- SKEENA ANGLER | ROB BROWN

AST THURSDAY morning I peored over a steaming cup of coffee and, with some difficulty, focused on the Terrace Standard.

"Mills to cut beds once again" the headline read, which, in my slowly waking brain, immediaiely conjured up a picture of beds going through the whirring saws at Skeena Cellulose.

Below was an item that had the directors of the Regional District “casting their cyes toward Thornhill’s sewer future Saturday".

I recalled the boyhood technique of plucking an eyeball from one trout, impaling it on a hook then casting |t into a lake to catch another. Naturally, this Kind of eyeball casting was the first image io appear in my mind’s eye,

Bul "Steelhead kill bothers gov’t", appropriately edged in black and set prominently on the bottom of the front page, was the story that put severe strain on my moming brain.

According to the article, officials in Provin- cialdom suspect too many Zymoetz steelhead are

being killed and may therefore close the river.

That seerned clear, but reading the remarks of conservation officer Ken Fujino, things got obscure.

"..80me anglers are following neither the bait.

ban nor the catch-and-release regulations. As many as 80 per cent of the fishermen of the Cop- per are deliberately breaking the rules," the paper

‘has Fujino saying, and "the remaining 20 per cent " are committing fractions out of ignorance."

_ Yikes!

Some quick calculations convinced me that the sum of 80 and 20 is still-100. Apparently officer Ken’s reconnaissance convinced him all anglers

. fishing the poor Copper are breaking the law.

“spent a few‘afternoons on the river this winter, If 1 broke the law I wasn’t aware of it. Perhaps I don’t know the fishing regulations well cnough,

As for" commitling fractions out of ignorance", this was the first time I’d come across this of- fense, I (each fractions to my charges every year, I can add, subtract and multiply them with some facility, and on good days I’m. fairly adept at dividing them, but committing rational numbers is an operation I cannot do.

What I heard was largely hearsay. It is foolhardy to act on hearsay. -

Clearly something was amiss. Even the large

dailies manage to mangle the Englistl language. I began to suspect a fraction of ‘‘infraction” -- one fifth to be precise —- had fallen off in the rush to deadline, sol phoned Officer Fujino.

He told me he hadn’t read the article and hastened to add he’d been misquoted. [ read him the cryplic paragraphs, whereupon he mumbled something about going to the paper.

Did he think there really was a conservation

~- problem on the Copper? He thought ‘there was,

Had he charged anyone? Two people. Had he received any reports of poaching? Yes, sore, After that conversation, I was unconyinced he

had any basis to claim a serious problem on the . Copper. [ then called a number of anglers who _ have been fishing the river regularly.

Most had seen no evidence of wrong doing, a few had, My investigations turned up one person who saw sleelhcad killed and couple of incidents

" where people saw evidence of bait. Some anglers

reported seeing others acting suspiciously.

Nobody saw « conservation officer on the river. This doesn’t surprise me: I’ve seen only two on any of the rivers I’ve fished in the last five years,

What I heard was largely hearsay. It is precipitous, if not foolhardy to act on hearsay. Before conservation officers recommend draslic measures, they need to spend a great deal of time on the river and gather a lot of hard, first-hand cvidence lo substantiate their position.

And even if they were able to prove poaching is fampant, would closing a section of the river do anything to solve the problem? ,

Poachers are self-centered, ignorant scum who belicve laws apply to others, Very few fishermen break the law. If the Copper is closed you can bet your bait buckel poachers will continue to poach, the only difference being they will do so without

_ fear of observed by ethical, law-abiding anglers,

The only intelligent way to address the problem ls through enforcement. The number of officers faust be inercascd, and government must look at creative solulions like training and employing river. guardians to watch over our valleys.

Tn the meantime, be calm fisherfolk and other friends of the environment. Legiotis of poachers are not descending upon lhe Copper River like Huns and Vizigoths attacking Rome.

There are a few bad actors beating up on fish, as there always are.. ke

Take advantage of this balmy winter and go

fishing,

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NORTHERN school wrestlers made their mark at this year’s provincial Age Class championships, including one of Terrace’s own.

“It's the best I’ve ever seen him wresile,’’ travelling coach Bruce Johnson said of Matt Kerby’s silver _ medal _per- formance.

However, Kerby had simply been ‘outgunned?’ in the final.

“We're really pleased,’ said Terrace coach Joe Murphy. ‘*It’s quite an achievement.’’

The northern team was made up of wrestlers from Terrace, Kitwanga and Hazelton and was

accompanied by Johnson (Kitwanga) and fellow coach Joe Sullivan (Hazelton).

Although unable to make the medals, the two other Terracites, Greg Buck and Frank Carpino both gave a good account of

Having seen Terrace in action

Locals take out

This weekend two local curling foursomes try to next the next step towards their respective provincial championships.

In Senior Men’s, Wayne Epp's crew will be in Winfield, near Kelowna, trying to nail down one of two Interior spots at the B.C. championships.

. Meanwhile Ken Blanes’ mixed leam will be taking on the Prince

at this and other competitions, Johnson said there was ‘‘definite- ly some wrestling talent therc,”’

However, he suggested, ‘They heed to start off younger.”

How young? Kitwangan Wade Apps is nine~years-old,

Wrestling in the schoolboy divi- sion, he was facing kids four and five years his senior,

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 2, 1994 -C1

Harris, a grade 8 first year wrest- ler.

No opponent was able to even score against him and in (he gold medal match he recorded the fasicst pin of the tournament: just nine seconds in.

Not surprisingly, Harris was named outstanding wrestler.

In other results, James Morgan

‘We're really pleased, it’s quite an achievement.”

JOE MURPHY

Only the eventual gold medal winner could stop Apps, and even then only by a single point.

Johnson said the youngster’s fifth place overall finish at his weight underlined ‘he has great potential’.

But the most. oulstanding north- em performance came from Jason

George zone winner in Smithers, a best-of-three showdown for a direct tip to the BCs which begin in Kamloops Feb. 26.

_ Epp, third John Veldman, sec-:

ond Ken Hendry and lead Bruce Carruthers earned their Seniors berth by sweeping the zones held here Jan 21-22,

Playing in a six-team modified double-knockout, they took threc

z

took silver in the Cadet (15-16 years) S1kg, class, losing the final lo last year’s provincial champion and. Tyler Johnson (Cadets 57kg) earned a bronze.

Terrace wrestlers will be back in action this weekend when ¢leven take part in the Northern B.C, Winter Games in Fort St.

MALCOLM B

Kerby grapples silver

John.

Apart from Kerby, Buck and Carpino, the squad will include Ajit Jaswal, Jim O’Brien, John Veilleux, Shayne = Wilson,

Lakhbir Jaswal, Maudeep Kandola and Philip Lincotn,

Murphy said the competition would provide more valuable ex- themselves, Johnson said.

He added Buck had lost a couple of close ones on the way to.a seventh place finish,

Noting the Age Class was one of the biggest tournaments of the scason and set ihe seedings for the High School championships, Murphy said il was a valuable ex- perience for all three Terracites.

Based on the results, he indi- cated Buck will likely drop down a weight class for the B.C. High School championships. perience for the team, ‘‘especially for the younger guys’'.

two zone titles

straight to sew up the A side then added two more victories in B for the title,

The final game saw them knock off "93 zone winner Dennis Ames of Smithers. ;

How does he rate his chances in Winfield? ‘I’ve no idea,’ says Epp, adding this is the team’s first shot at the Seniors.

“But I’m looking forward to

ON GUARD. Sweepers Stan Petulac (left) and Tim G final end in B event Legion Bonspiel action.

artiand bring in skip Rick Trogi's guard in the Tragi’s Kitimat rink scored a comfortable win over

Folden of Hazelton. More than 50 rinks taok part in the bonspief which woulnd up Sunday,

oP

g On target HOOP CHAMPS in get Knights of Columbus free throw competition were Kaliopl Kollias and Kory Andersen (10 years), Jaclyn Bowen and Aaron Van Gelder (11), Hollyanne Norman and Kevin Glitanders (12), Andrea Van Gelder and Josh Straw (13). They're sean above (not in order) with organizers Germano Carrita (left) and Gualter Rego. Fitty lo- cal students turned out for Saturday's competition at Veritas schoo! with the “home team” taking two . tiles, Uplands Elementary and Centennial Christian three each, |

Salmon belts netted —

Jonathan Doane dominated - ;

UNSTOPPABLE.

Terrace boxers were just that at the Salmon Beit championships held Jan, 22 in Prince Rupert.

So much so that the only fighter who managed to defeat a Terrace entry was one of his own team- mates,

Arron Petavello got Terrace on

the road to Its seven bout sweep -

with a 3-2 decision over Rabert Carver of Palmer, Alaska in their 1251b, Intermediate clash,

Buddy Doane then took the 145ib, Jt. B belt with a 4-1 deci- slon over Jess Staffen of Whitchorse. ; ;

Brian Gervais made it three off the rec! with a unanimous verdict aver local Brace Buchanan at

~1701b, and Robert Doane dupll-.

cated in a 130Ib. match-up with clubmate Stanicy Gostel.

That was ‘the first of two vic-.

tories on the day for Doane, the other coming. when le moved to

-give-1451b, hometawner ‘Trent: McKry. a. fight, agaln a unani-".. agains oo. Palmer pigitist,

mous decision.

\ Mkewise fot the Jr, C150Ib,'tl

curling against some of the people | faced when I was curling competitive men’s,’’ he added. “There a lot of familiar names.” The two teams coming out of the Interiors will face the top pair

_ from the Pacific Coast in the Feb.

26-27 provincials 1o- be held in Vancowver,

Ken Blanes, third Rusty Blanes, second Ron Townley and lead Paulette Patterson were tipped up only once in their zone win.

Having won the A side of the five team playdown, they moved to the Bside to complete the job...

Howeyer, there they fell to Atchison of Prince Rupert in the semi-final.

Atchison went on the take B,

setting up a retum match playoff:

against Blanes, This time, however, the Ter- racites took no prisoners in a 12-2 rout of the coastal quartet. Townley conceded the victory was made much easier. as the Atchison rink came out flat. “They never even got on the

board until the seventh,” he ~ recalled. “For them, it was just -

one of those games.’? -

Although the Blanes rink has taken the zone tille before, a trip the provincials would be a first.

kkkkek

With entries for Terrace’s Valentines Ladies bonspiel start- ing to stream in, organizers have announced the Feb. 14-16 event will include a raffle to raise money for the curling club.

The prize will be a retum tip for two to Vancouver and include accommodation, ——

"Spiel spokesman Marg Skead

said it hadn’t been decided yet -

just where to spend the moticy Talsed,

However, suggestions to date. .

included the junior curling pro-

gram or an air-exchanger for the’ I

upstairs area,

Rupert opponent Bryan Gartner

in their Jr, B bout, the referec

stepping in to stop the contest: in

‘the third round. gh as Terrace’s final victory came from the gloves of Joey. Losler. -

(1351b.) who got the nod from all

judges over George Gordon of.

Whitehorse... ae

The main event on the 11-fight. ; card saw Prince’ Rupert's Pacific:

Northwest’ champion: Steven Jaeger take on Alaska . State champion Jamie Bailey. °°..."

Jaeger came out..on the right: — side of a 4-1 decision in the.

186lb. bout, a:

Other results saw the host club

pick up three victories, ~~

Tyler Fountain took a 4-1. deci. « |

sion over Nell MacDonald ~

White Horse (Jt. A 1061b.), Keli

‘Gurszki (190Ib.) won a,3-2 split decision over . Alaskan . Robert Muller - and -Don: . Prico

against Dominic Headley, anothe:

- SECTION C AXTER 638-7283