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Home › Waters › Texas › Buffalo Bayou
Bayou · Upper Texas Coast · Texas

Buffalo Bayou Fishing Guides

Houston's urban bayou, gauged in the city below the Addicks and Barker releases, paddled and fished for alligator gar, catfish and bass inside the loop.

Sun setting over a cypress swamp full of wading birds

Map of the Buffalo Bayou

12 numbered points: 3 access points, 2 bridges, 5 parks and conservation areas, 1 hazard, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Oct 22, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (3)
  • Bridge crossing (2)
  • Park / conservation area (5)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

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All 12 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Barker Dam
USACE flood-control dam; top of this sheet		Dam / hazard29.76969, -95.64655km 0 and the top of this sheet. The Corps dam at the head of the reach, 109 m off the centreline measured to its own geometry. Above it is the Barker Reservoir flood pool, dry most of the year and not a float. Put in below the outlet.
2TX 6 crossing
State Highway 6, west Houston		Bridge crossing29.76943, -95.64327km 0.5. The first crossing below Barker Dam, 6 m off the centreline, and the usual top of the Buffalo Bayou paddle. A river-km landmark; OSM carries no ramp at the bridge itself.
3Terry Hershey Park
Harris County; linear park along the bayou		Park / conservation area29.76119, -95.56012km 10.2. A linear county park following the bayou from TX 6 down to Beltway 8, touching the centreline here. Hike-and-bike trail on both banks and several footbridges; the park itself, not a single pin, is the access for this reach.
4Beltway 8 crossing
Sam Houston Parkway / Beltway 8		Bridge crossing29.76240, -95.55773km 10.7. The Beltway 8 crossing, 1 m off the centreline, at the downstream end of Terry Hershey Park. A river-km landmark.
5Briarbend Park launch
Unnamed slipway in OSM, inside Briarbend Park		Access / boat ramp29.74601, -95.50760km 18.9. A slipway on the centreline inside Briarbend Park, a City of Houston park whose boundary sits 39 m away - the named anchor that makes this unnamed feature placeable. A bank launch for canoes and kayaks, not a ramp.
6Houston Arboretum and Nature Center
Nature sanctuary on the Memorial Park edge		Park / conservation area29.75653, -95.44941km 30.6. Nature sanctuary on the south bank, 35 m off the centreline at its nearest point. OSM names it Houston Arboretum Park; the site's own name is the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. Trails and a visitor centre, no launch.
7Memorial Park
City of Houston; the city's largest park		Park / conservation area29.75673, -95.44006km 31.8. Houston's largest park, touching the centreline here at 3 m, with trails along the south bank through this whole reach. OSM maps no launch inside the park.
8USGS streamgage - Buffalo Bayou at Houston
USGS streamgage 08074000		USGS gauge29.76023, -95.40855km 36.8. Real-time flow and the reference gauge for this reach, the one the water page links. USGS names the site Buffalo Bayou at Houston, TX. Coordinate from the site roster; 33 m off the centreline.
9Buffalo Bayou Park
Buffalo Bayou Partnership; Shepherd to Sabine		Park / conservation area29.76176, -95.39198km 38.5. The restored park carrying the bayou from Shepherd Drive down to Sabine Street, 88 m off the centreline. OSM maps three unnamed slipways inside it; one of them ships below at km 40.1.
10Eleanor Tinsley Park launch
Unnamed slipway in OSM, at Eleanor Tinsley Park		Access / boat ramp29.76207, -95.37829km 40.1. A slipway on the centreline with the Eleanor Tinsley Park boundary 90 m away - the anchor that places it. Two further unnamed slipways sit 0.4 and 0.5 km downstream; this ships as one point, not three.
11Sesquicentennial Park
City of Houston; downtown theater district		Park / conservation area29.76417, -95.36513km 41.6. Downtown park on both banks below Bagby Street, 62 m off the centreline, with steps down to the water. The last green space above Allen's Landing.
12Allen's Landing
Historic head of navigation; bottom of this sheet		Access / boat ramp29.76389, -95.35875km 42.3 and the bottom of this sheet. Houston's original port at the White Oak Bayou confluence, 54 m off the centreline, and the usual take-out. Below here the bayou is bulkheaded and becomes the Ship Channel.

Guides on the Buffalo Bayou

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the Buffalo Bayou

Buffalo Bayou runs about fifty miles from the prairie west of Katy through the Addicks and Barker flood-control reservoirs and straight into downtown Houston, where it becomes the head of the Houston Ship Channel. The USGS gauge at Houston sits on the urban reach and reports discharge and stage without a water temperature series. Because Addicks and Barker release on a flood-control schedule rather than a natural one, the flow this gauge reads is often a direct product of a management decision made hours earlier, which makes it worth checking before any trip.

The bayou is a genuinely productive warmwater fishery hiding in plain sight. Alligator gar are the marquee species and reach large sizes in the deeper city bends; longnose gar are common. Blue, channel and flathead catfish are abundant, largemouth and spotted bass hold along the bank structure and outfalls, and bluegill and carp fill in. It is a fishery of hard structure, shade lines and current seams rather than of natural habitat, and it fishes best where bridges, riprap and storm outfalls concentrate bait.

Access is what makes this water unusual. Buffalo Bayou Park, the surrounding greenways and a chain of public paddle launches give a large city continuous access to a fishable stream, and Houston-area guides run kayak and light-skiff trips through the urban reach year-round. Fly anglers work it for gar and bass, and the alligator gar fishery has developed a specialist following. The upper reach above the reservoirs is smaller, quieter and more natural, and is paddled more than it is fished.

The main hazards are flow and water quality. After heavy rain the bayou rises fast and stays high and dirty while the reservoirs release, and it is not a place to be on the water during those periods. In dry stretches it runs low, clear enough to sight-fish, and very fishable. Texas licenses are required, alligator gar are managed under their own rules including harvest reporting, and the state regulations linked below carry current provisions.

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1. What you give us

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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

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Posting to Buffalo 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.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Buffalo Bayou cfs

Now: 173 cfs, read 6:15 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 08074000, Buffalo Bayou at Houston, TX).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Houston gauge reach access in Buffalo Bayou Park - the urban flow reference and multiple bank points.
Buffalo Bayou Park paddle launch near Sabine Street - the main kayak put-in inside the loop.
Allen's Landing downtown - historic launch at the head of the ship channel.
Memorial Park and Woodway area accesses - upstream bank fishing and hand launch.
Briar Bend and Piney Point accesses - upper urban reach paddle points.
Highway 6 crossing near Addicks - access to the reach below the reservoir releases.
Katy area upper bayou crossings - small-water paddling above the reservoirs.

Seasons

Spring: frequent high releases after rain; fish the falling water for gar and catfish once flow steadies.
Summer: the main season, with alligator gar active in the deeper bends and good early-morning bass fishing.
Fall: settled flows and the clearest water of the year, best for sight-fishing gar and working structure.
Winter: slower but fishable, with catfish holding in deep bends and fewer paddlers on the water.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Buffalo Bayou?

As of Nov 2, 6:15 am, the USGS gauge Buffalo Bayou at Houston, TX reads 173 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Buffalo Bayou?

Anglers target Alligator Gar, Blue Catfish, Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Longnose Gar, Spotted Bass on the Buffalo Bayou in Texas.

Are there fishing guides on the Buffalo Bayou?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Buffalo Bayou. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Buffalo Bayou?

Houston gauge reach access in Buffalo Bayou Park - the urban flow reference and multiple bank points. Buffalo Bayou Park paddle launch near Sabine Street - the main kayak put-in inside the loop. Allen's Landing downtown - historic launch at the head of the ship channel. Memorial Park and Woodway area accesses - upstream bank fishing and hand launch. Briar Bend and Piney Point accesses - upper urban reach paddle points. Highway 6 crossing near Addicks - access to the reach below the reservoir releases. Katy area upper bayou crossings - small-water paddling above the reservoirs.

When is the best time to fish the Buffalo Bayou?

Spring: frequent high releases after rain; fish the falling water for gar and catfish once flow steadies. Summer: the main season, with alligator gar active in the deeper bends and good early-morning bass fishing. Fall: settled flows and the clearest water of the year, best for sight-fishing gar and working structure. Winter: slower but fishable, with catfish holding in deep bends and fewer paddlers on the water.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Buffalo Bayou?

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