FisherOfMen	March 8th, 2012, 10:25 pm
NY Posts: 101	I've been trying to find the best way to scout water via the internet, and it seems google earth is the best bet. I've tried Google Maps, Bing Bird's Eye (which was pretty cool, could almost read license plate numbers) and the NYDEC Interactive Mapper, Satellite Imagery that zooms closer than Google Maps and is very clear. Just how good is Google Earth? How close can you get, and how great is the 3D feature? I have heard people swear by it, but it seems what they say is either too good to be true, or I'm really missing out on some awesome tools by not having Google Earth. I'm trying to persuade my dad to let me download it on one of our other computers because my desktop is too slow to run the program, and I guess it'd be nice to know whether or not it's really worth the trouble. Any info would be great!
	"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught." -Author Unknown All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -Edmund Burke

Czoom	March 12th, 2012, 4:47 pm
Posts: 10	Yeah it is really good. Every computer should have it installed. Not sure why your did is so scared of it? Its a great program made by a great company.

FisherOfMen	March 13th, 2012, 8:10 pm
NY Posts: 101	Thanks - it's not really the program, he just assumes I destroy every electronic thing I touch. All based on some unfortunate incidents some years ago...;)
	"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught." -Author Unknown All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -Edmund Burke

Oldredbarn	March 14th, 2012, 1:18 pm
Novi, MI Posts: 1681	I'm more a boots on the ground type angler myself. :) I feel that the more folks rely on GPS and things like google earth for their experiences the more they are likely to lose their innate sense of direction and will become so lost in the woods they will never find the stream and I won't have to deal with their high-tech shenanigans anywhere near my fishing hole...;) Well...That's not totally true...A few years back, just after mid-night, I came across two fellas who were so lost they thought they were going to have to spend the night sleeping in the woods...Though I am the son of a navigator the only technology I had in my favor was a flash light...I thought they were going to kiss me when I told them I knew how to find my car...:) No sexton, no loran, no compas, no GPS, or google...I gave one of them one of my flashlights, licked the end of my index finger and stuck it up in the air to ascertain wind direction and turned and headed off in to the woods with my little lost ducklings in tow...:) Spence
	"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood

CaseyP	March 14th, 2012, 5:43 pm
Arlington, VA/ Mercersburg, PA Posts: 587	Google Earth is great for the very beginnings of scouting a stream, but then YOYO. it doesn't show property lines, posted sections, or all the parking spots. lots of places are only shown with pictures 4 or 5 years old, and lots more don't have the latest resolutions, so you can't necessarily get really close. it does show the bridges and the intersections. if it's a winter shot, it can show the riffles and pools, depending on how big the stream is and how deep the water was that day. so tell your dad that everyone in the world uses Google Earth, and even this distrustful Luddite (Wikki that one!) manages to live with it and love it.
	"You can observe a lot by watching." Yogi Berra

FisherOfMen	March 15th, 2012, 1:23 pm
NY Posts: 101	I'm sorta the same way there, Spence. I don't want to have the "virtual" wilderess experience, I just want to figure out what's what to make best use of my time (and using ma&pa's vehicles) ;) When I hunt, I carry a compass, but rarely use it even when 1/2 or more from the nearest trail. I'm never ".05 a degree" accurate, but if I run around in the woods willy-nilly (red squirrel hunting)I can give you the general direction where I came from, so no worries there. Plus this whole river thing makes it easy - just follow the river! It will be a sad day if I ever get lost while fly fishing! But there probably was a bit more excitement before all of this technology. I recently discovered this huge pool via satellite, not by coming across it on foot. That takes some of the mystery and suspense out of "never knowing what's beyond the river bend".
	"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught." -Author Unknown All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -Edmund Burke

Oldredbarn	March 15th, 2012, 2:30 pm
Novi, MI Posts: 1681	it does show the bridges and the intersections. if it's a winter shot, it can show the riffles and pools, depending on how big the stream is and how deep the water was that day. Casey, I'm wondering if when you use that little "street-level" character and he's near a blue-ribbon stream if he has a fly rod in his hand? :) You know they have folks driving around taking those street level photos and I googled my mother's place and when I hit the "street-view" I actually saw two of my niece's and a neighbor girl standing in the drive behind my mother's van...I was a tad concerned...Since you drove him to a dictionary for "Luddite" maybe he'll return for Orwellian? :) Spence
	"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood

FisherOfMen	March 15th, 2012, 3:38 pm
NY Posts: 101	Just got it on my mom's laptop, and it's very cool, but I only had a minture to play with it before she wanted to do her online banking :P The quality isn't nearly what I'd hoped, but I'm wondering if that's more of an internet speed problem than satellite resolution problem. I'll figure it out!
	"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught." -Author Unknown All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -Edmund Burke

FisherOfMen	March 15th, 2012, 3:40 pm
NY Posts: 101	Spence- It'd be amazing if you found one of those bridge pics with you in the river hauling in a fish!
	"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught." -Author Unknown All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -Edmund Burke

Oldredbarn	March 15th, 2012, 5:22 pm
Novi, MI Posts: 1681	Spence- It'd be amazing if you found one of those bridge pics with you in the river hauling in a fish! Yeah! It would be a real hoot if I was doing it over by Spencer's Bridge on the Little Manistee...:) I like the new profile pic! Spence
	"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood

Crepuscular	March 16th, 2012, 9:56 am
Boiling Springs, PA Posts: 382	FisherOfMen, If you are really interested in playing around with aerial photos for that kind of stuff you may want to try out ESRI's on line GIS mapping.http://www.arcgis.com/home/ You can overlay GIS layers from places such as the NY DEC that show fishing access or water quality data such and stream designations http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/member.cfm?OrganizationID=529. I like it better than Google Earth because you have better control of the map content.I'm not super familiar with the NY datasets put PA has layers that show trout reproduction in specific stream reaches along with other water quality data and flow data. Spence , I hope you didn't have any of those storms last evening
	Study to be quiet

Oldredbarn	March 16th, 2012, 10:46 am
Novi, MI Posts: 1681	Spence , I hope you didn't have any of those storms last evening Thanks for the concern! It was a close one...Dexter is just a bit west of Ann Arbor and my smallie river the Huron runs right through it. My office is 20 or so minutes north of Ann Arbor and my home is 10 miles east of my office...It got really dark and was raining when we left for home...My wife and I were heading out for the gym and my mother called to see if I was ok...Strange thing was everything was really slow moving and there was a great deal of lightening but little wind where I was at. North of us the sky was fairly clear but darker than hell south of us...Funny thing is my mom isn't the best when it comes to directions, she lives near the airport straight east of Ann Arbor, and the damn thing was really more her way than mine...I called her back when we left the gym to see if she was still with us or visiting Oz...;) She was ok... The video from last night was scary. Spence
	"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood

Quick Reply

You have to be logged in to post on the forum. It's this easy:

Related Discussions

Title	Replies	Last Reply
Re: maps In General Discussion by Jtberez	3	Jul 9, 2009 by Gentleshep
Stream Work Day In General Discussion by Jjlyon01	0
Re: Site updates from May 28, 2011 In Site Updates by Troutnut	4	Jun 2, 2011 by PaulRoberts
Re: "These fish are highly classified." In General Discussion by Troutnut	7	Jan 8, 2007 by CaseyP
Re: Opening Day 2011 Grayling MI In Fishing Reports by Oldredbarn	1	May 12, 2011 by Flyman85
Re: Site updates from March 22, 2005 In Site Updates by Troutnut	5	Jan 10, 2013 by Taxon
Re: Do trout eat gypsy moth caterpillars? In General Discussion by Shawnny3	4	Jul 23, 2009 by Jmd123
Re: rod and reel?? In Gear Talk by Strme007	2	Mar 22, 2009 by Strme007
Re: Croton River In General Discussion by CAuletta	1	Aug 18, 2011 by Troutnut
Re: An old professor and fly-fishing mentor reappears in my life In General Discussion by Jmd123	1	Mar 8, 2008 by Kroil

Troutnut Forum > Fly Fishing > Google Earth

Quick Reply

Related Discussions

Troutnut Forum
>
Fly Fishing
> Google Earth