The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - BS TERRACE STANDARD ‘MARGARET SPEIRS (638-7283 4, © _ROB BROWN ~ Chinook 201° ~n Alaska and the contiguous states that verge. on the mighty Pacific, fishing for that ocean’s largest salmon ,is the sport fishing of kings. We. Canucks know the creatures as chinooks for etymological reasons whose roots | tapped into last week. Regionally, we call them springs, for the time of year when the first of them return to the . Skeena, the Nass and a host of smaller rivers that irrigate the coast line. Scientists, with that fondness for categorization their professional ‘methodology demands, file the mighty fish under Oncorhynchus, appending the " breathy tshawytscha, just to be precise. King salmon, tyee salmon, Columbia River salmon, black salmon, chub salmon, hook bill salm- © on, winter salmon and blackmouth, no matter what you call them, the chinook are magnificent brutes. From their log books and diaries the men in wooden ships who first found their way to this coast were astounded both:by” the size of the salmon and 7 their abundance. Used to populous, sparsely-treed landscapes where river fishing for salmon was tightly. regu- lated, skippers like Vancouver were stunned by the fecundity of the seemingly boundless riches of the coastal fisheries. It wasn’t long after settlement that the lustre began to wear off the promise of the new salmon fishery, for these New World salmon proved to .»be completely unimpressed with the flies and Old World approaches that worked so well on the At- lantic salmon. Eventually sportsfishers and their descendants discovered the steelhead, a salmon that would bite every bit as readily as an Atlantic salmon, and they learned how to take his less aggressive cousins with Devon Minnows, then later, with a glittering array of spinning and wobbling lures. Still, the Pacific salmon were standoffish when it came to the entreaties of fly fishers, especially so in the case of the chinooks. For the most part, it remained that way until the middle years of the last century when some men in , Northern California, using a large dollop of Ameri- can ingenuity and taking advantage of the fact the rivers near their homes — the Smith, the Eel, the Rus- sian, the Chetco and the Gualala and the Klamath — had giant runs of the giant salmon and steelhead, began hooking and landing enough king salmon to move the feat from fluke to achievement. _ Foremost among these men was Bill Schaadt. A sign painter, Schaadt worked just enough to keep body and tackle together as well as pay for a small pram and keep his old pickup from getting thirsty. Using one piece glass fibre rods purchased at yard sales and cheap and sturdy reels like the Pfle- guer Medalist, which he loaded with lead core troll- ~ ing line and a lot of monofilament, Schaadt probed . the deep green pools of his home rivers with small sparse flies. Schaadt's flies were small and spare. The most, famous of them, the Comet, was tied on a six or cight hook, the size most fisherman associate with “trout fishing. After attaching a long tail of coastal bucktail or. polar bear, dyed yellow, to the small iron, Schaadt . wound a body of gold tinsel on the shank then front-., ed the dressing with a few turns of cock hackle, also dyed yellow. With this pattern and ones like it, Schaadt landed literally hundreds of chinook, many of them in the 40 to 50 pound range, the largest tipping the scales at 56 pounds. With the exception of special holidays, which he set aside to visit his-mother, Schaadt devoted all his spare time and some of the time he couldn't spare, to fishing. Since his career extended over 50 years, that’s a lot of fishing. Schaadt didn’t write about his fishing or brag about his prowess. He was a solitary bachelor who compared notes with his few fishing companions. His accomplishments were so remarkable they simply couldn’t be contained. Passed on in rever- “ential tones by word of mouth, they finally surfaced like breaching salmon in the works of Russell Cha- tham and, later, Trey Combs. To dispel any doubt of Bill Schaadt’ S prowess, Chatham’s work Angler’s Coast is replete with black and white photos of him hoisting giant salm- on in the air, usually with a few more strewn about at his feet. Because fish stocks were 2 thought to be limitless in those days, men strove to kill their limits. When. men fished as well as Schaadt, they limited often. He achieved this prodigious success in an age. when you had to go to Arkansas if you wanted to shop at a Wal-Mart, an era where fishermen wore wool in the winter and waded rivers in heavy rub- ber boots with treads like truck tires on their soles. By today’s standards, fish tech was low tech. How did he do it? — continued next week 4 - DUSTIN QUEZADA, right, takes s some advice from stock car driver Dan Parnell before driving Parnell’ S bomber car inthe Media Race at the Terrace. Speedway June 25. Although Quezada was the second driver to cross the finish line, behind Dave Grubb of the Thornhill Fire Depart- - ment, he was the first media star to greet the checkered flag, making him the unofficial winner of the first media race. of 2005. By MARGARET SPEIRS A LACK cf spectacular crashes, young racers without licences and a new media champ highlighted the stock car races June 25. Race day led to vehicles staying on the speed- - way, a Surprising change from the usual array of crashes that spin drivers off the pavement. And that happened despite the debut of four _ teen drivers in the B-bomber races. Thanks to a rule change last year, youth aged 14 to 18 can race even without driver’s licences. But first, they’re required to drive 40 laps un- der the supervision of two executive members of | - thanks to the thunder truck and car failing to turn the Terrace Speedway. Four young men passed the test. Steven Bolton, 15, and Jacob Olson, 16, both -,from race car driving families, said they waited until they were old enough to race. Unfortunately, their race day ended with a wrecked car when the engine mounts broke and fried the clutch, leaving them able to shift gears but without power. Their yellow bomber car merely slowed toa stop on the track, The pair say they'll return to the next race day with their repaired vehicle. Fourteen-year-olds Eddie Johnson and _ Justin LEE MUIR, right, prepares for the centre face off against a Kitimat player during the first meeting of the two-game playoffs for ban- tam rep lacrosse June 24 at the Terrace Arena. Terrace won that : match 5-4, then went on to wallop Kitimat 8-3 at Tamatik Arena “MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO June 27 to qualify for provincials. Loset fared better. ; og ‘aren’ t afraid to bump other cars, she sai MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO Crash-free day at stock car races seer Johnson took third in the first B-bomber race before finishing second last in the next race. He said he spun the car 115 degrees, scaring himself enough to slow down. Loset finished seventh in the first race and sat out the second race. Neither has a driver’s licence; their previous attempts behind the wheel consisted of steering around the yard or driving up and down the drive- way at home. The troubles for drivers just kept on coming. _ Kris Sweet said his first two races “sucked” easily. He didn’ t know why the vehicles became ornery. 4 “lm probably just turning too hard and abus- ing the tires,” he said. The truck improved for the second thunder race, taking him to victory. He finished second in the bomber race. . Sister Tamara said racing in. a different class was tougher than she thought, “I'm still adjusting to racing with the guys,” she said. “They push way harder i in the corners.’ “It’s a totally different ball game,” ‘she said, ~ adding racing with men “does rattle my nerves.’ The Media Race crowned a new champion, al- though the finish was disputed. Former three-time winner NTV’s Steve Pereira defended his championship against Terrace Stan- dard community reporter Dustin Quezada, ’the Mix’s Derek Zabel and Dave Grubb, a Thornhill firefighter and former race car driver. Pereira spun out. after corer one, causing Quezada to collide with his driver’s side fender. Pereira returned to the pit where his pit crew. ripped the fender off. A restart saw Pereira spin out again, leaving Grubb to narrowly beat Quezada to the checkered flag. - ‘Grubb was awarded the trophy but Quezada questioned his win, arguing Grubb wasn’t a mem- ber of the media. Terrace Stock Car Association member Debby .. Reinhardt said Quezada, a former valet, could be said to be the winner. A fourth driver, was only added to make. a. class, she said, because watching three drivers is .. boring. Cont'd Page B10 Women drivers race clean while the guys Raiders crush Kitimat to win By MARGARET SPEIRS TERRACE RAIDERS bantam and outlasted Kitimat in their second playoff game to qualify -for provincials. ~~ ' The Raiders fell behind 2-0 Tight away but tied it up 2-2. ’ Kitimat replied with another goal for-a short-lived 3-2 lead. ‘The Raiders tied it at three-all, _then scored five unanswered goals for the 8-3 blowout. - Kyle Holtom put away three goals, Justin Dodge nailed the Simpson each slammed one past the posts. ~ Coach Terry Monture says his _ secret is rolling three lines, each of which has two goal scorers. “There’s always somebody out there that can score,” he says. _ He credits goalie Devynn Ames for his outstanding play and the firepower and scoring ability _of several of his teammates. “I. don’t have a weak player,” ‘he says. “The key for us in the five games we won was staying out of the penalty box,” he says, adding that penalty killing de- stroyed Kitimat. “We made them pay and { t rep lacrosse outplayed, outwitted net for two, and Chapen Leb- _ lond, Brock Norwood and Scott - scored power play goals,” h says. The turning point in the game -came in the third period when Terrace, leading 5-3, Teceived a penalty. Justin Dodge scored a short- handed goal.to send the Raid- ers to 6-3, which drained all the steam out of Kitimat. Provincials: could’ be a chal lenge. . Terrace has only been playing for two years whereas their com- . ~petitors will be 'well-seasoned teams. - “Our goal is to be in the top four because you get two extra games,” Monture says, adding . the extra games will be the semi- . final and final. _ “If we play like on Monday: (playoff game) I think we have a legitimate shot of winning it.” _ The Raiders travel to Quesnel for the bantam lacrosse provin- cials July 14 to 17. Terrace will. play six games over the four days, the number they played against Kitimat in four weeks. The midget lacrosse team will travel to Port Coquitlam on July 23 for their provincials after re- ceiving a bye in the playoffs.