NL-2011-05 Luce Bayou - Houston Canoe Club

The Houston Canoe Club
Share our Joy of Paddling!

P.O. Box 925516
Houston, Texas
77292-5516

The Houston Canoe Club

is a Paddlesports Risk Management Club

Sign the Waiver
HCC

HomeNL-2011-05 Luce Bayou

Luce Bayou
April 17, 2011
by Dave Kitson

Joe Coker and I made a last minute trip to Luce Bayou on Sunday April 17. Luce Bayou is located on the north/east side of Lake Houston You cross the lake to the east side on 1960 then take a left on 2100 and another left on Huffman-Cleveland. There is a little bait camp just before you cross the Bayou. The bait camp has a great ramp and good parking. It does have a $5 fee so bring the money in correct change; it goes in an envelope and into a lock box.

From this location it is possible to do a 7 or 8 mile out and back trip upstream which is what we did or you can go downstream to Lake Houston. There are a couple of interesting little islands on the lake to visit. On my last trip that way I found deer tracks on one of the islands; I guess they swim out there. On that trip I got a great look at a bald eagle as well.

On this day we took the upstream route. It turned out to be a good bird trip as we followed a pair of ducks (Mallards or wood ducks) part of the way upstream and back. We also encountered a Swallow Tailed Kite (Yes I know the bird books say they do not live here but this is the second time I have seen them). There were a number of blue herons but not too many white herons or egrets. We did see one green heron who hung around on the shore and let us have a good look. We heard hawks but did not see any. There is a rental house not too far upstream from the put-in which has a small man-made sand beach (The sign says Nude Beach but Joe and I kept our clothes on) and next to it is a cage with a pair of peacocks. The male has a huge tail, well worth the trip.

We went as far as it is possible to go without getting out of the boat since about 4 miles upstream there is a sort of sand dam with a large steel culvert extending to the stream on the other side. It might have been possible to drag the boats over to the other side but the bank is a little steep here and it was getting late so we opted to turn around. The forest on this stream is different than the Lake Charlotte area. There are still some cypress but there is also pine and various hardwoods which gives the trip a different feel. There are also a lot of bass fishermen on the banks and in boats on the downstream half.


Turtles		Fish nests

The turtles were out in force and some were very large. I saw 4 of them lined up on one log. Joe also found several groups of Texas Cichlid nests. These are depressions in the sand about 8” or a foot in diameter and maybe a couple of inches deep where the fish lay their eggs and defend them.

The trip ended up as 7.8 miles and 5 hours. Joe has posted his photos on the website and I have attached a couple here.

Trip photos by Joe Coker are on the HCC photo pages, HERE. Click on the first photo in the album, and then use the arrow button to scroll through the other photos.