ROB BROWN

Variety

oday I drove to the river on rainy

i | roads and caught steelhead, rocky.

mountain whitefish, dolly varden,

char, culthroat trout, rainbow trout’

and coho. Three of the steelhead were

reddish summer fish while the other two were!

winter steelhead with backs the colour of gun-

metal, silvered sides, and bellies as white as’
Beluga whales,

The summer fish fought doggedly. The
newer arrivals were a different matter. My duels
-with them were hit and run affairs where nothing
was decided until the last moment.

The Dolly Varden proved to be the remark-
able part of the day’s angling. They were robust

* fish. One was 28 inches long, easily the largest
dolly I’d caught this year. The coho was a deep
crimson with a black head and green along the
underside of his toothy jaw. I was glad he took
my fly in a spot that made landing him a relat-

' ively easy task.

The fishing was so good I kept at it through
lunch. Prompted by the realization that, besides
being hungry, I was wet and cold, 1 clambered
out of the river late in the afternoon. The raute
to the trail took me through a swamp where
parts of skunk cabbage stems were floating in
the water next to the holes left by the brown

bears that had dug them up.

I made my way back to the pickup, shed
my waders and raincoat then climbed into the
jeab. Soon I was enveloped in warmth as I
. cruised down the road listening to music. The

day had been one of many good ones I'd had

‘over the last month. | thought about what made
il so special and came to the conclusion that it:
was the variety of fish Id caught and the real-
ization that my desire to have a chance at all of 1
them has had a profound effect on my tackle
and my technique.

The steelhead I caught that day would have
taken one of those large sparkling leeches fa-
voured by so many steelheaders these days.
They would also have taken the octopi preferred "|
by the USAmerican combat fishers, but not
many, or any, of the trout would have. My suc-

‘cess at exploiting the diverse angling opportun-
ity and the level of my enjoyment in doing so
were a result of the fact that I had fished an
imitation of an emerging caddis pupae on a size
10 hook, a fly with universal appeal that day,
and on many other days besides.

As a result of my desire to avail myself of,
all the fisheries available, my steelhead fly
wallet has moved from the extraterrestrial to the
terrestrial. Once full of large gaudy flies it now
holds fraudulent sculpins, ersatz stonefly
nymphs, all stages of phony caddis flies, and
bogus mayfly duns too. My hatch matching has
progressed to the point where I have a sculpin
Pattern with the olive gray to imitate those that
Frequent the Skeena and a brown olive dressing
to imitate the bullheads of its darker bottomed
’ tributaries.

} am not alone in this. Hugh Storey, a very
fine and successful fisherman by any standard,
can be found fishing steelhead stonefly nymphs
in the spring, and egg patterns in the fall. Hugh

- Knows that when the giant stone fly nymphs are
‘clambering about, fishing a good imitation pro-
perly is very provocative. He also knows how to
tap into every kind of species with a good egg
pattern when the rivers are full of them. Hugh
also knows that using a floating line and a sin-
gle-handed rod allows him to switch quickly to
a dry fly or subsurface nymph should the condi-
tions call for it.

For years I did all my steelhead and salmon
‘fishing with two-handed rods, but now, uncem-
fortable with the fact that using the two-handed
“pole removes the opportunity to enjoy trout fish-
_Ing, I find the only time I use them is when the
‘air and water temperatures prohibit the use of a
“single-handed rod.

Over the years | came to miss the ability to

fish free floating flies upstream and to retrieve a

‘streamer in a way that makes it act tike the bail
fish it is designed to resemble.

_ One of the persistent fictions about two-
handed rods claims that they make playing fish
easier when, in fact, the opposite is the true. It.
is much easier to handle a fish near shore with a

,one handed rod. With the two-hander, fish are
often landed too soon and wind up flopping on

‘rocky beaches as a result.

Day in and day out, a six or seven weight,

“-one-handed rod will handle everything from

small trout to large steelhead, provided the lat-

- ter are played properly. Using a trout rod and

flies designed to reflect the ecosystem will en-

able an angler to catch more fish and, more im-!
- portantly, better enjoy the wonderous variety of:
‘fish available to thase who are blessed with the.

opportunity to fish Skeena, ho ae

TERRACE STANDARD

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 27, 2002 - BS

A CENTENNIAL Christian School

player blocks a hit from Bulkley Valley

Christian Schoo! at the zone finals Nov. 16. TIMOTHY SCHAFER PHOTO

Shoot-outs plague Kermodes |

IT WASN’T the finish they were looking
for. The Caledonia senior boys soccer team
came in 11th of 16 teams at last week’s pro-
vincial AA finals in Burnaby.

The team was shooting for a top seven fin-
ish but their hopes were dashed after losing
three very hard fought games.

“They did okay but we didn’t have luck
with scoring opportunities,” says coach Nick
Kollias. “And in the end, fitness — we didn’t

have the energy.”

The team put in a solid effort only losing
one game in regular time - two pames were
lost on a shoot-out, and the Kermodes racked
up ane win by clobbering Fernie 7-0 and an-

other win against Langley,

Couple tests endurance

By SARAH A,
ZIMMERMAN
DAVE and Mary Stewart
are among thousands of
people running in this
weekend’s Seattle mara-
thon — but after competing
in the Penticton Ironman
this summer the 42 km
race may well just seem

like a walk in the park.

The Terrace couple has
several marathons and
triathalons already to their
credit ~ this weekend’s
tace caps off a long season
of training and competing,

This summer’s Ironman
race was a significant one
for Dave — he logged his
fastest triathalon time ever
completing the 3.8 km
swim, 180 km bike ride
and the 42 km run in
11:16:47.

“It was after a year of
training and it was good to
see most everything come
together,” says Dave, 46,

He placed 41st out of
the 183 men in his age ca-
tegory (45-49).

Mary Stewart, 48, com-
pleted the event in
13:42:21, placing 28th out
of the 65 women compet-
ing in the same age cate-
gory.

The triathalon is not for
the meek or mild. Months
of training precedes the
event and once the day
finally comes to compete

‘anything can happen.

“It’s.a long day,” Dave
says. “Somewhere along
the line anything can hap-

Cal faced Langley in its first pame of the
tournament. The game ended in a 0-0 tie after
regular time with Cal picking up the win on

penalty shots,

Next up was Sahali from Kamloops.

“We dominated the whole game. They
wanted so badly to win this game,” Kollias
said, Tied at 1 after regular time, this game,
too, went to penalty shots but this time Cal
was on the losing end. ,

Burnaby’s Seycove was the third match-up
and it came on strong throughout the entire
game. Cal managed to keep their opponents to
Just one goal but in the last 16 minutes of the
game Burnaby put two past the goaltender and

the Kermodes lost 3-0.

pen and it usually does.

For Dave, the big chal-
lenge in Penticton came in
the marathon length run-
ning portion of the event.

On target to log a time
of just under four hours in
the run he started develop-
ing stomach cramps.

“At about mile 20 or so
T had to walk for a bit,” he

- says.

He had to walk through
waler stations and beyond
too, and soon became frus-
trated.

“Finally i said to my-
self, I have. to get this
thing over with,” Dave
says. “If was pretty tough.”

Ironman competitors
also have to train their
spirit.

“It’s a lot of mental
Preparation,” says Mary. “I
always tell people if you
can gel through the train-
ing you can get through
the race no problem.”

Athletes prepare for
years to build up the en-
durance to complete the
gruelling races.

“In my mind it takes.

years to build the endur-
ance to do these long
events,” Mary says, “I
don’t think I’ve reached
my highest level for endur-
ance. yet.”

Training for the events |

includes long bike rides,
swimming for hours on end

_- and a whole lot of running.”

Putting in the ‘hours {s
the key to being prepared
for race day.

__638-

7283

Seahawks
nail top spot

By SARAH A.
ZIMMERMAN
THEY'VE got the makings
of a powerhouse team in

" the years to come and they

proved it at the junior boys

_ zone playoffs in Smithers

Nav. 15-16.
Going into the zone fi-
- nals Centennial Christian

- School junior boys Sea-
* hawks were ranked number

one.
They secured that rank-

_ ing by defeating Bulkley
Valley Christian School
’ two straight in the finals.

The junior Seahawks
had the advantage going in

~ with six members also
. playing as starters on the
* school’s senior boys team.

“I pulled up six Grade

. 10 boys to play senior —

those six boys played ju-
nior and = senior all
season,” says coach Julia
Tuninga.

“It was a lot of volley-
ball to play but it was a
good experience for them.”

Tuninga says the secret
to the junior team’s suc-
cess is simple hard work.

The Grade 10 boys are
dedicated to volleyball —

’ she never had a hard time

petting them out to prac-
tice and their love for the
game is genuine.
Bryce Voogd, Matt
Kumpolt, Daniel Dykman,
Daryl Bandstra, Jared Eu-
verman, Tristan Higginson

and Michael Peters make
up the junior team.

Team Captain Bryce
Voogd was named tourna-
ment MVP and power hit-
ter Daniel Dykman picked
up the hussle award,

All but Peters also
played at the senior level,

“He hasn't had as much
experience in volleyball,”
says Tuninga. “If he was to
get an award from me, it
would be most improved
player. He has just im-
proved by leaps and
bounds.”

At the senior level, the
Seahawks came third out
of three teams in the sin-
gle A zone finals.

While playing senior
the boys had a chance to
work on their technique
and play against talented
teams in the region.

“We played well at the
senior level, we weren’t
losing all the time,” says
Tuninga. “It kept them
humble at the junior level
because they knew what it
was like to lose.”

The junior team may
well shape up for a power-
ful senior team in the fu-
ture.

“Tt all depends on a
number of things -— how
many stay at our school,” .

-says Tuninga. “I think

there is a really strong po-
tential for our senior team
in the next couple years.”

Next up was a team from the Gulf Islands.
Again the Kermodes had it all tied up for-
cing a decision on penalty shots: The teams

showed they were evenly matched keeping it
all tied up at 5 after five penalty shots per

team. Finally on the sixth shot Cal missed and
the Gulf Islands picked up the win. ‘

In its final game of the provincial -cham-
pionships the Kermodes came out swinging

and annihilated Fernie 7-0.

Cal's Matt Aruda was named to the tourna-
ment’s all-star team.

“If we won those two games against Gulf
Island and Sahali we could have had seventh
or eighth place,” Kollias said. “Somebody has

to win ~ they were all close games.”

DAVE STEWART doing what he loves.

“It doesn’t matter how
fast you’re going but you
want to get the hours in,”
Mary says.

That's where having a
partner who is involved in
the same sport becomes
very important.

“{ think I’m incredibly

-lucky that way becouse

training for triathalon is in-
credibly time consuming,”
she says. _ :

_ “fone person is in-
volved and the other pef-

son isn’t I think the pefson -

not involves in the training

would feel a little left
out.” .

After this summer’s
event the Stewarts were
going to take it easy — put
racing away for the season
until a friend of their star-
ted training for the Hon-
olulu marathon this com-
ing December.

So they decided to pick
up the pace and run in the.
Seattle event Dec. 1.

And somehow, in the

Shadow of the triathalon, ©
the 42 km race doesn’t.
"the club at 635-5583. .-

seem quite so daunting.

Still time
to pick up
curling

By DAVID D. HULL
THE curling season is well
underway but there still is
opportunity to join up.

Space is available in |
the Monday Mixed, Tues-

day Open, Wednesday
Ladies and Friday Mixed
leagues.

Any team or individual
can join midseason and
will be placed in the mid-
dle of the points ranking
for that league and will
pay adjusted dues reflect-
ing the delayed start.

“The second half of the
curling season begins right
after the Christmas break
and that is a very natural
time to slot in new teams
as the schedules are being
drawn up,” league curling
chairman Gerry Bakker
says.

“You do not have to
put a team together to
play, we are very adept at |
making up teams to play‘
and have good fun.”.

The club is going to be
running a number of Curl
Canada sessions providing
instruction to players from
the novice level through
the accomplished curler
who is looking to work on
some fine tuning of their

| game. Programs and dates

will be available soon.
For more information on .
curling or to join. contact