mrs, Shaw’s class raised $573.90 and
Mrs. Sheperd’s class raised $496.80.

The school’s top money-makers
were Dan Wittkowski ($248) and Tara
Hillert ($218). Three students —
Jeremy Lipold, Emily Renaud, and
Chris England — collected more than
$100 cach, :

Fifty per cent of the money raised
will buy sports equipment for children
and youth suffering from Muscular
Dystrophy, through BC School
Sparts.

Six other organizations: BC Whceel-
chair Sports, the Canadian Diabetes
Association, Canadian National In-
stitute for the Blind, the Kidney Foun-
dation of Canada, the Lions Society
and Scleroderma Association of B.C,
will also receive moucy from the run.

Prince Rupert junior takes
Thornhill badmintion title

adults battled each other in

Davies and Dan Tuomi won

ADRIAN LIU kept local

, badminton players off their

game ata junior badminton
tournament at ‘Thornhill
Junior Secondary April 17.

The Prince Rupert player
won the A-flight single
championship and, with
partner Phat Tram, took the
doubles gold medal west as
well.

His closest competition in
the singics was loca! star
Nathan Rintisch of Centen-
nial Christian, ‘who took
home the = B-Alighit

championship. Robert
Cobum and Richard Lefran-
cois of Thornhill Junior
used their home court ad-
vantage to win the C and D-
flight competitions.

In doubles play, Russell
Sweet and Jolin Wickie beat
out Brendan McAreavy and
Camille Baguio of Centen-
nial Christian to win the B-
flight honours.

Just one week earlier,
Thornhill Junior was home
to the Terrace Open Bad-
minton players, where local

an attempt to take bome the
club title,

Judy Flaherty took home
ihe - women’s A-flight

singles trophy while Nancy:

Condon and Melodie Julseth
won the A-flight doubles
event. B-flight winners were
long-tiine club contenders

Diane Cey and Mui Luc of

Terrace. ;

In the men’s event, Lance
Gordon. beat out Steve, Weir
for the A-flight medal; - ~
“In the doubles event, Al

the A-flight men’s cvent
bealing ont Henri Michaud
and Dan Kovacs. Glenn
Reece and Steve Weir took
home the C-flight doubles
championship.

Mixed play saw women’s
champion, Judy Flaherty
and partner Mark Flaherty
take on women’s doubles
winner. Nancy Condon and
her particr, Lance Gordon
‘for the A-flight win. :

‘Ron and Melodie Julseth

> won the C-flight’ medal.

"Annie Witkowski
Peaks’

star #17
in Calgary

TERRACE GYMNAST
Annie Wittkowski came
home from the Western
Canadian Gymnastics
Championships in Calgary
wilh a smile on her face.

‘She had a wonderful
time,’’ said Terrace Peaks
representative Lorl Schul-
meister,

Wiltowski helped- the
B.C. team bring home a
gold medai and plans to
use the experience to build
on next "year’s
championship.

Her best individual per-
formance was eleventh on
the beam. Sie finished
seventeenth overall.

The Terrace Peaks Gym-
nasts teain plans to send
all its level two and three
gymnasts to Kelowna May
39 for the packed BC,
Cup Championships.

‘*Phey’Il compete
against the best of the
best,’? Shulmeister said,