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Spotlight on Lake o' the Pines: Visitors guide, info on boating, fishing, camping, hiking and hunts
May 22, 2024
This video is about Lake o' the Pines in Texas. If you like a quiet getaway, come visit this beautifully scenic lake. Surrounded by rugged shoreline and endless pine trees, Lake o the Pines has a rural "Deep South" feel to it. There is plenty of boating, fishing, camping and hiking to enjoy.
Start planning your trip: https://www.lakeothepines.net/
In this video:
0:00 - About Lake o the Pines
1:13 - History of Lake o the Pines
1:42 - Boating on Lake o the Pines
2:58 - Fishing Lake o the Pines
3:36 - Camping on Lake o the Pines
4:28 - Hiking around Lake o the Pines
5:10 - Hunting on Lake o the Pines
6:05 - Things to do at Lake o the Pines
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0:00
What's up everybody it's Simon from LikeUb. I hope you like pine trees because today
0:03
I'm out at beautiful Lake of the Pines in Deepees, Texas. As you can see
0:10
behind me there are lots of islands here. Lake of the Pines is about an
0:15
18,000 acre lake. There's over 144 miles of shoreline and it's kind of a long
0:21
skinny lake. There's lots to see here. There's not lots of amenities
0:27
improvements. There are some but there's a lot of wild shoreline and it's a
0:33
really pretty lake. The max depth is 50 feet. I'm towards the dam right now and
0:38
as you get closer to the dam it's gonna get deeper and deeper but the average
0:42
depth is only 13 feet because if you get into the backwaters I mean it gets
0:47
pretty shallow. Lake of the Pines is an Army Corps of Engineers lake. It was
0:51
built by the Corps of Engineers, managed by the Corps of Engineers. I'm standing
0:55
in a Corps of Engineers park right now. It was built for flood control mainly
0:59
for the kind of Red River Basin. There aren't a lot of people that live out
1:04
here. I mean there's it's it's a very sparsely populated area just this
1:08
Deepees, Texas area and so it's kind of a hidden gem in that in that sense
1:13
Jefferson, Texas and Ore City are kind of the the towns that are kind of in and
1:17
around here and Jefferson's got a pretty pretty good little history because it
1:23
was kind of the center of commerce back here before the railway. Jefferson is the
1:28
seat of Marion County which is named interestingly enough for Francis Marion
1:34
the American Revolutionary War hero aka the Swamp Fox which is probably like the
1:41
coolest nickname ever. As far as boating goes it's more of a fishing lake than
1:45
like a recreational boating lake but there are three marinas. They have a lot
1:50
of amenities. There's at least a dozen boat ramps that I know of. There's a lot
1:54
of free Army Corps ramps but if they're like in a park like where I'm at now
2:01
there's a $5 day fee so there's just a there's just a vehicle fee to enter the
2:06
park and then there's no launch fee so it's a free boat ramp. There is one
2:14
bridge right across the middle of the lake north of that bridge. Boating gets a
2:19
little on the iffy side. I mean there's a lot of cool islands and stuff like
2:23
that a lot of a lot of you know coves and cool terrain. It could get stumpy
2:30
There's a lot of stump fields here you kind of have to you know you kind of
2:33
have to know where to where to go talk to a local something like that maybe hire a fishing guide your first time out and kind of kind of figure out the lay
2:40
of the lake before you just you know go wide open you know right up the middle
2:44
of the lake because especially if the lake level is down a little bit below
2:48
average it might get a little stumpy not like like Fork stumpy but that's a
2:55
bad accident to have so better be careful. There's decent fishing here
2:59
it's it's not known as a you know world-class fishing lake or anything
3:04
like that but again an okay lake in Texas is gonna be a better fishing lake
3:10
than a lot of places across the country so there are a lot of tournaments here
3:15
especially kind of regional tournaments you know kind of the lower level kind of
3:21
working man tournaments high school tournaments things like that there's good fishing it's good fishing here bass you know like the usuals bass large
3:31
amount of bass that is catfish white bass crappie that sort of thing if
3:37
you're into camping this is an awesome lake for camping in fact personally I
3:43
think that's probably that's probably the the premier feature feature of Lake
3:48
of the Pines is that there there are tons of camping options lots of day use
3:55
you know area to places to spread your wings a little bit you know there's RV
4:01
parks private RV parks you know kind of traditional campgrounds a lot of like
4:05
boondock dry camp rural type campgrounds if you're into that so a lot of options
4:11
and it's really pretty scenery I mean there's like I said there's not a lot of
4:15
people live out here so not a lot of improvements you know not a lot of
4:20
construction going on out here it's quiet I mean you can hear it right now I
4:25
can just hear the breeze through the pines it's beautiful if you're a hiker
4:29
there is a trail that goes all the way around the lake which is incredible I
4:37
didn't know that I just learned this I just learned this and I've kind of been
4:41
you know learning about Lake of the Pines have kind of popped in here a little bit I've been taking like a full-on trip here yet but but if I'm
4:48
driving by I'm gonna pop by and see it you know and I didn't know that there's
4:52
a trail that goes all the way around and there's like multiple trailheads and
4:56
stuff which is really really cool if you're into hiking I mean that as far as
5:01
this area goes that's pretty remarkable just because there's not that much open
5:08
land in Texas that's not private this is also a pretty good lake for hunting I
5:14
can't speak to the quality of hunting but as far as the opportunity goes
5:19
there's some really good opportunities here you don't need an Army Corps
5:23
permit to hunt here it's it's like you if you want to duck hunt then go duck
5:30
hunt you know there's even two areas kind of in the in the in the back arm
5:36
you know where the river feeds in and then below the dam where you can rifle
5:42
hunt now it's a couple you know it's just a couple weeks but if you're into
5:46
deer hunting like I am or feral hogs then that's a really unique opportunity
5:52
for this area as well rifle hunting on public land in Texas that's rare all in
5:59
all there's over 4,500 acres of huntable land here on Lake of the Pines so as far
6:06
as things to do once again this is not a big tourist area so there's not the
6:11
usual kind of touristy kind of stuff if you like four-wheeling if you like you
6:18
know jeeping trail riding right right right right right right that sort of
6:23
thing you need to check out Barnwell Mountain Recreational Area that place is
6:29
awesome I mean it's just it's like this rugged like mountainous kind of
6:36
wondering where you're at you're like how this looks like Arkansas or something like that I'm in Texas it looks like Arkansas it's really cool all
6:45
kinds of different styles of trails for different types of vehicles different
6:49
levels of expertise you can even camp there that's really cool and it's I mean
6:55
it's right next to Lake of the Pines if you like history or if you like small
7:00
towns check out Jefferson there's also like there's just a bunch of little
7:04
small towns kind of scattered here and there you know like Mineola towns with
7:09
like you know just kind of a day trip kind of stuff have shops they have
7:13
lunch spots they've got you know coffee shops and antiques lots of antiques that
7:20
sort of thing wineries local wineries if you like driving through the country
7:25
if you like stopping in small towns this is a great area if you like boom boom
7:31
boom boom activity yeah there's not that much to do if you're an outdoorsman or
7:36
outdoors woman this is a wonderland so it all kind of depends on what you like
7:41
to do that's Lake of the Pines come on out and visit in East Texas start your
7:46
adventure at lakeofthepines.net I'm Simon from Lake Hub we'll see you on the water
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