Sports
B1
Appeal Tribune, www.silvertonappeal.com
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
MOLLY J. SMITH / STATESMAN JOURN
Silverton High junior Maggie Buckholz was
voted the athlete of the week.
Silverton
junior is
athlete of
the week
Shortstop commits
to play at Oregon
BILL POEHLER
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Putting up big statistics is what
Maggie Buckholz does.
Silverton High School’s junior short-
stop was 3 for 4 with a triple and three
RBI in a 16-3 win against South Eugene
April 4.
Buckholz was voted the athlete of
the week by a poll of readers.
All Athletes of the Week will receive
a complimentary ticket to the June 6
Statesman Journal Sports Awards.
Buckholz is batting .567 with 11 runs
scored, 18 RBI, four doubles, three tri-
ples and three home runs and a 1.200
slugging percentage through nine
games this season.
She has verbally committed to play
softball in college at Oregon.
STEVE MILLER / SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
Henry Miller fishes at Pond 6 at St. Louis Ponds.
St. Louis Ponds have
fish, great memories
OUTDOORS
HENRY MILLER
GERVAIS - A good
friend and longtime fel-
low outdoor writer (see
next Saturday’s column
about the legendary
John Higley) once re-
marked that “I don’t know which I en-
joy more, fishing, or being at the
places where fish are found.”
We were, as I recall, at Big Boul-
der Lake in the Trinity Alps Wilder-
ness. Or it could have been at Eiler
Lake in the Thousand Lakes Wilder-
ness, both in Northern California.
Ah the fog of time.
Higley’s comment was made all
the more pertinent because of the set-
tings and because the brook trout
were plentiful and voracious at each
of those locations.
As an addendum to Higley’s mus-
ing, nostalgia also adds a not-inconse-
quential dimension in the “why we
fish” explanation, at least for me.
Case in point, and a lot closer to
home, St. Louis Ponds west of Ger-
vais rings all of the bells for me as far
as the fishing/place/memories goes.
I’ve been a shameless promoter
for this network of shallow, warm-
water fishing ponds for decades.
The back story is that the almost
22 acres of ponds were carved ex-
pressly to provide maximum bank
access for anglers on a 260-acre prop-
erty owned by the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife and co-
managed now with the Marion Coun-
ty Parks Department.
Since the week of Feb. 27 through
March 3, more than 3,500 keeper-size
and some larger rainbow trout have
been stocked in the ponds, according
to the department’s stocking
schedule.
As an aside, if you would like to
give trout fishing at St. Louis a shot,
Fish and Wildlife will hold a family
“I don’t know which I enjoy more, fishing, or being at
the places where fish are found.”
JOHN HIGLEY
OUTDOOR WRITER
fishing event at Pond 6 just north of
the parking lot at the pond complex
from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 15.
Admission is free, as is loaner
equipment, bait and tackle along with
assistance for first-timers. A fishing
license, which must be purchased be-
fore you get there, is required for
those 12 and older.
The final scheduled trout-stocking
is the week of April 17-21, after which
the shallow ponds usually will be-
come too warm to support the fish.
But all of the ponds have popula-
tions of smallish warm-water fish
from bass and bluegill to crappie and
catfish, the latter including an occa-
sional surprise such as the 3-footer
that was caught in 2008.
And access from wheelchair- and
stroller-friendly paved trails to ac-
cessible fishing decks and platforms
recently has been installed.
The nostalgia angle comes from
the occasional and fondly remem-
bered outings with my daughter,
Meghan, about age 5, during her all-
too-infrequent custody visits from
her home in Southern California.
We would catch bluegill and occa-
sional bass among the myriad snags
using a cane pole, bobber and garden
worms.
As I said … a true nostalgia-bath
all the way; it’s how I learned as a
small kid fishing with my grandfa-
ther, also Henry Miller, during family
visits to the other St. Louis, in Missou-
ri, where I was born.
On another fateful fishing trip a
couple of decades ago before offi-
cials instituted an after-dark closure
(currently 8 p.m.), then-editor Dan
Bender and I went to the ponds on a
nighttime catfish trip.
Neither of us caught a fish, but I
heard a “hiss,” pointed my flashlight
at the sound and was staring at the
glowing eyes and candy-corn orange
teeth of an overprotective, pug-sized
mother nutria 2 feet away guarding
her two guinea pig-sized offspring.
It was one of those M. Night Shya-
malan fishing moments where the
word “evacuate” takes on multiple
meanings.
Because of their interlaced con-
struction, the network of seven ponds
is also a hikers’, dog-walkers’ and
birders’ paradise with a chance to see
occasional garter snakes and other
critters.
The ponds are about 12 miles north
of Keizer on River Road NE/French
Prairie Road NE. Watch for the St.
Louis Road turn on the right, then
take a right on Tesch Road on the
right just after the railroad tracks
coming from the west.
Or from the Brooks Exit on Inter-
state 5 northbound, go right to High-
way 99E, then left on 99, to the sto-
plight at Gervais Road. Go left
through Gervais, where the road be-
comes St. Louis Road, and take a left
on Tesch just before the tracks.
Go slow after you leave the paved
section. It’s a winter-rutted bone-
shaker most of the way to the parking
lot.
Check it out.
You’ll thank me later.
Former Statesman Journal out-
doors reporter Henry Miller returns
to the Outdoors page with a weekly
column. To contact him, email
HenryMillerSJ@gmail.com .
STATESMAN JOURNAL
SPORTS AWARDS
Scholarship
award now
accepting
nominations
BILL POEHLER
STATESMAN JOURNAL
High school athletes are often feted
for their accomplishments in sporting
arenas.
When a basketball player scores 30
points or a football player runs for four
touchdowns in a game, thousands of
fans will see it.
But those fans don’t see it when that
same athlete spends countless hours
studying in libraries or pushes them-
selves to higher levels in academic are-
nas.
The Statesman Journal will recog-
nize athletes for their academic accom-
plishments.
At the June 6 Statesman Journal
Sports Awards, one scholar athlete
from the Mid-Valley will be awarded
the Scholar Athlete Award and receive
a $5,000 scholarship.
To nominate an athlete, fill out the
form at http://community.statesman
journal.com/sportsawards/2017/schol
ar.php. Nominations close at midnight
on April 16.
Three finalists will be selected from
those nominated by a panel of judges.
The three finalists will be invited to
the Statesman Journal Sports Awards
where the winner will receive a $5,000
scholarship.
For more information about the
event go to StatesmanJournal.com/
sportsawards
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com
or Twitter.com/bpoehler
TIMOTHY J. GONZALEZ FOR STATESMAN JOURNAL
All of the winners from the 2016 Mid-Valley
Sports Awards are pictured with Joey
Harrington and Jerry Rice on June 7, 2016.