By Silas Gray

Not long ago a friend of mine took several hiking trips to the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Robert E. Talbot Conservation Area.

On one of the trips, he had detoured onto a game trail and ended up at the banks of Spring River near a large slough. He described the area as perfect for holding largemouth bass, however he hadn’t brought along his fishing gear.

I warned him strongly not to go hiking again without being adequately prepared for emergencies such as this. He described how to get to the parking lot where the trailhead began and warned me not to get trapped by horse trailers.

I’d seen the sign for the Talbot area at the intersections of Missouri highways 97 and 96, so I knew its location but nothing else.

I downloaded an area map and brochure from the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Web site but found no fishing reports. The map indicated two improved lakes and several ponds on the 4,360-acre conservation area.

The larger of the lakes is seven acres and has both a fishing jetty and boat ramp. The other lake is four acres. Both were rated fair for bass, bluegill and catfish. The brochure also mentioned 38 fishless ponds as well as 10 “shallow ponds that contain fish and provide variable fishing opportunities.”

With the next afternoon free, I decided to go and check it out. It was windy and 50 degrees as I left the house and headed east. I drove through Carthage and followed highway 96 on past Avilla, through Plew and Rescue before coming to the intersection at highway 97 where the Missouri Department of Conservation sign stands.

My first stop was at the larger of the two stocked lakes. The fishing jetty is quite impressive, allowing much of the lake to be fished without a boat. Situated in open prairie country, there was little to stop the now howling winds which made casting a challenge and had formed sizable whitecaps on the water’s surface.

For the next hour I caught green sunfish and bluegill and explored the lake. With all the open shoreline, it would be a great place to bring kids. I’ll return sometime when the wind is calmer and bring the float tube or kayak.

A man and woman arrived in a Bronco and parked beside my truck. The man was almost giddy as he gathered up his tackle along with a five-gallon plastic bucket and then almost skipped as he traversed the long jetty. He stopped for just a moment to say how much he liked this lake, how great the catfishing was and that I should use plastic worms if I was after bass and was on his way.

He was seated on the big white bucket at the end of the jetty and beginning his first cast before his wife had even made it out of the vehicle. She was wrangling their puppy, Darling, on its first trip to the outdoors.

She said that they live on the east side of Springfield, and she and her husband come here quite frequently — her husband much more often than she does. With all the good fishing around Springfield, it really piqued my interest that he drives to Talbot to fish.

She walked me over to the map board and pointed out several of her husband’s favorite ponds. I’m not sure he would have appreciated it, but I sure did.

I left the little lake to them and drove to parking lots that were near the ponds she’d indicated and hiked out to take a look. They did look good but it was getting late and I decided that I’d better go find that slough on Spring River which had prompted this trip.

I found the gravel lane easily. It’s long and narrow and from the map I could see that it dead ends at the trailhead parking area.

As I drove along, the road dropped down into a valley. In the bottom was a low-water bridge with a good amount of water flowing over the top and just beyond the bridge was a pickup with a big horse trailer attached heading straight toward me. He crossed the bridge first and we both waved as we took our fair share of the ditches and passed without incident.

At the lot, I parked near three other vehicles, one with a horse trailer. The river wasn’t far and the spot did look good, however, the recent rains had blown out the river which made the slough more of a lake and the fishing difficult. I surveyed the area and made plans for a return trip under better conditions.

Back at the parking lot, I found several riders who had just returned from the trail and were preparing to load their horses. I packed up my gear and started back down the lane.

As I approached the bridge I saw the same pickup and trailer that I’d passed on the way in. They were just past the bridge, almost jackknifed in the road. Beyond them sat a small car and a couple on horseback who had stopped to see what was going on. Another truck and trailer were waiting at the top of the hill.

The driver had attempted to return to the parking lot by backing along the lane and hadn’t quite made it. The truck and trailer were hopelessly stuck in the ditch. It became clear what my friend meant by “don’t get trapped by the horse trailers.”

Horses were unloaded and trailers were disconnected, and eventually everything turned out fine.

I’m already planning a return trip of hiking and camping in order to more fully explore these “shallow ponds that contain fish and provide variable fishing opportunities.”

However, I’m going to be much more careful about where I park.