KEITH FREEMAN

“SKEENA ANGLER
ROB BROWN

Good place to start

ho. There are a lot of them Tumning up the
Kitimat River. I'd like to catch some, says Andrew,

When he says this, my mind glazes over. Images whip
past the lens behind my eyes: silvered images; not the big
flashes of salmon, fresh and only a few ruiles from the sea,
but the flickers of sea run cutthroat trout, tuming over to
show their bright sides, glinting in the sun as they struggle
in shallows before | pull small flies from their jaws.

The word Kitimat triggers these snapshots and the
sharp smell of dying salmon mixed with dying leaves that
filled the air on the crisp mornings and the cold evenings
in the closing months of dying years now dead.

These impressions are pressed hard against a backdrop
of special recollections, like that of Ken Clarkson, the
man who introduced me to the harvest trout of the
Kitimat. Tall, with an unruly head of hair, covered to the
chest in ragged waders, Ken waded down the Little
Wideene, stalking trout. I waded behind him watching the
loops of his line unfold and set down a small Tam Thumb
that persuaded invisible trout to take form and dance.

Another time, Finlay and | caught a Jot of trout from
the run that Jies a short way downstream of the rotten
remains of the Crown Zellerbach Bridge after he discov-
ered the fish would look at nothing but a small Partridge
and Green. After that it was easy as we drifted down-
stream turough russet corridors, finding trout after trout
after trout, luxuriating in the fishing and speculating on
why the little Scotch fly was the ticket to it.

Yeah, I'm up for it, I say. -We'll decide on the drift in
the moming.

Inthe morning the river is clean. Since Andrew is keen
on coho, drifting from the Orange Bridge or the Washout
is out. The lengthy drift from upstream of the CZ Bridge
to the Cable Car subdivision holds promise, but when we
arrive, three vehicles with trailers are there,

Guides, I say, -If we put in here we'll be fishing behind
them all day. Maybe we should put my truck in town and
float down Hirsch Creek.

I did this float alone haifa dozen times, a dozen years
azo, floating past bears, packing around jams, taking out
at Kitimat. Once there I'd stash the boat and oars in Radley
Park, walk to the Kitimat pub in waders, call a cab, then
order the perplexed cabbie to take me back to my truck.

For old time's sake, I'm eager to make the trip again.
Andrew, fairly new to the Kitimat, trusts me. There are
changes in Hirsch Creek Park. A memorial--an aluminum
cross, decorated with plastic flowers that may last forey-
er--stands to the Kitimat youths gunned down there on a
night that sent shivers down the spines of the north coast
residents and tumed an industrious little city, that thought
such horrors were product of big cities, inside out.

The creek has changed too: trees are gone and with
them runs; where there were braids there are single chan-
nels; some old pools have disappeared, the contours of
others are altered. The corpses of chinook rot on the
banks, Pinks are spawning and dying. We hook a few
trout enroute to an impasse in the form of a mighty log

jam straddling the creek only a hundred yards from the
Kitimat proper. Getting my tatlered Avon over the logs is
tough; getting Andrew's spiffy new pontoon boat to the
other side is tougher.

Rafts and canoes stream down the Kitimat, their crews
spilling, out to cast lures at rolling coho. While Andrew
puts together his two fisted fly red, I bob down. river,
behind another rafter. Pawsome, my pooch, sils in the
bow like a coxswain, peering over my shoulder lest she
miss something. The riffles are broad and exciling to fish.
I find shiny trout in most of them. A.canoe passes me. Two
anglers hop out below and one them hocks a coho on his
first cast.

Am fin the right channel? I call.

Stay to the left all the way down and you'll be fine, is
the answer,

I round the bend and hit gusts. I'd forgotten about the
constant wind of the lower Kitimat. After rowing into it
for a while, I pull ashore at the top of Coho Flats. J fish
and wait for Andrew to catch up. Three trout later, he
does.

The guy with the flyrod downstream has been hook-
ing coho consistently, I tell him,

Andrew wades in awfully deep and soon hooks a
salmon too. It's covered in bumps, he says.

The fish looks awful: black and oily and covered in
zits. I leave Andrew and make for town and the truck. In
the distance white smoke rises above the industrial core.
Paws and [ pass pickups parked along the beach.
Fishermen cast lures. The howl of traffic frightens
Pawsome as we pass under the Haisla Bridge.

young man and his handsome young son walking to the
river,

How's fishing? the man asks. Decent, I tell him.

I'm here to teach the boy how to fish, he tells me. It's a
good place to start. [ tell him.

As I pack the raft to the truck I meet a handsome:

TERRACE STANDARD.

PORTS |

Sawing In the sun

3:

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 13, 2ho0 - BS

cee

fall down
'. Trevor Schofield (right)
. works his way up to the
80 foot mark in the pop-
ular pole climbing con-
test at the Logger's
Sports Sept.. 3.- Kevin
Steward won the pole
climb event, getting up
and down in just under
22 seconds. Organizer
Frank Pelle said this
year's events, which
coincided with the Fall
Fair were among the
most successful ever. ©

mClimbing to

BRAD HAUGLAND tries his hands at the single hand bucking during Logger's
Sports on the Labour Day weekend. Huge crowds turned out for the events,
capitalizing on sunny weather, mild temperatures and plenty of refreshments.

IT WASN’T a day you'd
choose to be cut golfing,
unless your local golf
course opened a full 18
holes for the first time.
That was the scene at
the Skeena Valley Golf
and Country Club on Sept.
6 as regulars and newco-
mers flocked to the course
to try out the new holes.
Many of them were also
warming up for the Club

_ Championships, held on

NEW TURF: This view, from the brand ne
zards golfers will face at the new-look Skeena Valley Golf and Country Club,
Ponds and tail grass are plentiful on the new back nine, but so far reaction to
the design has been favourable.

Course opens new holes

soe
uaa

Ao ee a SE a

the weekend.

“It adds a whole new
dimension to the course,”
said Paul Dozzi afler put-

ting on the 15th green. “

really like the Jayout.”
Club Manager Bruce
Carruthers said the work
that went into making the
new holes possible was
long and laborious and
much of it was voluntary.
' “We hada lot of dona-

43th tee shows some of the ha-

ear ce

ted equipment and labour,
and some donated money
as well,” Carruthers said.
In 1990, the golf club
bough! new land to the
east and south, for future
expansion. Engineering
and survey work, done en-
lirely by the club itself
was carried out over the

‘next few years.

The course design was

Cont'd Page B12

638-7283

_LOGGERS’
; SPORTS ©

RESULTS —

Axe Throwing
1, Gerry Lambert
2. Lee Black
3. Brad Laughlin
Log Chop Underhand

1. Scolt Lees (21.25)
2, Brad Laughlin (22.25)
3. Lee Black (30,74)

~ ‘Chokerman’s Race
1. Wayne Olney (18.87)
2. Brad Laughlin (19.75)
3. ScottLees (19,92)

Single Hand Bucking
1. Matt Mooney (18.98)
2, Brad Laughlin (19.75)
-3. Wayne Olney (20.67)

Obstacle Pole Bucking
~ "4, Gerry Lambert (11.73)
2. Brad Laughlin (13.70)
3. Wayne Olney (13.84)

Pole Falling
1. Matt Mooney
2. Nick Palagian
3. Andy Lambert

Double Hand Bucking (Partners)
1. B. Laughlin/M. Mooney (8.55)
2, L. Black/H. Starrett (10.41)
3. W. Olney/T. Schofield (10.66)
4. S. Leas/K, Steward (10.67)

_ Local Power Saw Bucking
1. Gerry Lambert (7.69)
2, Andy Lambert (7.94)
3. Vic Devost (9.74)

’ Standing Block Chop (Novice)
1. Darran Dean (28,89)
2. Trevor Schofield (29.50)
3. Harry Starrett (34.00)

_Chokerman's Race (Novice)
ae 1, Darren Dean (20,12)
2, Trevor Schofield (21.00)
3. Terry Basso (21.39)

Underhand Log Chop (Novice)
1, Wayne Onley (31.55)
2. George Steward (36.50)
3. Darren Dean (47.53)

Obstacle Pole Bucking (Novice)
1. George Steward (13.04)
2. Rick Williams (15.00)
3. Clayton Scott (18.42)

Axe Throwing (Novice)
me 1. Greg Clarke
2, George Steward
3. Trevor Schofield

Single Hand Bucking (Novice)

od 1. Darren Dean (32.03)
2, George Steward (43.84)
3. Terry Basso (47.66)

Power Saw Bucking
1, Lee Black (6.78)
2. Andy Lambert (6.89)
3. Trevor Schofield (7.06)

Stlhl Timber Sports
1. Gerry Lambert (5.30)
2, Lea Black (5.55)
3. Nick Palagian (6.08)

Open Power Saw Bucking
1. Matt Mooney (7.98)
2, Brad Laughlin (8.63)
8, Lee Black (9.10)

Log Birling -
1, Wayne Olney
2, Susan Scott
3. Clayton Scott

dack and Jill Crosscut
1, Laughlins (10.70)
2, Mooneys (12.51)
3. Haynes/Schofield (14.03)

Jil and Jill Crosscut
1. Laughlin/Mooney (16.13)
2. Scott/Haynes (21.18)

Pale Climb
1, Kevin Steward (22.62)
2. Trevor Schofiald (65.10)
3. Monti Braun (60.00)

Ladies Nail Driving
op . 1, Sandy Laughlin (1

2, Katelan Steward -(agyye)

8. Susan Scott (24.53) —

Overall Point Standings:
ee : 4, Brad Laughlin (27)
2, Matt Moaney (23)
3, Wayne Olney (18)
4. Gerry Lambert (15)
5, Sandy Laughlin (15)

eter ee