The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 15, 1994 - C1

“SECTION Cc MALCOLM BAATER € 638. 7283

“SKEENA ANGLER. ~ ROB BROWN

Moonlight magic

INES AND circles: a series of short lines form an are across the hard, wood decking of the bridge. The evening sun flickers through the spars.

Below, the Skeena is grey and swollen, running in a more or less straight line to the sea: linear but actually part of a cycle, like the Straight running, cyclic salmon that will mn hard against it after the water has dropped some and summer has begun.

_.. I's the month of the greenest greens in the

seasonal cycle. The wheels rattle against the decking of the bridge, then hum on the asphalt of Queensway. After the hill we speed along the road to the lake. Gravel spits from beneath the tires, a cloud of dust spews out behind us, The tarmac at the airport strikes out in a straight line to the east.

We park in the place where not so long ago the distances were obscured by dense forest.

Now that the old trees are gone, the landscape .

stretches before us like quilted prairie: 2 new generation is starting to poke out. of: the stumps and fireweed. We take some comfort from that.

There ate a few new lurns, and the bridge across the creek has been swept aside by fall freshets, but, except for that, the trail is the same as it was last season and the -season before.

We arrive at the river. Finlay starts in

immediately. I sit. on a stump and watch

._.flycatchers-dart above the riffles.

- . Atosprey wings downstream and tands on a

_ branch: I watch him for a while, then look away, When ] look back I see the splash, then sec him rise from the river with a fish in his talons. ‘Predator and prey: the cycle starts me thinking about time and progress and the linear: way modern man defines history. I wonder whether we haven’! made a serious mistake in seeing progress as a continual march ‘of ‘technological advancement. There " must be a great risk in moving away from natura! directions.

Where . moments earlier the ‘river was calm now it erupts with trout and whitefish rising with deadly accuracy to intercept hapless duns.

_. Mayfly nymphs have been stirring along the ’ bottom all evening; some have begun the first part of their perilous drift downstream, Long

shadows stretch out over the river, the wind

_ drops off.

Caddis fies dart upstream, as they always do, Some bounces off the surface of the river to lay eggs. The trout have seen this all before with their ancestral cyes. They lie near the bottom, occasionally rising a little to intercept a drifting nymph.

The mayflies reach the next stage in their reproductive cycle. I lock up through the light drizzle and see pale olive duns rising through it. The oblique light illuminates them. Where

*.moments earlier the river was calm now it erupis with trout and whitefish rising with deadly accuracy to intercept the hapless duns.

It’s time. I slip into the river and catch one of the ephemeral insects just to confirm that my imitation is close enough in colour and size, It is.

Tt’s a Full moon. The extra light will give us

_a few more minutes on stream, I cast around for the largest rise. A large trout shows only 20 feet away. Afler three casts and three drifts, I make a convincing presentation.

Up he comes: head and eye, a silver flank, a broad tail. I try to match. his smooth and deliberate rhythm with a measured sweep of _the rod. T have him. Though he fights well, the siruggic is always more like work than pleasure — anticlimactic after the rise. A handsome fish, he fills the net. ~ The hatch is short, By eleven it is all over save for a few Isolated rises. ‘‘Can’t see my fly anymore,” I call to Finlay.

We wade cautiously through the shadows and the shallows and use our flashlights to -navigate the trail. Moonlight floods the landscape. AS we put our rods in the car, the call of some geese echoes down the valley. Another of the circles that spin around us continually,

‘Canada geese,” observes Fin. “They must

- be nesting.”

MBs nice to hear them again,” [ say,

CENTENNIAL Christian (CCS) and Veritas schools led the pack al this year’s elementary schools track and field meet,

. CCS came away with four indi- vidual ‘titles. and three meet records while Veritas finished al three and one in ihe same depart- ments. ,

Allison Mantel led CCS domi- nation in the Girls-11 division,

" winning al 400m, 800m and

1500m before adding a second in the long jump, just Sem short of Megan Corp’s leap for Veritas.

That win was all the sweeter for Corp because she’d -had to settle for the runner-up spet in each of Mantel’s track victorics.

Sarah Caplin also had CCS ‘cheering when she cleared 1,30m in the high jump in the same divi- sion lo break Roxanne Chow’s 1992 record by a single ‘cenli-

metre.

One centimetre was also the margin by which teammate Aaron Vangelder surpassed the Boys-11 high jump record, but in his case

the old mark had stood for no less than 24 years.

-And it-was a jumper again who produced: the third . individual record of the meet, Jeff Clarke of Thomhill landing a 4.41m long jump to beat the 1971 Boys-12

- while

THE DETERMINATION shows clearly on Jeff Bolingbroke’s face as he strains for maximum dis- tance in the pit at the Elementary schools annual track and field competition. The Boys-12 years long jump record was one of five to fall during the Saturday, June 4 meet.

Chevron falters in late innings

THREE GAMES under their

-belts and Chevron Jrs. had good reason. fa be think they had a’

solid shol at their own tourney title, > But the second half of the dou- ble round-robin Junior ‘A’ [ast- pilch battle was a different story. Chevron opencd against eventual winners Grande Prairie, backing Brad Neufeld’s 7-K pitching with just enough offence to slay ahead of the Alberlans. However, a late inning home ran by. Doug Rodgers enabled Grande Prairie to escape with a 4-

” Alia

Game two, against Pine Valley

_ of Prince George, proved another

tight battle with the teams tied at 3 when Chevron came to the plate

‘in the last,

The hosts broke it open there on fence clearers. by Troy. Hunt and Shane Archatd, then shut down the Pines for the victory.

‘And they rounded out the first half.of the round robin in even more convincing fashion, blank~ ing the.Terrace All-Stars 5-0 ‘be-

hind the pitching of Terry Went- .

zel and reliever Dave Penny. -

That left Chevron tied for top spot with Grande Prairie and due lo meet the Albertans again.

This time jt was Chevron who made the comeback to tie it at 5 only. to have it slip away. on a Grande Praitte eto com bo,

In their next when they exploded for six runs in the fourth against Pine Valley,

However, the Prince George squad pulled back to tie it, the buried the home team with five more in the top of the last for an 11-6 win.

Terrace All-Stars then com- pleted the second-half misery for Chevron, knocking off the Jun- iors 4-2 with the help of a Bruce Neid homer and strong work on the mound by Danny Beaulac.

Grande Prairie. suffered their only loss in the final game of the tourney when Pine Valley pro- duced another final inning rally to triumph 6-4.

However, by then the Albertans had already sewed up the title and the two-run margin of victory was not enough to gel Pine Val- ley out of the basement,

The Terrace All-Stars also fin- ished at 2-3-1, the win being an 8-1 hammering of Pine Valley in the opener behind the throwing arm of Larry Lamb.

The tle was also against the Prince George team in the ultimate of pitching duels.

Pine Valley having failed to convert on bases-loaded in the

. Final inning, the game ended without a single runner from ci-

(her team crossing the plate. Chevron Jrs, were in Hazelton over, the weekend and this com-

ing: one will be back in Prince - George for more fastpitch action.”

Meet records tumble -

recard by a comfortable Soms.

The final records both came in the relays, Veritas’ nine-year-old girls clocking 1:11.80 in their 4 x 100m and Centennial’s 12-year- : old girls speeding lo a 1:01.59.

Dylan Evans (Veritas), one of ihe Blueback swim team’s most prolific winners, proved he is just as fast out of the water, victories at 400m, 800m and 1500m powering him to the Boys-9 title.

And Kevin Braam duplicated those event victories in winning . the Boys-11 title for Centennial.

One of the day’s most interest- ing batiles came in the Girls-10 division.

After narrowly winning the

50m, Pam Gavronsky of Uplands

comfortably made it two off the reel in the 200m.

The distances belonged 1 | Vanessa LeBlanc who showed a figure skater’s stamina ‘and strength in romping to 800m and 13500m wins.

That left the ficld events to de- cide the overall winner but both

‘yecorded victories there as well,

LeBlanc in the pit, Gavronsky - over the bar, leaving them to share the title.

Share was what Corisa Berlin of Thorahill and Veritas’s Paula

Teixeira ended up doing in Girls-

12, each finishing with two vic- tories. :

Two wins and a third was

enough to secure overall top spots for Tiffany Straw of Centennial (Girls-9), CCS’ Graham Cowman (Boys-10) and David Boomer of Thornhill (Boys-12). 7 Thornhill dominated that Boys-. 12 division, Boomer and Clarke - cach winning two events, Chaz Ware adding the shot and. the relay team roundingit out. - Clarence Michiel picked up its.” victories through Michelle Wong (200m) and Phyllis Daniels (400m), both coming in Girls-9.

Christian DeSierto gave Cassie. . = Hall its lone first by sailing: 3.57m in the Boys-11 long jump. ©

Justin Lutsiak led Copper. Mountain, only 5/100ths of a sec-

ond out in the Boys-11 100m then ©

adding a third in the long jump teammate Chad Grier sprinted to the runner-up’ spat in. the Boys-9 50m.

The annual meet attracted. 186° athletes from the | elementary schools prompting organizers, not surprisingly, to describe it as a ‘‘huge success’.

mu Plate power

A TWO-OUT, bases loaded triple allowed the Kiwanls to get. an early jump on Terrace Interiors In Mite division action at . - last weekend's softball tournament.. Enthusiastic ‘players shrugged off the heavy showers that regularly swept In

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