Doing Homework using Advanced Mapping and Aerial Photo Technology
By Tom Leogrande
Technology has come a long way in the last few years both on the water and off. With new “side scan” units and GPS what we find on the water can forever be remembered and found. Add to that technology like Navionics with its mapping of the major waterways across the U.S. and beyond and we have the ability to find fishing locations and fish better than ever before.
Off the water technology has made even bigger advances allowing us to scan lakes from the comfort of our home (or office) prior to even reaching a the lake, river or reservoir we plan to fish in the near future. This technology is often overlooked and not used by many of today's anglers.
It wasn't but about 5 years ago that I made my first trip to Lake Mojave , just south of the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead . I was off to fish a tournament there and I had never seen the lake before and had no idea where to start. By using Google maps and Google Earth I was able to pin point a few patches of dirty water. Showing up only hours before the tournament I was able to focus on those dirty water areas and catch a solid limit of fish. In fact, that limit of fish was good enough for third place in a 52 boat tournament, with no prefish and never having been to the lake before. Call it luck, well sure, but the use of technology from my home put me in position to get lucky!
Today's Google Earth is far superior than the Google Earth I used just those few short years ago. With today's Google Earth you can literally look at the shoreline in the same perspective as you would from the boat, meaning not just an overhead look at the shoreline but, a literal “from the boat” view of the shoreline. This is a great new feature making it much easier for your mind to relate to the spot when you actually arrive there via boat, car or foot.
Google Earth and Google Maps are still a great starting point for any pre-tournament research but, there are better tools freely available on the internet today. These tools are fairly easy to use but, to make it easy I will provide links to some support pages that offer tutorials, Q&A and more about the software.
The software that I highly recommend any angler use, even for water you already fish is called NASA World Wind. Add to it the NASA World Wind Microsoft Bing Virtual Earth Plugin and you have some serious technology at your fingertips for research. The whole installation and setup should take under 15 minutes with an average broadband internet connection.
With this technology you can easily see USGS topographical maps overlaid on satellite imagery. Then with the click of a button you can scan to aerial photography of the area (for most areas) and see incredibly clear images of the areas you might be considering fishing. The major difference between satellite imagery and aerial photographs is that aerial photographs (generally taken from a plane) are much more detailed than the satellite images. The only drawback is that aerial photographs are not available for all areas of the country, for example Clear Lake is not available. However, Lake Havasu , Lake Castaic and many other left coast lakes are available in aerial photographs via this system.
Below are a few sample images of the USGS topographical map data and some sample aerial photographs of a few left coast lakes.
Aerial Photo of the Castaic Lagoon. This won't provide much fishing information but, the detail is incredible.
Aerial Photo - Birdseye view of an island in Lake Havasu. This could be valuable fishing information.
Nothing beats time on the water, but when your time is limited this system can up your chances to get in the money or simply put more fish in the boat!
Related Links:
Download Nasa World Wind Application
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/download.html
Nasa World Wind Virtual Earth Plugin http://download.worldwindcentral.com/users/bull/WorldWind_1.4_VE_Plugin_1.4.exe
Tutorials, Frequently asked questions and more
http://worldwindcentral.com/wiki/Main_page
Here are some instructions to get you started:
- Download both the above files and install them.
- Start NASA World Wind.
- Click on Plugins in the top menu.
- Select Load/Unload
- Scroll down and put a check next to Virtual Earth Plugin (Shaded)
- On the right select Load
- Close this Plugin Load/Unload Window.
- On NASA World Wind Navigate to the lake you want to investigate
- In the picture below you see the icons that match the top of the NASA World Wind Software.
- To View the USGS Topographical map information
- Turn off the icon labeled with a green “1
- Turn On the icon labeled with a green “2”
- To view the aerial photos and the birds eye view click on the icon labeled with a green “3”. This will open the exact location in the Microsoft Virtual Earth software and you can then select Aerial photo or “birds eye” at the top.
