A FISHING GUIDE TO CONCRETE-LINED BRAYS BAYOU 
What kind of fish can an enterprising angler find in the wilds of inner-loop Brays Bayou? Episcopal priest and urban fly-fishing evangelist Mark Marmon tells the Chronicle‘s Shannon Tompkins he’s caught 18 different species in Brays Bayou alone, including largemouth bass, crappie, catfish, sunfish, Rio Grande perch, longnose gar, spotted gar, and white bass. But that’s just counting the natives. The biggest draws — and what you’re most likely to find — are the alien invaders, which include mullet, the aquarium-fugitive armored catfish known as plecostomus, tilapia, and grass carp, aka “Bellaire bonefish.” But you’ve got to know where to look for them: “They, like most fish in the bayou, tend to cluster around the mouth of ‘feeder’ creeks,” Tompkins reports. “They also like structure anomalies that create accelerated current or breaks in the current; in Brays Bayou, these are created by breaks or buckles in the otherwise smooth concrete lining of the bayou or maybe an abandoned shopping cart that has found its way into the bayou. (Anglers call those shopping carts ‘Brays Bayou mangroves.’)” [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Payton Moore
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gross dude
“Crappie” … it figures
The problem: I don’t think I would trust any of those fish to eat. Sure, you can catch and release, but I also don’t see the appeal of standing on the banks of a concrete ditch.
None of these fisherman are eating the fish. Anglers are their own breed. My son, who is singularly obsessed with fishing, isn’t happy unless he has a line in the water somewhere. He has pulled amazing fish out of the bayous and watershed areas and spends his days on foot exploring them.
My wife worked for TPWD a few years back. They did an invasive species project on the bayous. The amount of tumors on the plecostomus was disturbing to say the least. That along with the fact that she had to get several vaccines before going on the bayou water and no one with an open wound was allowed either. I am not sure I would fish there.
Thanks, Rob – I wouldn’t want to touch any fish or anything coming out of the bayous!
Typical religious hypocrisy, he claims the moral high-ground of being a fly-fisherman, but we have hard evidence (shown) of him being a bait-caster.
@bob jones: The included image is from a separate Brays Bayou fishing expedition, by a different urban naturalist. Click on the photo credit above to see the video it’s extracted from.
What’s the daily limit on dead bodies caught currently?
He must snag a lot of junk autos. Some of the older ones even have fins :)
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Actually they must make great habitats, though much smaller than the aircraft carriers typically used for this purpose.