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