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.
| # | Point | Type | Lat, Lon | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SH 7 Neches River Public Boat Ramp Public boat ramp at the State Highway 7 crossing | Access / boat ramp | 31.39692, -94.96518 | km 0 and the top of this sheet. The only named public ramp OpenStreetMap carries on the whole reach; 63 m off the centreline. |
| 2 | Groveton, Lufkin and Northern crossing Rail crossing | Bridge crossing | 31.27379, -94.88949 | km 33.2. Named rail bridge over the Neches, 138 m off the centreline. A river-km landmark, not an access point. |
| 3 | UP Lufkin Subdivision crossing Union Pacific rail crossing near Diboll | Bridge crossing | 31.13349, -94.81205 | km 64.2. Named rail bridge, 9 m off the centreline. OpenStreetMap records an unnamed slipway 190 m away; it is dropped as indeterminate rather than shipped as a ramp nobody can name. |
| 4 | USGS streamgage - Neches River near Rockland USGS streamgage 08033500 | USGS gauge | 31.02500, -94.39944 | km 137.7. Real-time flow, the reference gauge for this reach and the one the water page links. USGS names the site Neches Rv nr Rockland, TX. Coordinate taken from the site roster; 32 m off the centreline. |
| 5 | Bouton Lake Campground Angelina National Forest | Campsite | 31.02747, -94.31744 | km 151.4. Forest Service campground on Bouton Lake, an old Neches oxbow about 0.5 km off the channel. |
| 6 | Martin Dies Jr. State Park camping area B.A. Steinhagen Lake | Campsite | 30.86107, -94.18514 | km 194.4. State park camping on B.A. Steinhagen Lake; nearest park boundary vertex 0.83 km from the centreline. The park's own ramps are the lake access here; OSM leaves them unnamed. |
| 7 | Town Bluff Dam Dam B, impounding B.A. Steinhagen Lake | Dam / hazard | 30.79735, -94.17527 | km 208.2 and the bottom of this sheet. The dam impounding B.A. Steinhagen Lake, 10 m off the centreline. Take out above it; the lower Neches below the dam is a separate float. |
Gauge: USGS 08033500 — Neches Rv nr Rockland, TX. Live flow on the web page.
Species: Alligator Gar, Blue Catfish, Bowfin, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Spotted Bass, White Bass
Regulations: tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdoor-annual/fishing
Emergency: call 911 and give the number of the nearest point on this map plus its coordinates.
Highway 7 crossing near Crockett - upper access into the national forest reaches of the river.
Neches Bluff Overlook in Davy Crockett National Forest - forest access with a primitive launch.
Highway 94 crossing near Lufkin - mid-river access and a common put-in for float trips.
Rockland at the Highway 69 crossing - the gauge site and the main ramp above the reservoir.
B.A. Steinhagen Lake and Martin Dies Jr. State Park - reservoir access at the bottom of the free-flowing reach.
Bevilport near Jasper - lower-river landing below the dam with a public boat ramp.
Big Thicket National Preserve river corridor - protected bottomland frontage on the lower river.
Spring: high water spreads into the bottoms, white bass run upriver, and the timber fishes best on a fall.
Summer: low and clear for a blackwater river, the prime season for flathead and blue catfish.
Fall: steady flows, largemouth push back onto the wood, and the bottomland hardwoods make the float.
Winter: cold and often high, slow bass fishing, but big blue catfish hold in the deepest bends.