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My wife and I have recently started canoeing the bayous and smaller lakes in SE Texas (mostly around Houston). There have been some fairly remote places that we've gone where I felt a little naked without my weapon - alligators for one, shady-looking trot-lineres for another (yes, I'm making a generalization but there are times when you kind of have to go with your gut).
I know that I can't carry on Army Corps of Engineers property, but I can on TPWD property. There have been a couple of places where I am left scratching my head.
Luce Bayou (NE of Houston) is managed by TPWD, and feeds into Lake Houston which is Corps property. Where does one authority start and the other leave off?
I know that this is a pretty general question, but there have been other places we have gone with similar situations.
We have been to Luce Bayou a couple of times and usually put in at Ponderosa Marine, but I am wondering if it is considered to be on the lake or the bayou?

I am pretty sure Lake Houston is City of Houston built and managed - not USACE built / managed. Could be wrong though?!

Yeah, I was just looking at the Texas Lakes page for the Corps and they do not list Lake Houston as one of their lakes.

http://corpslakes.usace.army.mil/visito ... m?state=TX

Grillmark55,

As a paddler myself (I own three kayaks) I carry in my cockpit using a Pelican Case with a brass snap lock I hook onto a nearby padeye.

Like you, I find myself paddling in some pretty remote areas and I too have happened upon some shady looking characters.

Most of my paddling involves sea kayaking, but I too have come across more than one shifty looking trot liner when paddling fresh water...they always seem furtive and give off a distinct air of someone caught in the act of doing something wrong.

As for alligators: Enjoy seeing them. I've come across them countless times while paddling and have never had one act aggressive.

I've even been wade-fishing, with a stringer full of fish, and encountered them. One literally came off the bank, swam out to me, got eyeball close and turned to swim back to the bank. I was chest deep in water and way far from land. This happened to me many times while I worked at Aransas Wildlife Refuge as a resident volunteer it quit scaring me. My days off were almost all spent wadefishing there. And if you know where to go, the fishing is fantastic. And Matagorda Island even better. Which I got to fish as I worked with their guys too.