A12 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 28, 1995

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SPORTSMENU

" SKEENA’AN
ROB BROWN

Elusive giants

N WEBB’S ancient map, the upper

floors of the Nass and Skeena

watersheds look like soft land looks

when it has had a heavy, irregularly
shaped object dragged across it.

Bonney Lake looks like rainwater that has just
hit the greasy windshield of a fast moving Ford,
At ground level the lake is long and half a mile
across. Two strokes with the paddle puts the
bottom out sight. The water is deep, dark,
brown. We troll proven patterns along the edge,
over the places where we've seen a rise, but ail
we can attract are handspan rainbow trout,

Every time we round a bend there is another
channel. Every one looks like a dead end, yet
each opens up into another, good sized lake.
From the shrubs at the gateways of some of
these canals fluorescent orange flagging hangs
as proof other boaters recognized getting lost is
a distinct possibility.

The hedge and edge are the places skilled lake
bound fish prospectors seek out. Creek mouths,
inflow and outlet, are always at the edge, usual-
ly contain weeds, and many have well-stocked
shelves neaxby. We paddle to the spot where
Bonney Creek drains its lake. Webb casts an an-
chor windward as I cast line the other way. Un-
dermeath us Jay enough logs to fill a mill yard:
thousands of them, a waterlogged forest, cros-
shatched, piled one on tap of the other to depths
untouched by light. We peer over the gunwales
down prisms. Here is a place for nymphs, deli-

cate damsels and prowling dragons, for un- °°

dulant, blood-sucking leeches as brown as ale
and as thick as shoe leather, clouds of fat, ir-
ridescent shrimp and, of course —- growing fat
and pink on all of them — Mr. and Mrs, O, Gar-
dineri, and the kids, a family of giants.

So, how long after glacial shrinkage and a set-
tling period did it take these logs to grow, snap,
drift, saturate and sink? I put the question to
Webb. ‘‘A long time,’ he answers, Correct, but
a long, Jong time is closer to the mark.

We count down in time with our sinking lines,
one thousand, two thousand...then strip marabou
leeches and woolly dragons boatward with long
rhythmic pulls: strip, pause, strip, pause... star-
ing at the point where the line enters the water
like a pair of hungry heron stalking fat trout.
We hold the line gently, carefully tending the
coils, anticipating the tippet splitting smash and
grab of a leviathan. We catch trout that could
swim lengths in a small skillet. Damn,

What's the problem? We have traded enough
insider information to know there are big trout
here. The fire pit at the primitive campsite was
filled with the shucks of spoons, spinners and
gang troll. After a grave discussion we decide
that the campers who shed those packages knew
what they were doing — or lucked on to the
right approach. These trout are not big, they’re
BIG: leviathans that refuse to expend energy on
caddis fly sushi or chironomid hors d’ocuvres.
These guys cannibalize; for them, only flesh of
fish will de. Having nothing that wobbles franti-
cally enough to bounce vibrations off the lateral
line of these brutes (and unable to cast them
even if we had) we retum to the truck and, ten
kilometres later, find the Upper Kwinageese.

It occurs to me, as I look at the jig-sawed
panel structure on the river bank, that Panabode
means an abode built of paneis. It also strikes
me it is isken me the better part of half a
century to figure this out. It also strikes me
abode is am anagram for adobe, the building
material of choice for Hopi Indians, the stuff
from which they constrict these simple, dry,
windowless desert dwellings. This abode, dank
and moldy, mouse infested, a black of wood
nailed ta the floor so the occupant can wedge a
two by six plank between it and the door to
keep out unwanted, furry intruders, is about as
far away from a Hopi house as you can get.

At first, ] think if I were here in autumn look-
ing for mushrooms or moose or fish, I'd choose
to sleep under the stars. When I notice the
abundant berry bushes, and imagine the number
of salmon in this river — nothing less than a
long meandering spawning channel — and con-
sider how strongly bears will be attracted to this
place, I think I’d opt for the cabin after all.

The riveris clean and high, but not impossible
to wade, so we de. From there we make a
swealy mile walk to Fred Wright Lake, another
body of water known for large fish, dolly var-
den this time. Here, on the banks of the Fred
Wright, we come to the conclusion that the
lower Kwinageese is a multi-day camping
proposition, and we're not set up for it, “‘This is
an amazing country,’ I say to Webb, who
knows this already, “‘Let’s leave this one for an-
other time and go fish the Meziadin.’”

(Next week alien fishing craft on the Meziadin
River, See you there.)

Title stay

THE ’95 rugby season is over
and the Terrace Northmen
have dodged the bullet.

The season came to an un-
expectedly early end when the
Smithers Camels, having cried
off a game scheduled for the
night before, suggested the
Sunday, June 18 game be for
all the marbles.

Facing the prospect of sur-

rendering the North Coast
Ruby Union league: title for
only the second time in-a
decade, the Northmen came

out flying.
Taking control .from the
Start, Terrace sprung the

‘Madison’ play at the seven
minute mark, one they had
been practising hard at for this
showdown,

. scrum-half George DaCosta
fed Dean Johnson who
ploughed forward until
stopped, Graham Bayles then
took over, finishing with a
retum feed to DaCosta who
went over for the try.

Willie McCleary lofted the
convert through the uprights,
7-0 Northmen.

And it stayed that way for
most of the rest of the half,
Terrace twice muffing solid
opportunitics with errant
passes in the three-quarter
line, the Camels missing two
penalty kicks, then throwing
up a defensive wall to stop the
Northmen on the line.

But the Northmen were not
to be denied. A Terrace attack
having been stopped inches
short, DaCosta took the ball
from the loose, faked right,
passed left and Bayles darted
in for the major and a 12-0
lead.

The Camels having missed
another penalty — their regu-
lar kicker was missing from
the line-up — the Northmen
almost struck again in the
dying seconds when a sizzling
run by Kevin Letawski ended
with his being pushed out of
bounds a yard short.

Terrace was unlucky not to
add to its lead seven minutes
into the second half, The
Northmen having got posses-
sion off a Smithers lineout,
McCleary dummied to Dean
Johnson then fed — Brian
Saywich.

_ Saywich made the end zone
but was pushed out before he.
could touch the ball down, a
must for a try to be scored.

Three minutes later a some-
what desperate attempt to get
on the board with a drapped
goal attempt having failed, the
Camels started to show the
spirit that had placed them at
the top of the table for most of
the season.

But an atiempt to convert
spirit into points failed when

sin Terrace |

te $4 a ‘

Dale Orosz, the Northmen’s
last line of defence, hauled
down a Camel attacker with
inches to go.

And on the two ensuing 5
metre scrums, the Northmen
stonewalled the Smithereens
again.

That was all she wrote for
the Camels, the Northmen
finishing it off when a Bayles
to DaCosta to McCleary to
DaCosta move ended with the
Northmen’s scrum half going
over for his second.

McCleary added the convert
for a 19-0 final, the Northmen
retaining possession of the Dr.
RD. (Dale) Greenwood
trophy for another year.

THE NORTH Coast Rugby
Union League may be going
back in time next season.
Spokesman David Hull
said the current heavily
compressed schedule
packed with double headers
is proving too demanding.
The main problem is in-
juries, he explained. Get
hurt Saturday and you either
sit out Sunday's game or
play anyway and tisk
making the injury worse.
Hull also noted players
,.moving up here from Lower
Mainland leagues were

Double headers to go?

astounded to encounter
what they regarded as a
“masochistic’’ schedule,

Hull said the options were
to extend the season into
July or return to the split
schedule used a few years
ago. The latter looks most
likely given July is a
holiday period which might
make it difficult for teams
to field full squads,

A split schedule would see
half the season played in
May and June with the re-
mainder being played out in
the fall,

Armstrong times it just right

WHEN IT comes to timing,
Randee Lee Armstrong knows
what it takes.

The 12-year-old Biueback
went into the Prince Rupert
swim meet without a ‘AAA’
qualifying time to her credit.

Aid came away with five,
ane more than she needed to
book a trip to the provincials.

One of the five came in a
special time trial in the 100m
Fly. Armstrong had been a
little flat in the regular race
but in the trial she cut loose to
make the grade. |

Another time trial was staged
for Julie Vanderlee. who had
been frustratingly close to the
100m Fly qualifying mark for
13-14 year. olds: in both
Kitimat and Edmonton,

It was more of the same in
the regular race at Rupert but

Vanderlee dug in the trial to
beat the traget time by 4/10ths.

The duo's performances
were on a par with the pattern
for most Terrace swimmers —
they got fasler the longer the
mect went on.

Coach Mike Carlyle said the
AAA swimmers had obviously
been feeling the effects of four
wecks of tough training. As a
result they were a liltle tired
and started out [fat.

That changed in a big way,
though, with Bluebacks
eventually setting five pool
records in individual events
and another in a relay.

Kevin Andolfatto took near-
ly a second off the 15 years
and up 50m Breast record on
-his second last swim of the
meet while Tristan Brown
waited for his last to just crack

the 50m Fly mark for 11-12
year olds,

Joining in were Chris
Kerman in the 200m Back for
13-14 year olds, Kyle Nariz,
12, in the 200m Back and in
the same age group Bryan Pal-
ahicky desiroyed the 200m
Breast record and his previous
best time.

Despite the record-breaking
performances, the overall best
lime percentage was one of the
lowest Carlyle said he had
seen from the Bluebacks.

However, he added, that was
due in large part to the heavy
concentration on technique
with a number of the younger
swimmers. The goal had been
to perfect the strokes rather

. than worry about times.

Even so, some swimmers

were able to lower a number

of the previous best times.

Elizabeth Nystrom, 11, went
five for seven with significant
improvements in the 100m
Free and 100m Breast.

Stacey Parr, 13, was also
pouring it on, counting six
personal bests in her nine
swims during which she never
finished out of the top four.

And there were encouraging
performances from some of
the younger Bluebacks, notab-
ly eight-year-olds Kelsey
Wood and Kaela-Mari Cam-
midge,

Wood posted three PBs and
finished in the top four in five
of her six swims.

Cammidge also set new per-
sonal marks in three events in-
cluding victorious swims in
the 50m Free and 50m Back,