Bé - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, Octaber 10, 2001

SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN

TERRACE ‘STANDARD

SPORTS.

638-7283

SKEENA ANGLER

ROB BROWN

Surfacing
wenty-one years ago, when | first
started dragging deer hair on a hook
across the glides, riffles, and pools of
the Capper River, nobady else was. In

fact, almost nobody was fishing a fly

of any kind in those places, much less a surface

' pattern.

With exception of Roy Chapplow, Finlay
Ferguson, Ray Tank, and Pete Benoit, the local
fly fishing fraternity was peopled by fisherman
who spent most of their angling time casting
spoons and bait. Of the aforementioned fly fling-
ing quartet, Roy, Pete, and Ray fished some
kind of sinking line, while only Finlay fished a
floating line, but all of them used wet flies for

_their steelheading chores, assuming, quite na-
‘turally, that since steelhead spend most of the

freshwater portion of their lives near the bottom
of the rivers they travel, a wet fly was the logi-
cal way to provoke them into striking.

I thought so too. When gear fishing for stee)-
head, we made sure we had enough ballast to
put our bait near the bottom. When we made the
transition from the casting rod to the fly rod,
there was no reason to assume that the zone of
extraction would move upward. While we
thought we were fishing near the bottom with
our “high-speed, high-density” lines, we were
unknowingly mostly fishing closer to the top.

A fisherman should never pass up an oppor-
tunity to watch a river from a bridge; much can
be learned from thase lookouts. The epiphany
that got me fishing the surface came while
watching fly fishers try unsuccessfully to hook

steelhead lying at the bottom of a deep run on
an air clear river. As 1 watched, the casters”

using the hi-D sink tips barely penetrated the
first few feet of the water column. Even those
using the fastest sinking hi-D lines available at
the time with weighted flies spent most of their
time swimming their lures at mid water, which
is probably the worst place to fish for steelhead.

I’d seen USAmerican anglers on rivers in
Washington using stripping baskets to fish with
long lengths of lead core attached to running
line, but not only did employing that gear suck
all the grace from what should be a delicate and
graceful operation, but it was conducive to arm
and back strain and a hazard to the eyes.

The better way, it seemed to me, lay in per-
suading the fish to move to the fly, something
that should be possible given the aggressive na-
ture of the quarry. Fortunately, I stumbled onto a
number of articles in Salmon, Trout, Steelhea-
der by Bill Bakke and Bill MacMillan that de-
scribed their exploits with surface patterns. 1
also bought Trey Combs’ original (and by far his
best) book on steelhead entitled Steelhead
Trout, which net only recounted some of the
material I'd read in the articles by Bakke and
MacMillan, but chronicled similar contributions
to the sport by Harry Lemire, and covered paral-
lel techniques used by Atlantic salmon anglers.

Lemire’s Greased Liner became my first sur-
face pattern — my lab rat in those early Zymoetz
experiments — mostly because tying it was as
easy as rolling a cigarette, even with my nas-
cent fly Hieing skills. ft worked. Boy, did it work!

Alerted by its V-wake, steelhead vacated
their ambuscades and pounced on it like foxes
on field mice. I pulled my greased lines out of
their mouths, broke them off by lifting my rod
when I should have remained calm and let the
weight of my quarry pull the irans into the cor-
ner of their jaws and, I landed a few. So thrilling
was this grand adventure that I.chased down my
angling buddies and recounted each adventure
in what for them must have been excruciating
detail. Most of them of them just gave me to-
lerant, slightly suspicious looks, assuming, most
likely, that [ was making up these episodes, On
the stream, however, the tolerance turned to in-
credulity. One by one I showed my brother fly
fishers: Doug Webb first, then after him, Jim
Culp, Mike Graham, Stan Doll, and Mike
Whelpley, how our most coveted target, sum-
mer steelhead, would move greal distances,
sometimes in troubled waters, for flies skating
aver the surface like tiny water skiers.

The beauty of fishing a surface fly resides in
the fact that a guy can use a floating line, and
floating lines are conducive to effortless, grace-
ful, elegant casts; and in the fact that a guy can
see most of the action unfold on the boards of
the liquid stage below him; and because he can
bring a big fish up to.a small fly, thereby exag-
gerating the accomplishment.

Now, over 20 years later, when my minus-
cule nymphs and free floating flies. aren’t work-
ing, I dig into my fly wallet for a black version
of Ron Grantham’s sedge ~ nothing more than
Harry Lemire’s Greased Liner with it’s waking
propensities enhanced with the use of weed
whipper line, but brilliant nevertheless — and
drive summer steelhead to-a frenzy with it.

Sports Scope

Northern B.C. Winter

Games registration

THE 2002 Northern B.C. Winter Games don’t kick
off until February but interested participants must re-
gister by Oct. 30.

Competition at the games includes: archery, bad-
minton, masters men's basketball, biathalon, bowling,
chess, cribbage, Special Olympics curling and bowl-
ing, figure skating, gymnastics, Pee Wee hockey, kar-
ate, alpine skiing, snowboarding, swimming and
wrestling just to name a few.

The games are in Smithers Feb, 1-3. Competitors
wanting to taking part can contact Wade Loukes in
Terrace at 635-1142.

Special Olympics to start

TERRACE’S special Olympians will be back at the

bowling lanes and in the swimming pool next month.

All athletes and new volunteers must first register
before they can kick off this season.

Registration takes place at the Skeena Malt Friday,
Oct. 12 from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m,

Fees for athletes are $35. For more details about
BC Special Olympics and opportunities available for
athletes in Terrace call Jo at 635-7936 after 7 p.m.

Curlers in the house
CURLING SEASON is officially under way in Ter-
race, Ice is installed and curlers started throwing
rocks Oci. 4, All league play starts this week.

Junior curling registration is Oct, 17 with regular
weekly play starting Oct. 24. Juniors take to the ice
every Wednesday from 4-5 p.m.

Adult leagues fill up quickly so interested players
of ail skill levels are encouraged to enter now by call-
ing the Terrace Curling Club at 635-5583.

‘Don’t be shy if you do not have a full team, indi-
vidual players will be placed on teams.

Swap your skis

IT’S TIME to go into your storage areas, hau! out
your used skis and snowboards and head dawn to the
annual Shames Mountain and The Canadian Ski Pa-
trol’s annual ski and snowboard‘swap.° “

‘Doors-at: the-Terrace arena-wil : :
p.m. Friday, Oct. 18 for interested swappers to ‘drop |
off equipment. But please, no antique equipment.

Sales starts on Oct. 19 (sorry, no sales Friday
night) at 9 am. New and used equipment will be up
for grabs. For information call Barry Peters at 635-
5010 or Richard Stone at 635-1712.

The puck has dropped

TERRACE Men’s recreational hockey league is back
in action. Five teams are heading up the recreational
division this year with the same number of teams in
the oldtimers division.

Games for both leagues are played on a rotating
schedule five days a week.

You can catch the action Sundays al 9:30 and 11
p.m., Tuesdays at 9 and 10:30 p.m., Wednesdays at 9
and 10:30 p.m., Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. and Satur-
days at 8, 9:30 and 11 p.m. at the Terrace arena.

a not tof

THEIR average height is only 4°2” but
the Canadian Half Pints successfully
trounced Terrace’s much taller celebrity
basketball team in two back-to-back
games last weck,

The Half-Pints took on the Terrace
Hospice Society’s basketball leam -
made up of players from local businesses
- in the annual Mini-Hoops Basketball
benefit Oct. 4.

The early game filled the bleachers at
Caledonia Senior Secondary as. families
flocked to the gymnasium to take in the
entertainment. The second game didn’t
draw quite as large a crowd but fans
didn’t go away disappointed.

The Half Pints travel the country play-
ing basketball games complete with skits

CHRIS RUTTE, 21, shows off his basketball spinning techniques. He plays
basketball for the Canadian Half Pints and gives talks in schools telling children
ldge’others an Appearances. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO.

Half Pints get message out»

and a good dose of humour, but they also
spend time in schocls sending a message
to children that teasing is not cool,

“Nobody should miss the opportunity
of making a new friend,” spokesperson
Farmer Peie told a gym full of children at
Cassie Hall Elementary School the after-
noon before the game.

The message is simple — a person’s
appearance shouldn’t be a barrier to mak-
ing friends, :

Farmer Pete and his team of small
basketball players used humour to send a
serious message to the kids — and their,
families later that night — and it was very
well received.

Proceeds from the game raised $1,500
for the Terrace Hospice Society.

Stewart driving range swings into action

By SARAH A, ZIMMERMAN
IT ONLY has one season under its belt but the
new driving range in Stewart is a big success,

“We've had a successful season at the driv-
ing range,” said Stewart mayor Mark Edgson.

The first day of operation for the driving
range was July 24 and Edgson said on sunny
days avid poifers were lining up to take a
swing.

In an effort to attract more tourism the dis-
trict of Stewart began work on a new golf
course this year expected to cost in excess of
$600,000.

The first phase of the project saw the build.’
ing of the eight stall driving range this spring.

Completion of the nine-hole golf course is
scheduled to take three years, said Edgson,

The next phase includes finishing the first
three holes and greens, which should be done
by next summer. Three additional holes will be
established by next fall and the last three in
2003.

Edgson estimated the building of the range:

and first three holes will cost between

$200,000 and $250,000, Each additional, hole
beyond that is expected to cost between
$56,000 and $60,000,

The district has applied for a federal intra-
structure grant and local contractors have pit-
ched in by offering lower than usual rates to
help ease the financial burden,

But the new golf course could generate sub-
stantially more tourism money for. Stewart.

“I would imagine thal with the addition of a
golf course we will see people staying a liltle
longer in Stewart and see some people coming
here, deciding to stay instead of driving
through,” said Edgson.

He said Stewart sees up to 20,000 tourists
visiting during the summer season and he
hopes the new course will entice even more
peaple to stay in Stewart and: spend their
money at local businesses,

“It should be a significant draw for tourism,
to keep people here and that in turn benefits
local businesses,” he said.

“If it’s operated properly it should be a
money-making endeavour for the district," he

said. “ItUll prabably see three or four years of
development before we see any cash flow out
of it.”

But the course will also provide a much
needed summer recreation opportunity for the
residents of Stewart and golfers further south.

Edgson said the driving range and course
will offer an alternative to fishing, camping
and boating for locals.

“As it stands we have no summer recrea-
tion,” he said.

The design of the course will be unique in
that developers are pushing to retain a more
natural, less groomed appearance.

“Because the natural beauty is so oulstand-
ing here we're hoping. to retain as much of that
as possible,” said Edgson,

The course will incorporate an already ex-
isting fish stream into its design, towering
Sitka spruce trees and-a small man-made lake
in an effort to play Up its surroundings.

“And of course we're using all natural wood
products as much as we can, because we are a
wood producing community,” said Edgson: ’.

Drouin.
For results see page B 12.

3, oer
m That’s all folks |
THE LAST cross country mountain bike. race
of the season took place at the Onion Lakes
ski traits Sept, 30. The McBike X-Country drew
24 competitors from around the northwest.

Lacal rider Steve Roders (left) nabbed third
spot in the Sport Men category.

But it was Telkwa's Mike Jordan who got
top marks by coming in first overall inthe four-
lap trace beating out Terrace’s Andrew Hor-
wood .and teammate (and rival) Vincent:

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