ar B6- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 9, 2005 SKEENA ANGLER ROB BROWN _ House Peter ay back in the last century, Webb and , Lower Potato. Patch. He was wear- ing a.pork pie hat and ‘one of those coats popularized by Clint Eastwood in a string of spaghetti westerns. Even so, we probably wouldn’t "gest rod cither of us had ever seen: The thing was half again as long as the ten foot ‘drift rods that we used in the winter; when it was too cold, and way too difficult to catch steelhead with our fly rods. *“Hey,whadya do when ya gotta’ make a short cast?” I yelled across the Kispiox, in a friendly , tone. _ The man stopped. He looked at.us fora moment, "in, what seemed to me an imperious way (though, ‘Tmust admit, I. couldn’ t really tell this from’ that rin, his gargantuan: rod wobbling rhythmically with ~ each step. ; Some time after that, I was. s talking to the Judge. ‘We were talking about fi ishing, because that’s what slipped from one fishy topic to another and arrived at.a chapter concerning tackle, rods specifically. The image of the guy with the wobbly rod appeared on-my, mental screen. I told the Judge about it. “House Peter...sounds like House Peter.” “"House'Peter?” | echoed. - _ F=*Y eah, ” said the: ‘Judge, .~ House Peter.” The Judge went on to say that he’d run into the guy on the Thompson, where, even on that big riv- er, the latter’s enormous pole was a lightning rod when it came to attracting the attention of other fishermen. Not long after that I came across a couple of articles penned by an Eric Maison-Pierre in back issues of Salmon Trout Steelheader. Here too, the man with the long rod stood out: The usual fare in Salmon Trout Stcelheader were crudely crafted un- imaginative articles about a couple of sportfishin’ bubbas bonking “giant kings” or ‘“tackle-bustin’ “2 with a gob of bait. Maison-Pierre, on the other hand, wrote about‘ using a floating fly line to sus- pend scantily clad flies just. below the surface film “them in the same‘manner that he might be moved to ‘gaze heavenward by the brilliance of a bright star. After those encounters with Maison-Pierre, | started rummaging around for information on long rods. This.was during the dark times before Google, more primitive means. Long fly rods, | discovered, were traditionally the salmon rod of choice on the British Isles and were still the angling tool preferred by the anglers who fished the one- syllable salmon rivers of Scotland. I was surprised to discover that the two-handed I'd thought about it, | wouldn't have been: this was ‘Colonials brought their homeland habits to this col- ony then passed them on to,their progeny was not at ing fathers of fly angling in BC waved about two- handed poles fashioned of greenheart and bamboo: Noel Money, Tommy Brayshaw and Bill Cunliffe were three. It seemed that the passing of those men and their _ fellows, and the appearance of glass fibre rods as well as.a rapidly growing and influential American ' steelheading tradition, whose practitioners all used voured for loch and sea trout fishing, combined to this province. «. It lived on in Britain where The House of Hardy to I7 feet out of fibre glass. When the race to space begat graphite or carbon fibre, as it is known in the UK, the same companies recognized its strength and lightness and were soon crafting two- handed rod blanks from it. The Orvis Company began in the New World. Surprisingly, it's an older company than Hardy. Orvis has a branch in the U.K. They: began mak- ing double-handed graphite rods for the overseas market and listed them in their catalogue. I suspect that is where the iconoclast, Maison-Pierre got his. I ordered mine from Hardy through the Northwest Sportsman. After a month or so I spent w hat seemed like a small fortune in those days (and probably was, given my eamings and indebtedness). and took my Hardy 15 foot fly rod home. I pushed the three five foot sections together and wondered how in the heck I was going to make it work. Next week: adventures with a long pole. J spotted a guy on the far side of the: distance) then, continued on toward the tail on the’ “Eric “Maison-Piéiré poles were not uncommon in British Columbia. If” British Columbia, after all, and the fact that British - all astonishing. It turned out that some of the found- stout single-handed rods of the kind the Brits fa-. have noticed him if he hadn’t’ been packing the lon- - the J udge and I talk about mostly. The conversation: » steelies” that were caught on secret lure adorned - where (he imagined) steelhead could look up ‘at - but I still managed to find some information by bring the tradition of two-fisted fly rods to a halt in and Bruce & Walker continued to spin rods from 14 ic '.the events. Fisher taking on Ron Townley in what turned out “ond John Héighington and lead Jim Kellar low- ‘the first, but the momentum quickiye TERRACE STANDARD : CUAYTO KARUSO, far left, Dan Fisher, Jim Kellar and John Heighington h hold the trophies they picked up as winners of the B Event at the . Aluminum, Clty men 'S bonspiel in Kitimat. recently. Fisher’s rink finished off fellow Terracite Ron Townley’ s team.12-5. Terracites curl to top in ‘spiel : hammer coming home. Me anwhile, over.on sheet I, the Kennedy rink Was getling its cntryemoney’s worth, “going the TERRACE CURLERS came home from | the Aluminum City men’s spiel't in Kitimat with half rock against, Franz. Scholz of Kitimat. Kennedy had looked to be-.on a cruise carly when, Scholz having had to settle for a single in the first. the Terrace quartet struck with four i in the second. They held Scholz to just one again in the third, but then gave up a singleton steal to let the Kiti- matians close the gap to 4-3. The game then turned into a tactical tussle, , Kennedy blanking both the fifth and sixth. before having to take the single in the next. Scholz having fashioned a deuce in the eighth _B Event’ was an ‘all- Terrace affair. with Dan- to'be the shortest 'of the four finals. : . ‘Townley got off to a flying start with three in changed. Having replied with four.in the second, Fish- er’s quartet took control with steals of two in cach of the next two to draw 8-3 clear. , Townley picked up a deuce of his own in ‘the fifth, but when, Fisher,, third. ‘Cuay to Karuso. sec- full 0 ends in the C final and down to the last. events away from their Terrace hosts when they” 638-7283 ° NORTHERN SENTINEL PHOTO But the, last “end didn’t go quite according to Hoyle and when'Kennedy came to throw the first of his rocks, he was facing two blue counters. On the upside, there was a chance of a double. Kennedy just-missed the double, but at least ended up ying, , - Scholz drew his last into count but didn’ t set behind cover and Kennedy made no mistake with his TO: a 6-5 victory for Kennedy, third Dale Walker, second Les Kutenics and lead Tan Mun- son. Come Easter weekend. Kitimat curlers. will box” looking to return the compliment and steal a few: : ered the boom with another four in the next fora 2-5 lead, it was time to shake hands. Sport Scope Lacrosse your heart and hope to score LACROSSE is firing up again! Thanks to the midget team’s successful trip to the BC Summer Games last year, Kevin Fletcher, president Terrace » Minor Lacrosse, is hoping to expand the league to 100 kids’ with increases in’ the: mini tykes, tykes. novce and peewee divisions. : BC Lacrosse has created a new division to allow inter- . mediate and j juniors, 17 to 21-year-old, to combine and play competitively. Men over 22 are invited to register for the first yee ar of the seniors division. Ladies can come out to play as floor time will be avail- ‘able for drop-in lacrosse. If enough women show i interest, they will be registered in their own league. The league will play from May to mid- July. ~ Registration happens Feb [1 and 18 from 6 p.m. to9 pam. at the Terrace Arena and Saturday from noon until + p.m. Be sure to take check lacrosse bags for jerseys and equipment still missing from last year. All players who register before March 10 can enter the logo and name contest.at Save-on-Foods or Safeway. The winning entry receives a Vancouver Ravens bobble head doll and a ‘Team: Canada lacrosse jersey from the World Championships. Kids kick it! TERRACE YOUTH Soccer registration takes place Feb. | 1, 12 and 18, 19 at the Terrace Arena banquet room. Both Friday registrations go from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on Saturdays at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A $10 uniform deposit per player will be charged al reg- istration. Children, who still have last year’s uniforms, are asked to return them at regstration, Children won't be placed on teams until fast year’s uniforms are returned. Referees can register fora Class 4 referees clinic during soccer registration. The clinics happen from April If to. 14 at 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at NWCC. For clinic info, call Kim Gel- latly at 635-4005 or George Bujtas at 635-3719. . Bouncing off the walls SIGN UP for the first annual Women’s Indoor Soccer Tournament that runs into the gym at Caledonia Senior Secondary School Feb. 25 to 27. Organizer Janet Blower is taking registrations and an- - swering questions at 635-0584. Women over age 16 are welcome to enter. Interested players who arent on a team can register too. Hf the maximum of 10 teams hasn“t been reached by Feb. I+, registration will remain-open. Snow Valley Open postponed SNOW VALLEY Nardic Ski Club has announced that the Snow Valley Open at Onion Lake has been moved to Feb. 26 due to a lack of snow. ’ For more info on this Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC and Yukon fundraiser, contact Liz at 632-6055. to tic it up, Kennedy blanked the next to keep the hit the ice for the 50th annual Loggers Bonspiel. Bantams battle it out By MARGARET SPEIRS TERRACE BANTAM rep hockey gave it their all in Kitimat and Vanderhoof to finish their first month of play in 2005. On Friday Jan 21, they lost 9-6 to Kiti- mat, a game which coach John Amos said was close. “We were close and they gota cheapy. ™ he said. The bantams “played like the River Kings” during Saturdays game and lost 12-1. “It was just bad reffing. A young ref not secing everything.” Amos said. “| don’t usually get upset but some kids were almost in danger of getting hurt. - “LT told him (referee) 1 dont mind even if he’s filling our'guys up in the box, some- body's going to get hurt.” Young referees officiate. bantam games because it’s believed not much can happen with such young players, Amos said. “A game can deleriorate ina hurry no matter what age.” he said. In Vanderhoof the next weekend, the bantams scored a ‘1-121 record despite missing Wo top team members and playing against larger Opponents, Nathan Soucie and Alex Redpath didn't travel to the event, staying home instead for provincial exams scheduled for the Friday and Monday around the Jan. 29 tourney. With the number one line away, the rest of the team had to step up to the challenge, coach John Amos said. | The bantams toppled to Quesnel 9-3 ina game Amos said was close until the last five minutes. ; Terrace was -leading 5-3 but Quesnel scored four quick ones to end the game vic- torious. “The Quesnel kids were huge,” Amos said, adding a couple of the players were 6S”. Terrace tied their host 3-3 in their second game that broke their bad luck streak against their eastern opponents. ; “It was quite good because we haven't beaten them in two years.” Amos said. add- ing his team worked hard. “They had a full lineup and we were missing two. To tie them was quite an ac- complishment.” In the third game. ‘Terrace fost 5-3 to Prince Rupert after Rupert scored one into the empty net in the last minute, right after Terrace’s final try banged off the’post. The bantams host ‘Smithers this week- end. @ Staring down the competition _YVES THIBODEAU, second from right, played for the Evergreen Pub who took on Hazelton early last Saturday | in the 24th annual Old Timers Hockey Classic at the Terrace Arena. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO