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Buffalo Bayou Fishing Champs clients hold up an alligator gar caught on Buffalo Bayou near downtown Houston.<\/p>\n
Alex Sosa\/Buffalo Bayou Fishing Champs<\/p>\n
Join us on a journey to better understand Houston, one question at a time. Sign up to get the Houston Explained newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday and Friday.<\/a><\/p>\n Buffalo Bayou<\/a> is everywhere in Houston’s daily life, but it’s seldom in focus.<\/p>\n We may steal a glance from an overpass on the morning commute, or from a downtown office tower. We may catch a whiff of it on a warm afternoon, out on a trail<\/a> or at a job site where another development is going up along the bank. Most Houstonians pay it little mind until a big storm pushes it over its banks and everyone is paying attention at once.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But hiding in that muddy river that makes up the backbone of our city is an entire, underappreciated ecosystem filled with catfish, alligator gar, redfish<\/a>, beavers, river otters, alligators and coyotes. Houston angler Alex Sosa, 31, fishes the bayou for a living, running a guide service called Buffalo Bayou Fishing Champs<\/a>. And he wants the everyday Houstonian to realize the swampy water we’re so quick to write off is very much alive.<\/p>\n “There’s a ton of stuff down there, man,” Sosa said. “Nobody really ever takes the time to just sit there and watch.”<\/p>\n Can you fish in the Buffalo Bayou?<\/p>\n Yes, and it’s actually quite easy to get started. Anyone 17 or older needs a Texas fishing license <\/a>with a freshwater endorsement, which runs $30 a year for residents, and after that the banks are open to anyone willing to walk down to them.<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sosa started doing exactly that in college. He was living off Interstate 45 and Wayside and wanted to fish more often than the drive to Galveston allowed. So, he started driving to Buffalo Bayou instead, walking down to the water with cheap poles and reels that he said were never going to catch him anything.<\/p>\n “When I finally went down there, and I saw these really big fish jumping out of the water, it just grabbed my attention,” Sosa said. “I set out to just catch the biggest one out there.”<\/p>\n What kind of fish are inside Buffalo Bayou?<\/p>\n More than you would expect<\/a>, and the reason is the tide.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Texas classifies Buffalo Bayou as freshwater, but it sits close enough to the bay that the level rises and falls several feet a day, Sosa said.\u00a0<\/p>\n During rainy stretches of the year, the bayou runs fresh and looks like chocolate milk from all the mud. During dry spells, the saltwater pushes up toward downtown and the water clears, sometimes dramatically, as\u00a0Sosa said it did during the 2022 drought.<\/p>\n That means the catch changes with the rain. Catfish, several species of gar, bass, crappie and bluegill turn up when the water is fresh. Redfish, speckled trout and flounder turn up when it’s salty.<\/p>\n “I’ve even caught flounder in downtown,” Sosa said.<\/p>\n Can you eat the fish from Buffalo Bayou?<\/p>\n The state advises you limit or avoid eating<\/a> fish<\/a> from the Houston Ship Channel and connected waters altogether because of pollutants and toxic chemicals.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sosa often sees his fellow anglers keeping the fish they catch along Buffalo Bayou, but he recommends against it. Once, he kept a catfish and found the meat and organs speckled with white spots. He hasn’t kept one since, and doesn’t plan to ever again.<\/p>\n “The pollution in the Buffalo, it’s not as bad as it used to be, but there can still be a lot of leftover chemicals and heavy metals that are getting into the flesh of the fish,” he said.<\/p>\n How is development along Buffalo Bayou affecting the fishing?<\/p>\n
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