Bé - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 6, 2000

KEITH FREEMAN

TERRACE STANDARD

PORTS

638-7283

‘SKEENA ANGLER
ROB BROWN

Men aren’t fish

r as long as books about fishing have been written-

-and a lot of books have been writlen since Fishinge

the lye, a thin treatise by Dame Juliana Berners was

first inked on one of Johan Gutenberg's new press--fisher-
men have been speculating on what prompts a fish to take
a lure, The answer is simple when it comes to the tout. A
trout will grab a fly because it looks for his entire world, like
his daily bread. The Royal Coachman, which, incidentally,

owes its name to the job of its inventor, the driver of Queen °

Elizabeth I, still catches fish because it's a pretty good mock
up ofa mayfly from some angles and not a bad imitation of
a flying ant from others. Similarly, a brown Wooly Worm is
a reasonable facsimile of a stone fly nymph, while the ven-
erable Teal and Silver is probably a dead ringer for a min-
now when whipping by hungry trout maws in the froth.
Along with good form, a winning trout fly behaves well too.
‘Tied with supple feathers and reflective fur, the best patterns
give the impression of movement.

Appreciating this obvious principle, salt water salmon
fishers turn buck tail hair into phony herring and fool coho
and springs regularly. The fishermen who cast from poled
punts for scaly rockets called permit and bonefish make
crabs from epoxy. Bass masters whip out frogs and canny
approximations of smaller bass. But, when it comes to
salmonin fresh water and other species with split life cycles,
like steelhead and sea trout, the speculation gets more
abstruse.

Cutthroat sea trout will continue to eat once they leave
the estuary, but steelhead, Atlantic Salmon and their West
«Coast cousins go on starvation diets once they enter fresh
“water. So why do they bite? Some influential ‘Atlantic

salmon stalkers of yesterday carne to the conclusion that-

their quarries were suckers for butterilies and dressed their
flies accordingly. Pasting together plumage from birds-of-
paradise, jungle fowl, florican bustard and macaw, all easi-
ly obtained in an age when the term endangered species
didnt exist, these men dressed exotic flies so radiant they
made butterflies look like moths. Atlantic salmon obliging-
ly took these radiant lures and thus kept the theory alive.

When men settled the West Coast they brought the Old
World angling ways with them. As a result, the first steel-
head patterns were probably Ailantic Salmon flies, a specu-
lation substantiated in lange measure by examining the steel
head patterns of today, which, in so many cases look like
hot-rodded versions of Atlantic salmon patterns of yester-
year.

The late, great salmon angler, Hugh Faulkus, advanced
the idea that the salmon in his beloved Scottish rivers bit into
flies out of curiosity. If a man were sitting in his living room
reading a newspaper and a bright, glittering object sudden-
ly appeared just below the ceiling and after pliding from one
end of the room to the other, disappeared, the next time it
appeared the man would surly stand up and grab it with his
hand, Faulkus argued, A fish lying at the bottom of a pool
or glide, he said, would be moved to inspect such an object
in much the same way, except that, lacking hands, he would
take it in his mouth. Faulkus gets full marks for imagination
for this attempt to explain fish behaviour, but in the end men
aren't fish. This and other anthropomorphic tries at explain-
ing the hows and whys of salmon with flies don't stand up.

There are a couple of theories, tiowever, that seem plau-
sible. One is the idea that a fish that has come from. the
expanse of the oceans to the tight confines of a pool in a
river may feel vulnerable and skittish. A brilliant object,
containing colours foreign to the fish's environs and seems,
because of that brilliance, to be acting oddly, may appear
threatening and, therefore, trigger an instinctual defensive
urge and provoke an attack from the fish. This theory may
be part of the answer, but it is difficult ta believe it is the sole
reason that fish take a fly or some other kind of lure.
The other theory involves imprinting. In short, it contends
that anadromous fish in the last stages of their life cycle
carry with them an imprint of their juvenile behaviours, like
most people do, Before the call seaward, juvenile salmon
subsist on the same diet trout do, Small fish, aquatic inver-
tebrates, as well as terrestrial creatures unlucky enough to
tumble in the river all wind up in the maws of juvenile
salmon and steelhead,

The infantile memory of this succulent fare, this last the-

ory goes, is reawakened when the adult fish sees a fly that
resembles some of it, and he is moved to strike, On a num-
her of occasions T have watched adutt steelhead rising for
mayflies during a persistent hatch of the latter, It seems that
those steelhead were more aggressive and therefore more
easily persuaded to take a fly during those events. This
behaviour adds some weight to the imprint theory. The
problem is that when autopsies are performed on steelhead,
aside from the occasional strange object (like a wood chip,
in one case ] know of and a duck feather in another) the
stomachs of steelhead are clean like whistles.

What we do know is that summer steelhead start behav-
ing like mako sharks when a fly that looks like bug is
aggressively dragged over their head in a way that would
send a feeding trout running for cover. Could bath of these
last theories be correct?”

-

Penticton Ironman draws

World class
triathalon
featured four

from Terrace

TERRACE WAS well re-
presented at the world-fa-
mous Penticton Ironman
triathalon Aug. 27.

Dave Stewart, Alan
Neufeld, Dave Cater and
Mary Stewart all compe-
ted in the event, which
brought together almost
1,800 people fram around
the world.

Many of them were try-
ing to qualify for the world
ironman championships in
Hawaii in October.

But for Cater and Neu-
feld, both participating in
their first ironman, the
thrill was just being there.

“The atmosphere was
incredible — the whole city
is behind this thing,” said
Neufeld, who finished the
3.8 km of swimming, 180
km of cycling and over 40
km of running in just under
12 hours.

Cater described the
swimming portion as “a bit
choppy,” with “a lot of el-
bowing,” but said that the
comraderie was strong
throughout.

“When I took a break
and stretched out during
the swimming, an aussie
came up to me and said
‘are you alright mate?”

Things started to get

. gruelling during the cy-

cling for Cater, as hail and

Tain pounded down on pro-

tions of the course.

“MN few people wiped
out going downhill,” he
said.

Cater ended up finish-
ing with a time of 12 hours
and 26 minutes. Of the
Terrace participants, Dave
Stewart’s time of 11:35
was tops.

Dave’s wife Mary Ste-
wart, who was participa-
ling in her third Penticton
ironman turned in a time
of 12:54, which qualified
her for Hawaii.

Overall, Victoria’s

Peter Reid clocked in at
just under eight and a half
hours, while Lori Bowden
was the top woman for the
third straight year, with a
time of 9:17.

Neufeld is planning a
return trip next year, while
Cater says the year after
looks better for him.

“It takes up your whole
year [to prepare], it’s a big
commitment,” said Cater.

Cater said one of the
highlights of the weekend
was the award ceremony
when Lori Bowden presen-
ted former Terrace resident
Danielle Thompson, who
was the second-fastest
woman, with a cheque for
$1,000 so she could get to

the championships in Ha-
waii.

According to Neufeld,
about half of the 1,785
participants were Cana-
dians, while the rest came
from around the world, in-
cluding many from Japan
and Germany.

“There were 31 differ-
ent countries represented,”
Neufeld said.

Both Cater and Neufeld -
agreed that the best part of
the experience was the en- ~

‘couragement they both got’
;from the throngs of people.”

that showed up to watch.

“Every hill, there would
be more people cheering
you on,” said Neufeld.

“People had guides with

our names and numbers in
them, and they’d call out
our names and cheer us on
as we went. ”

‘And it wasn't just Oka- —

nagan support, Cater said
he’s grateful to Mike
Christensen of Terrace’s
McBike shop who chipped |
in some equipment.

Other northwest compe- -
titors at the Ironman inclu-'
ded Kelvin Mark from’
Prince Rupert, as well as
two Burns Lake competi-
tors.

The ironman is one of .
19 worldwide events that °
lead up to the Hawaiian .
world championships.

Arm-wrestler seeks support
to continue competing

A LOCAL paraplegic arm-
wrestler, who was in Ke-
lowna last weekend for the
Canadian Arm-wrestling
championships might
have.a tough time paying
his rent.

Allan Heinricks, wha’s

wheelchair bound, says he °

wasn't able to raise en-

ough money to cover the.

costs of getting to Kelow-
na and competing after
contacting more than 100
local businesses.
Heinticks, who was fea-
tured in a Terrace Stan-
dard article on July 12,
competed in three categor- |
ies of competition at the
Canadian championships.

“Pll have a_ better
chance of going to Finland
this way,” he said, allud-
ing to the fact that cate-
gory-toppers at the Cana- —
dians get to attend the

+ world arm-wrestling cham-

pionships in Helsinki this
winter.

Heinricks says he fell
wll short of the $1,500 he
needed to get to Kelowna,

_Stay there, and pay for en-

tering the tournament and
personal expenses.

Allan was in Kelowna
_last weekend but is back
_ home now. For more infor-
mation on what his plans
are, you can call him at

- 635-4992,

SOLID HANDSHAKER: Al Heiriricks, does some
hand exercises at his Thornhill home. Heinricks was found herself at the senior
at Kelawna to compete in the Canadian arm-wrest-
ling championships last weekend, but had to use nal skating tournaments.
some of his rent money to get there.

locals

DAVE CATER runs beside Lake Okanagan at the Penticton Ironman Triatha-
lon. Cater and Al Neufeld were there for the first time, while Dave and Mary
Stewart, who qualified for the Hawaiian championships were event returnees.

lce-skater heads to tropics
to join Holiday On Ice show

A TERRACE woman is
heading to the tropics ta
take the world stage during —
the next few months as

‘part of the Holiday On Ice

skating show.

Kendra Eys, 19, left
Terrace Monday for Puerto .
Rico where she'll be per-
forming as a cast member .
in Evolution.

Eys will be part of a
cast of 70 in the produc-
tion which she hopes will
provide an exciting finish
lo years of skating.

“Skating for me is pret- :

ty addictive,” said Eys, :

last week at Terrace:
Avena.

“This is probably the’
end of the rainbow for me
[for skating],” she added.
“I've been skating for a,
long time, and this is kind
of a good way ta go out
wilh a bang.”

Eys has skated since:

she was eight, but has al-

ways had an athletic fean- -

ing, participating in gym-
nastics and swimming as
well. She says that both

“swimming and gymnastics

contributed to her skating
success in the formative’
years.

“Gymnastics played a
big role in skating, swim-

- ming was excellent for the

cardio and it was really
good for getting in shape ,
and endurance,” she said.
She said that her. par-
ents’ lack of athletic in-
volvement led to them en-
couraging her to be more
pro-active with sports.
“They didn’t push me so
much, they were just Teal-
ly supportive of it,” she |
said.
Starting with the Cans-
kate school, and then Can- ;
figureskate, Eys soon

level, competing in regio- -

“When I was 16 or 171

PERFECT FORM: Kendra Eys gets a little ice-time
-at Terrace arena last week, Right now, she’s on her
way to Puerto Rico to compete in the Holiday On
Ice production of Evolution.

competed in roughly four
tournaments a year, and it
was all throughout northern
B.C."

’ The keyword for Eys
When it comes to figure
skating is. motivation,

‘something she: thinks is

born out of a passion for
the sport.

“It just takes a lot of
‘determination and motiva-
tion to get up really early

in the mornings and skate, -

and skate after school,”

_ she said. “If you're really

into it, you skate five or

six days a week, twice a
day."

Eys was looking for a
chance to round out her
skating when she came
across the Holiday On Ice
tour on the internet last
fall. ,

She submitted her infor-'
mation, got a response re-
questing an audition tape
and got accepted.

“I didn’t expect to be
doing this ice show quite
this quick, but I was ready

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