"The le

Sturgeon —= everything about
them seems larger than life,

There are the stocky rods
with tips as large as the wrist of
a grown man to which are at-
tached enormous reels brimm-:
ing with monofilament strong
enough to pull a Japanese im-,
port down a muddy road.

There are the Bunyanesque
tales like that of the fisherman.
who hooked onto a sturgeon of
epic proportion and was towed,
boat and all; from the: con-
fluence of the Vedder Canal to
Mission and back by the bony
leviathan. - :

There are photographs of
73-year-old giants lying atop
pick-ups with-their protrusible
mouths.on the cab and their
mammoth tails hanging over the
tailgate.

Great white sturgeon cruise
up ‘the mighty Fraser like
whiskered submarines vacuum-
ing up salmon carcasses, lesser
fishes and their preferred feed,

the way.

’ But the largest sturgeon of all
are found in the Columbia, It

was. there that I encountered
“some bona fide sturgeon

fanatics. ;

We had just finished a tour of
the Bonneville Dam and’ were
driving toward: Portiand. -Bet-

ween two buildings I caught a
_ glimpse of arod the thickness of

a broomhandle, I swung the car
around the next corner, There
was a line of fishermen sitting
against the backdrop fo the dir-
ty grey battlements of the hydro
dam. We got out for a closer
look.

~ The -meat: poles, some two
dozen in all, were. stuck into
holes in a large log. The sun il-
luminated lines extending over a
precipitous slope far out into
the grey tailwater. Manning the
rods were a circus-like assort-
ment of black men and tatooed
characters all sweating in the

e nd : , |

‘young Pacific lamprey, along

- eo ‘
summer heat.) ° :

“What are you fishing for?’
I asked the nearest man, He
flicked the ash from his crudely
rolled: cigarette and reached
back to roll back a damp sheet

_ of canvas. Under it lay the corp-

se of a three-foot sturgeon.
“Barely a keeper,’’ he said
stroking: his hand along tlie
bony skutes running down its
olive-grey back.’ . -
“Do they taste good?”
-“Don’ know,” he said, “I
just fish for ‘sport. I sell ’em to
the Chinese restaurants.’*
As we talked a wiry little

fellow, who decided his line
wasn't positioned properly,
walked up to his rod and began

yarding on it with such severity, :

I was certain it would shatter
despite its girth. Finally, the line
gave way with a nasty crack, -

‘Eighty pound test,’ offered

my friend | laconically.. ‘Ya
never get yer weight back.’*

As the Yankee sturgeon fisher
explained the finer points of the
fishery, I heard someone down
the. line whisper. “he’s gonna
cast.’! . So

Converstation. stopped. and
all heads turned.: A ‘human
haystack sporting the kind of

Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 25, 1999 — Page Ba

close crew cut we used to call a»
pig shave, and dressed in loose-.
fitting trousers that looked as if

_they had been fashioned from a

canvas tent, waded through the
dry air, hoisted his rod and
snapped the line with one deft

_ upward stroke, ;
As the admiring audience -

watched he brought in the line, |
retied his weight, attached a
new ball of ammocete, then sent
out a Guiness-book cast io the
accompaniment of uncom- -'
prehending gasps.

“The further out ya get yer
eel, the better chance ya got of
gettin’ a big one,’* said the ex-
pert.

“How big do they get?”

“My brother used to dive for
the power authority,” he said,
pointing a nicotine stained
finger at the muddy water below
the dam, :

“He was down there one day,
and he sees this shape comin’ at
him. It’s the size of a whale and

ywater whale’

it’s got long white whiskers --
‘Maybe 10, maybe 20 feet long
~~ streamin’ oui the side of its
mouth. It just about scares him
outta his suit. Well he moves to
the side, thinkin’ it might want
him for: supper, and the thing
swims by”. - ° .
Here he paused and took a
pull on, his: cigarette for em-

"phasis. “‘It’s’ a 25-foot-long

sturgeon, and the whiskers are
hundreds of strands of
80-pound test mono.’ :
Because they are found so
close by and because the Skeena
too has an abundance of am-
mocetes, rumours of Skeena

_ Sturgeon are heard from time to

time.

' Don’t the natives have a
legend about a huge, grey fish
dwelling at the bottom of the
deepest hole in Kitselas Ca-
nyon? Maybe that large fish
that cleaned all the line from the
reel of that guy on Esker Bar

. wasn’t a chinook after all...

SPORTS NE

JEFF NAGEL 638-7283

WS

TERRACE STANDARD

ICALUM's|
L CORNER

SS There’s still a lot of Stanley

Cup hockey to be played, but °

for many poolsters across the

nation, it’s already as good as
over. And that’s certainly the
case for one.of the quartet this’
column -has been foliawing.

_o Like Flames fans everywhere,
~ Earl knows Calgary was robb-
‘ed. Modern technology in the
Shape of his VCR has allowed
him. to watch over and over
again their game-winning goal.

And no matter‘how many times’ }

he watches it, the rePs decision
to call. it back still prompts an
expletive explosion.

Hardly surprising since his
“team” included Nieuwendyck,
Makarov, Fleury and. Ranheim
who, between them, collected
23 points before being
eliminated.

To make matters worse, that
criminal act came hard on the
heels of Minnesota, Toronto,
Buffalo and New Jersey — and
seven more of his picks — being
dispatched to oblivion, When
Hartford finally bowed out, the
hapless Earl found himself in
second spot on points but with
only three players left of his
original 14.

Once a proud, self-
proclaimed expert on the game,
he has been reduced to a mere
shadow of his.former self — a
recluse. who is contemplating
ripping out his - fireplace and
forming an Anti-Mdnarchist
League. : .

Although another victim of
the Calgary catastrophe (four
players bit the. dust for him as
well), Martin. is clinging
somewhat desperately to the
consolation offered . by
Washington’s triumph and par-
ticularly Ciccarelli’s 11 points,
Candles are now lit nightly for
the Caps and ‘the Blues (Hull
and Oates — no Mother, not
- the pop duo). ;

Meanwhile, Stacy — last on
points after the first round ~
still exuded quiet confidence as
he entered round two with four
Bruins, three Black Hawks and
three Rangers. However, with
all his eggs in three baskets and
the Boston-Montreal series like-
ly to be anything but a goal fest,
-his' smile is not as broad as it
mightbe. = |

And ‘it’s certainly no match
for Carl’s whose. expression
puts the Cheshire Cat to shame. -

Although Tikkanen ‘is in large * -|
part responsible ‘for that.

smugness, he never misses a
chance to point to his 15th and
final: pick —:one Wayne Gret-
ZkY, ee,
With. three. Oilers, Bourque
and Carpenter’ from ‘Boston,

_two Rangers, Richer, Zezel, the '

Great One and a comfortable
early lead over his fellow

SWIM MEET-

BLUEBACK SWIMMERS beat out Kitimat, Prince Rupert and
Masset at the recent Eurocan Invitational swim meet. Thirty-
seven Terrace swimmers campeted, and brought back most

of the individual scoring aggregates. Their next meet is May 4.
in Ketchikan, Alaska,

Contributed

swim team pulled off a vic-
tory at a regional meet in
Kitimat April 6-8,

_ The Terrace team had a
hard ‘time regaining their

win was hard-earned. ‘Other
teams competing at the meet
included the Kitimat
Marlins, the’ Prince Rupert
Amateur Swim Club and the
Masset Eagies Swim Club, -

The Bluebacks led the final
point totals, tallying up
1,009. Kitimat followed with
909, Prince Rupert had 873

The Terrace Bluebacks

*“number one’? title, and the.

Bluebacks win
at Kitimat meet

and Masset scored 85,
Thirty-seven swimmers

’ -represented Terrace at the
” meet and a full dozen came

‘home with aggregate awards -

~ for their efforts. The follow. -
ing swimmers topped their -
age groups: Audrey Erb and
Megan Corp (age eight and
under girls), Tina Holland

and Sonya Sheppard (age
9-10 girls), Aimee Peacock
and Lisa Gardiner (age 11
and 12 girls), Tori MacKen-
zie (age 13 and 14 girls),
Denise Vanderlee (age.15 and’

up girls), Garth Coxford (age

9 and 10 boys), Cory
Holland (age 11 and 12

: boys), Doug MacKenzie and

Billy Holland (age 15 and
over. boys.)

The presence of the older
swimmers in the 15 and over
age group helped boost the
team’s points, and improved
performances allowed some
other swimmers to move into
the point placings.

The team is now setting ©
their sights on the Prince
Rupert Panhandle meet
where-they will try to achieve
another victory. In the mean-
time they will be getting some
American. competition at a -
May 4 meet in Ketchikan,
Alaska, ‘

_ Wheeler

wd
i

\

FERRACE — Paul Clark says
he’s going to take a year off
from competitive racing.

The Terrace wheelchair racer
has competed internationally
for 10 years, and in 1988 set. a
world record in the sport in
Japan. -

Last year he was slowed down
by medical problems, including
a spinal column cyst he had
removed at the end of the
season,

Now he says a recurring pro-
blem with pulled muscles in his
back, and a desire to be with his
wife and their newborn. son
have made him look back on his
competitive involvement in the
sport. : oo

"IT have to look back at my
accomplishments at some time
and say yeah, it’s good like
that,’” he said last week. “So
I’ve decided: to not race this
year, and I'm really happy with

this decision; Priorities change, .

and my priority right now is be-
ing with-niy:s

him grow upi'?

my son and watching

see me around town — ['m not.
“8 going to stop, wheeling.!.

ponders future

The decision this year doesn’t: ,
mean he’s retiring from com-:
petitive racing, though, "I’m...
keeping
said, | .
Clark said his involvement in
the. sport definitely isn’t going
to end. He plans to-go to two
major races this year —~ as a
spectator — and says he is now
helping coach two other
wheelchair-athletes, 9.

“T want to give a: little’ bit
back into the sport what I’ve
had myself,” he cxplained.

He called: his world record-
setting race in Oita, Japan two

years ago the pinnacle of his <'

racing career. The sport has
grown much more competitive
since then, with racers. setting
faster and faster times: “

**To train seriously you have
to put 100 per cent of your mind
and body into It. And that’s not
something I want to do right
now,’” he says..“‘But you'll still -

_ not for about three years.”

‘B.C, Summer Games, and ex-

. tenders this year.

my options open,” he

«be sought as well, -

it who-was killed ‘recentl
“> trek aesident.

4

TERRACE
men’s soccer league is shaking
up its structure after most nor-
thwest. native teams pulled out
lo start a league of their own.
The changes include a shift to

— The Terrace

a player-draft system to
eliminate select teams such as
Skeena Sawmills — the Terrace
team which has dominated past
play,

Native soccer organizers say
the main problem with the
previous league was that the
games were always in Terrace
and never in the Nass valley.

Five of the seven teams in last
year’s league were from native
villages in the Nass Valley or
around Hazelton,

The new Terrace league's
systema of drafting players
means the best players will be
split up among different teams,
making for a more competitive,
fairer league.

“From the way it's looking, it's
probably going to die. If it does
get going it could be good — but

|
But the coach of the Skeene. i
Sawmills team says although the -:
new system may be necessary to - j
attract new players, it will pro- -
bably cost Terrace a shot at the. i
medals in the B.C. Summer !
Games. j
Nick Kollias said the Terrace |
select team came up with a 3
fourth place finish at last year’s
t

i

i

pected to be strong medal con-

Without a select team, Ter- *
racé. can forget about the:
medals, he said: :
__sSummer Games coordinator -
Flip Cervo said the rules forbid .
select teams if there’s a regular <
league in town, "So I would’ :

‘have to disallow it,"" he added. :

‘Kollias says organizers.“are :
looking for between 80.and:100 +
players to fil four teams forthe :
new house league. He said the :
‘$1,000 per team registration fee |
means sponsors will, probably :

“*“Erom the way It’s looking,
it’s probably going ta die,” he :
predicted. “If it does get going :
it could be good —-but-not for :
about three years.’*. - :

Mourning. —:

* Meanwhile Terrace soccer:
players are mourning the loss of :
longtime player Jotin Da Silva, -
yin a: