TC Report Coffee Pot Lake
We took the camper out for our 2nd camping trip (not to be confused with my 1st milling weekend with the camper so this is my 3rd trip out but our 2nd camping trip -- make sense?). This time we headed to Coffee Pot Lake which has a free camp ground (1st come 1st served) and some outstanding Rainbow Trout fishing (so I'm told).
The trip out was uneventful really; we drove down I90 for about 35-40 miles at 65mph without issue. The truck felt stable, comfortable and while I do believe it could use shocks and a sway bar I don't believe those are absolutes. It seems fine but as my wife says "you just have to remember you are not driving a race car" (which I might add she's tried to remind me before on occasion so that's not unusual LOL).
Off the I90 we hit HWY21 and headed north to Odessa. It's farm country and while mostly straight it does have some section that wind around property lines or through the little valley's which can come up fast and catch you by surprise but I know the road well and had no issue at all. Sure, I slowed up for them but I am driving a truck and camper, not a race car right?
When we arrived at the lake it was about 6pm and there were a couple spots still available for us and since there are only 6 I was happy with that!
We parked the truck and set up camp, then took a stroll around the place to get familiar with our little chosen weekend hide-away.
After setting out some camp chairs I thought "this is the view", not because it was some spectacular view or anything but rather because it was anywhere but work or home :D Don't get me wrong, we love our home but we love to go camping too!
We'd been told to expect a lot of rattlers so I brought along my old wheel gun and some snake shot but we never saw a single one. Admittedly though, we also didn't spend much time hiking either but my wife didn't bring anything to do much hiking with anyway so mostly we sat around the campsite and played cards.
I did however bring a fishing rod and some barbless lures and spent a little time on the doc tossing a line out and hauling it back in. During much of that this bird kept me company with the strangest "weeble-gaaaa-ack" sound I've ever heard. Any bird watchers here? I curious what this little guy is called. Funny sounding bird for sure!
I did catch one nice 12-14" Rainbow right off the dock and had to use another gentleman's net (who happened to be returning from a day of fishing) so I could set the fish free as it was under the 18" minimum limit. Funny though, I had a net at the camper, just didn't figure on catching anything from the dock and was really just trying to enjoy the day and put a line in the water if you know what I mean.
We hiked back up the road to the top of the hill a couple times which was good exercise and gave us a nice view of the campsite and some of the lake.
The lake is about 5 miles long and while still small in my books it's big enough for some larger boats and I think our 18 footer would do fine here despite the 190hp inboard/outboard. Sure, we're not going to open it up here but it would get us around to some good fishing I think. Though I think the canoe is a better option for this lake.
Another view coming back down from the top. Incidentally, it's a good climb up the hill and I guess there is cell coverage up there (so I found out when we left) but I'm glad I didn't care and left my phone off all weekend! :D
we brought wood in an action packer and found some another camper left behind so were able to have a fire in the evenings and even cooked over the fire Saturday night.
When looking at pictures on the net I kept seeing this old cabin and now here I am posting pics of it myself. Not even sure why LOL but I liked the pic so here you go.
One of the other campers caught an 18" Rainbow 50 yards out from the doc where I was fishing but others had caught them in the 20-25" range out on the bigger part of the lake! There are BIG fish in this little pond.
All in all we had fun and enjoyed the weekend.
I'll post part two shortly with thoughts on the grill, draining the tanks and driving....
The trip out was uneventful really; we drove down I90 for about 35-40 miles at 65mph without issue. The truck felt stable, comfortable and while I do believe it could use shocks and a sway bar I don't believe those are absolutes. It seems fine but as my wife says "you just have to remember you are not driving a race car" (which I might add she's tried to remind me before on occasion so that's not unusual LOL).
Off the I90 we hit HWY21 and headed north to Odessa. It's farm country and while mostly straight it does have some section that wind around property lines or through the little valley's which can come up fast and catch you by surprise but I know the road well and had no issue at all. Sure, I slowed up for them but I am driving a truck and camper, not a race car right?
When we arrived at the lake it was about 6pm and there were a couple spots still available for us and since there are only 6 I was happy with that!
We parked the truck and set up camp, then took a stroll around the place to get familiar with our little chosen weekend hide-away.
After setting out some camp chairs I thought "this is the view", not because it was some spectacular view or anything but rather because it was anywhere but work or home :D Don't get me wrong, we love our home but we love to go camping too!
We'd been told to expect a lot of rattlers so I brought along my old wheel gun and some snake shot but we never saw a single one. Admittedly though, we also didn't spend much time hiking either but my wife didn't bring anything to do much hiking with anyway so mostly we sat around the campsite and played cards.
I did however bring a fishing rod and some barbless lures and spent a little time on the doc tossing a line out and hauling it back in. During much of that this bird kept me company with the strangest "weeble-gaaaa-ack" sound I've ever heard. Any bird watchers here? I curious what this little guy is called. Funny sounding bird for sure!
I did catch one nice 12-14" Rainbow right off the dock and had to use another gentleman's net (who happened to be returning from a day of fishing) so I could set the fish free as it was under the 18" minimum limit. Funny though, I had a net at the camper, just didn't figure on catching anything from the dock and was really just trying to enjoy the day and put a line in the water if you know what I mean.
We hiked back up the road to the top of the hill a couple times which was good exercise and gave us a nice view of the campsite and some of the lake.
The lake is about 5 miles long and while still small in my books it's big enough for some larger boats and I think our 18 footer would do fine here despite the 190hp inboard/outboard. Sure, we're not going to open it up here but it would get us around to some good fishing I think. Though I think the canoe is a better option for this lake.
Another view coming back down from the top. Incidentally, it's a good climb up the hill and I guess there is cell coverage up there (so I found out when we left) but I'm glad I didn't care and left my phone off all weekend! :D
we brought wood in an action packer and found some another camper left behind so were able to have a fire in the evenings and even cooked over the fire Saturday night.
When looking at pictures on the net I kept seeing this old cabin and now here I am posting pics of it myself. Not even sure why LOL but I liked the pic so here you go.
One of the other campers caught an 18" Rainbow 50 yards out from the doc where I was fishing but others had caught them in the 20-25" range out on the bigger part of the lake! There are BIG fish in this little pond.
All in all we had fun and enjoyed the weekend.
I'll post part two shortly with thoughts on the grill, draining the tanks and driving....
