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Home › Waters › Texas › Cedar Bayou
Bayou · Southeast Texas, the Harris and Chambers county line northeast of Houston, draining to upper Galveston Bay · Texas

Cedar Bayou Fishing Guides

The bayou forming the Harris and Chambers county line, freshwater and timbered above Crosby and tidal below Baytown.

A boat idling past a stand of cypress on open bayou water
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Cedar Bayou

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About the Cedar Bayou

Cedar Bayou runs south along the Harris and Chambers county line from the flat coastal prairie northeast of Houston down to upper Galveston Bay at Baytown. For most of its length it forms the county boundary, and for most of its length it is a quiet, stained, timber lined bayou that feels considerably more remote than its position on the edge of the fourth largest city in the country would suggest.

The reach around the Crosby gauge is fresh water. It is narrow and slow, with a soft bottom, undercut clay banks and heavy laydown timber, and it responds sharply to rainfall on the surrounding prairie. Below Baytown the bayou becomes tidal and industrial, meeting the ship channel environment of upper Galveston Bay, and the fishery shifts accordingly. The middle reach between the two is the transition and holds fish from both.

Up top the fishing is bayou bass fishing. Largemouth hold tight against the fallen timber and the cut banks and take soft plastics, spinnerbaits and shallow crankbaits worked close to wood. Bluegill are dense around the same cover. Channel and blue catfish work the deeper holes and are the most consistent target through the heat of the summer. Alligator gar are present and reach real size in the deeper sections, and they are fished for deliberately.

Below, in the tidal water, redfish and southern flounder use the shoreline drains and the creek mouths, particularly through the fall. The lower bayou carries industry and barge traffic, which shapes where it is pleasant to fish more than whether the fish are there. Anglers generally choose one end or the other rather than trying to treat the whole bayou as a single piece of water.

Access is a mix. Public ramps serve the lower bayou around Baytown, and the highway and farm road crossings give bank and kayak access through the middle and upper reaches. Much of the upper bank is private prairie and pasture, so a kayak launched at a bridge crossing is the practical way to fish it. Flow at the Crosby gauge is the honest check on whether the upper bayou is worth the trip after rain.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Cedar Bayou.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Crosby - the Harris County community on the upper bayou and the gauge location.
Baytown - the city on the lower tidal bayou with public ramps.
Galveston Bay - the bay system the bayou drains into.
Mont Belvieu - the Chambers County town on the east bank in the middle reach.
Interstate 10 crossing - the highway bridge access dividing the fresh and tidal reaches.
Highlands - the community on the nearby San Jacinto River with additional ramps.
San Jacinto River - the larger neighboring drainage reaching the same bay.

Seasons

Spring: the strongest bass fishing of the year on the upper bayou timber.
Summer: hot low water up top, with catfish the most consistent target.
Fall: the flounder run and hard feeding redfish in the tidal lower bayou.
Winter: cool water and fish held in the deeper holes and channel bends.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Cedar Bayou?

As of Sep 17, 6:30 am, the USGS gauge Cedar Bayou nr Crosby, TX reads 3 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Cedar Bayou?

Anglers target Alligator Gar, Blue Catfish, Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Red Drum, Southern Flounder on the Cedar Bayou in Texas.

Where can you access the Cedar Bayou?

Crosby - the Harris County community on the upper bayou and the gauge location. Baytown - the city on the lower tidal bayou with public ramps. Galveston Bay - the bay system the bayou drains into. Mont Belvieu - the Chambers County town on the east bank in the middle reach. Interstate 10 crossing - the highway bridge access dividing the fresh and tidal reaches. Highlands - the community on the nearby San Jacinto River with additional ramps. San Jacinto River - the larger neighboring drainage reaching the same bay.

When is the best time to fish the Cedar Bayou?

Spring: the strongest bass fishing of the year on the upper bayou timber. Summer: hot low water up top, with catfish the most consistent target. Fall: the flounder run and hard feeding redfish in the tidal lower bayou. Winter: cool water and fish held in the deeper holes and channel bends.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Cedar Bayou?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Texas agency site: https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdoor-annual/fishing/