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BG - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 14, 2001

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SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN -

“"SKEENA ANGL ROB BROWN

The Colonel’s Fly

lies of the Northwest was the first acqui- F sition in what has grown into a wild and’

unruly library of books, booklets, maga- zines, and yellowed clippings on flies. In those days the little booklet ‘was published by the In- land Empire Fly Fishing Club of Everett, Wash- ington. For the most part, the patterns featured in Flies of the Northwest ranged from coarse to crude, but they were much better than anything | could do, so I tried my best to copy them. There were no tying instructions in the book but, through an ardvous process of trial and error, I’d learned a wrap knot and a half hitch. Armed with these in- considerable skills I set out to construct a Carey Special, selected only because it looked easy to tic. ,

The authors of the book claimed the Carey Special was named for a British Colonel who strode into a tackle shop in Penticton one day and requested its proprietor, Lloyd A. Day, to wrap a dragon fly imitation according to the co- lonel’s specifications. The work of Art Lingren, who knows more about haw and why the flies of this province came to be than anyone, casts doubt on the scholarship of the fly fishermen from Everett.

Yes, confirms Art, in Fly Patterns of British Columbia, there was indeed a Colonel Carey, who earned his rank in the British Army. After retiring from the Armed Forces, he moved to the colonies, seitling first in Victoria — a good transition town for an expatriate Brit. Comfort- ably acclimatized and-acculturated, and newly retired, he then moved to Penticton in 1925. ~

Leaving the soggy coast to the driest spot in the Province must have been an exciting. exper- ience for the Colonel and his family. The towns in the Okanagan desert were small. Even the houses in the town of Penticton were sparse, spread out, and surrounded by fruit trees. Hun- ting and fishing could be found after a short trip in any dizection; which may be the reason a gaming man like Carey decided to move.

In those days fishing and hunting weren’t all that bad a short distance from Victoria either. Maybe his arthritic bones craved a drier cli- mate, or maybe the Colonel had been fond of loch fishing in his homeland, and craved more of the same in his waning years.

There are more than a few productive trout lakes in the Okanagan Country, and there were more there then than there are now. We know that the Colonel Carey favoured a lake named ‘Arthur, which became a liquid laboratory for his

‘retirement project — the quest for the prefect trout fly.

Martin Telley writing in an issue of the now defunct Northwest Sportsman magazine, de- scribed how a search party sent out by his wor- ‘Tied family found a long-overdue, completely- absorbed colonel tying files in a tent he’d pit- ched on the shores of Arthur Lake. Strewn about the floor were feathers plucked from the corpses of ring necked pheasants, Perhaps it was on that very day that the colonel attained the high point in his quest for the perfect trout fly, and created ‘the first Carey Special.

B.C. fishing pioneer Tommy Brayshaw, who, when he wasn’t angling for them, drew, carved and wrote about. fish, met the colonel for the first time-at Lac le Jeune some time in the dirty thirties. Brayshaw recalled that Carey’s hairy fly was built from marmot fur and pheasant rump feathers, The colonel told Brayshaw his fly! was intended to imitate dragon fly nymphs. Per- haps this is the reason that Brayshaw tied his version of the colonel’s fly with a body of spun deer hair and a rib of black thread.

‘Dragon nymphs are weed bed habitués wha, for the most part, clamber from stalk to stalk in search of prey. When the need to flee is great they resort to a crude, but effective, strategy to do ‘so: they accelerate by blowing a jet of water out of their rumps.:A body of spun deer hair is

not-anly more easily sculpted: into the football |

shape of a dragon nymph than other maiterials, but it provides enough buoyancy to keep the phony nymph just above the weeds. With some skilled puppetry, a skilled angler can ape the dance of dragons, simulating the firing of the in- sect’s afterburners with quick pulls on the fly ‘line. The ribbing of black thread is Brayshaw's

clever caricature of the segmented body of the |.

nymphal stage of the dragon fly.

The Carey is the fly to troll behind your boat on a lake you're fishing for first time, or when ‘there are no tises and it’s not clear what the fish _are after.’ Even though Tommy Brayshaw and Carey himself fished the bug asa‘ dragon, in smaller, sparse variations the Carey Special can be used to impersonate a sedge. pupa. I’ve used black and.sed variations as a’ stesthiend fly and done well with them.

The Carey Special may not. be the perfect

, trout fly, but at times trout go after it like it is,

LOCAL athletes put in a phenomenal showing

at the B.C. Northern Winter Games in Mack-

enzie, Feb. 1-4. A total of 22 athletes from Terrace took part

in the games and between them they brought

| back a whopping 58 medals.

The Terrace Peaks gymnastics club topped the medal count gamering 36 top-three spots.

Ten-year-old Alex Meredith, the only male gymnast from Terrace attending the games tock in seven medals, two gold, three silver and two bronze.

Marla Schulmeister, 14, was the only girl competing at the level four gymnastics cate- gory, garnering 5 gold medals. She was parti- cipating in the highest level of eymnastics competition at the games.

Two of her medals were presented to her by Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, who made a surprise Stop at the awards ceremony.

Siobahn Sloane also took five gold medals, she was competing in the level three girls 12 and under category.

Jody Kucharyshen earned one gold medal and three silver. Kayla McColl earned four sil- ver and one bronze. Jessica Ames brought home five gold medals. and Erica Dykes

: earned two gold, two silver and one bronze.

In the swimming pool Terrace’s two Special Olympians, Donna Hepworth and Danny Dau- mont also performed very well.

Hepworth received a silver medal in the 25m butterfly and also got a silver medal for her efforts in a relay event. Daumont placed third in the 25m freestyle event, earning him- self a bronze medal.

And the Terrace Bluebacks brought 7 ath- letes to the games hauling in 17 individual medals and two team medals.

Coach Mike Carlysle was very proud of how the Bluebacks performed.

‘Fousteen-year-old Fernando Polanco led the team with six medals in the 13-14-year-old ca- tegory. He placed first in the 100m backstroke,

TERRACE STANDARD

638-7283

THE TERRACE Biuebacks show off their medal haul after returning from the Northern B.C. Winter Games in Mackenzie Feb, 1-4. Terrace athletes brought home 58 medals.

400m freestyle, 100m fly and the 200m indi- vidual mediey. He also received a silver medal in the 50m fly and one bronze in the 100m freestyle event.

Hot on his heels was his younger sister, Femanda who took in three medals of her own . in the 11-12-year-old division. She earned a gold medal in the 100m fly, a silver in the 400m freestyle and a bronze in the 200m indi- vidual medley.

Josh Lozinsky also captures three medals in the 13-14-year-old category.A silver medal in both. the 50m breaststroke and the 100m fly. He also took home a bronze in the 50m fly evel,

Hayley Gipps placed second in the 11-12- year-old division in the 100m freestyle event andthe 50m fly.

Caitlin Scales swam her way to a third place finish in the 50m breaststroke in 13-14- year-old class.

‘on the ice prior to the play-

THE DAHMS rink teok top honours ‘at the zoné seven juvenile boys playdowns here © last week. The team will de- fend their provincial title in Comox at the end of March. Here is Dahins daing his thing

tral

downs,

the zone 5 Aaron Be Hazelton and 4,

to be held

Great snow

crews and magazines

TOTALLY STOKED. Word that this area stands out as hav-

forced to Melanson Aaron

draws film

Teammate Leanne Whyte competed in the’ game category and brought home a bronze for her 50m freestyle swim and the 50m breast- stroke.

Amy Peltier did not win any individual me- dals, but’ she helped her team take home the silver in the 200m medley relay along with Whyte, Polanco and Gipps.

The girls also won silver medals in the 200m freestyle medley.

And finatly, on the ice rink the Terrace fig- ure skaters brought home three medals. Jamie Penner earned herself a silver medal in the pre-bronze ladies division. Heather Hanna took gold in the intermediate ladies division and’ Stephanie Leong earned a silver medal as well.

Janet Lewis piaced fourth in the pre-bronze ladies program. And in the pre-silver ladies — program, skaters Nicole Lindsay and Sabrena Harvey did the club proud.

Juvenile boys on.

| for gold in

provincial finals

THEY’VE done it again. The juvenile boys curling team from Terrace has won —

even playdowns for the second year running.

Michael Dahms, Carl Haugland, Mike Diana and

tegeron went undefeated against Smithers and during the playdowns held in Terrace Feb, 3

That means they are on their to the provincial finals

in Comox Mar. 22-25. Last year the team took

top honours at the provincials and they are looking for- ward te defending their gold medal standing this year. Just weeks before the zone playdowns the team was °

change their line-vp after team member Kore was injured playing hockey. Bergeron took his spot and the pinch hitter

worked out just fine.

ing some of the best snow in the province has spread far and wide,

The area is playing host to three differ- ent groups of writers and camera crews out to explore snowboarding at Shames Mountain and in the back country,

One of the groups is making a docu- mentary on snowboarding while all will be working on articles for various maga-

zines concerned with. the sport, says. .

Maria McGowan of the Terrace Tourism Council.

“The word is. out there,” said Mc- Gowan. “It’s going to help promote our

Spirit Riders clinch second spot at All-Native tourney

AFTER just one year playing together as a team, the Terrace Spirit Riders placed second at the prestigious All-Native Bas- ketball Tournament in Prince Rupert last week.

The tournament draw pitted Terrace against Kitkatla in their first-round game, Feb. 5. The ladies easily took this game and wiped out.their opponents 65-28.

That night they played Prince Rupert.

‘Intertribal, who. had a first round bye. The ladies fought off any resemblance of fatigue and beat the Intertribal team.

The ladies had a two-day break before _ _ taking on their next challengers, Metla-

katla, B.C. on the morning of the 8th. The Spirit Riders, led by captain Pam Campbell fought their way to a 60-52 win. Just 24 hours later they were back‘on the court for the all-important: game ‘that

' would decide-who would play for rfi rst-and:.

who would play for third.

This time the ladies were pitted

: Bee winter tourism product, which has been weak for us in the past.” S b d

Thase coming have either been re- core Oa©r sponding to the council’s website or have phoned McGowan with queries. . , ‘

“l’s happened so quickly. It’s amazing Men Ss Recreational how word gets around, The snowboarding Hockey League industry has just exploded.” Olde a

. : = mora Division:

One group is arriving on Via Rail and Jen. 24 Timbermen “Boo another is coming up on the ferry through , Subway Bee the Inside Passage to Prince Rupert. eee

Having those travel routes also promo- Northern Moter Inn Oakies my ted by the groups will help tell others of SRD Blues the various and interesting ways in which : people can come here, said McGowan. Jan. 25. Canadian Tire

Subway Jan. 28 Canadian Tire Subway dan. 29 Northem Motor Inn Oakias ; SAD Blues against defending All-Native champs, Ki- } “an. 91. Norther Motor Inn Oakies™ timaat village. _ Timbermen

It was a close, hard-fought game and Subway the Spirit Riders wére able to pull it toge- | SRD Blues ther for a 46-42 victary. :

The win knocked Kitamaat out of Recreational Division: contention for first place and meant the Jan. 21 Back Eddy Spirit Riders had a shot at the number All Seasons ° one position,

In the women’s division finals at- 1 Chapter One ‘p.m. Feb. 10 a tired Terrace team took on Nuyens Biesting Caps Metlakatla yet again. ae

The Spirit Riders just couldn’t pull it a 8 Murari cone : together during this one. ,

They tried repeatedly to come toge- |: Jan. 27 Coast tnn ther afterthe half but they were plagued.) -° All Seasons ~ by an offence that just wasn’t clicking: ./.

The final. score: 62-33 with Metlakatla yy Nuyens Blasting Cone adding, a fourth All-Native title to ‘heir -,Goast Inn collection, aa :

"For the Spirit Riders first time. at the Back Eddy tournament, 4 second place finish i is a very apter, One respectable indeed. 2