Using online maps for pre-fishing

[Joel W]

I've been using Google Earth for more then a year. One of the thing that I've noticed is that the imagery isn't current. Over the summer months the trees on the reservoirs are bare, and the boat sections have way less boats in them then they do now. I've also checked out my home, and the images are from years ago.

[=Matt 5.0=]

BOOOOOOOOO! No NASA World Wind download for Mac...

[Sharkbite]

Hey guys after watching the the NASA World Wind I down loaded it but I can't figure out how to use it.  The tool bar dosn't even have the Urthos in it so I can't veiw crap is Google easier to use then this?  Can anyone help me learn this?

[Sharkbite]

Not knocking you or it. It has tremendous potential to be an incredible tool for arm chair pre-fishing.

Ideally, a map showing visual detail of the scale Microsofts virtual earth provides in the birds eye view along with an adjustable, transparent topo overlay would be incredible. 8-)

Did you get the Topo maps and overlays when you down loaded the program.  I didn't and it won't allow me to install it in the plug in section.

[bassinri]

Ive look into many of the issues we are all having and I know this sounds obvious but its all up to them to update and come up with fixes. I spent a good amount of time looking into all of the issues stated and called a friend that works for Google. He informed me that there are big improvments coming with Google eath but its just going to take a bit more time. At least we have the know how, now we need them to do their part. Issues like the Google Earth images being a few years old and such. All we can do is just keep tring I guess. Good luck.

[Paul Roberts]

AS cool as that stuff seemed on that vid -it's pretty limited really. Sat/aerial images are not real time. I use them to get the correct oreintation for my own mapping (the hard and really the only way -and a lot of important stuff changes year to year). If it was a sunny day I can sometimes make out shallow structure. That (roughly) helpful. For most water bodies such really detailed info (shown) isn't available.

WE're not quite there yet. But the potential is interesting. I'm waiting on real-time satellites, although the amount of hardware that'll end up "up there" is scary in itself. Almost makes me want to buy a cane pole (a graphite one of course).

[Matt Fly]

Do you think they would allow citizens to zoom in on their house during the day trying to catch strange car parked in the driveway?

You can request to buy a picture online, you will get current photo.    

[slomoe]

BOOOOOOOOO! No NASA World Wind download for Mac...

ROFL at your avatar  ;D

[noway]

Down-loadable maps here for a dozen states.

http://www.sportsmansconnection.com/downloads/

[cart7t]

Not knocking you or it. It has tremendous potential to be an incredible tool for arm chair pre-fishing.

Ideally, a map showing visual detail of the scale Microsofts virtual earth provides in the birds eye view along with an adjustable, transparent topo overlay would be incredible. 8-)

Did you get the Topo maps and overlays when you down loaded the program. I didn't and it won't allow me to install it in the plug in section.

Go here. Watch the video, links are provided for the topo overlays.

http://www.another site/

The problem is this. Unless you're looking at a lake close to an urban area where you can use the World Wind Urban area visual feature, most lakes have visuals that are far worse than what Google Earth has thus the topo overlay add on isn't quite as useful. You'll note in the video he is constantly referring to areas on the potomac close to DC. That's great because most of the features are available for that. Move to Toledo Bend, LOZ, Kentucky lake, etc. and World Wind becomes less useful.

BTW, those incredibly detailed visuals in MS visual earth don't work within World wind. In fact, when you click on the MS VE icon in world wind to see the visual it opens your browser to MS's VE webpage. There is no topo overlay for MS visual earth.

So to sum it up.

World wind's visual details for most lakes not near major metro area's are nowhere near as good as Google earths but the topo overlay feature works better. The problem is navigating in WW is a pain. The MS VE add on is a great feature for WW but you lose the topo ability when you use it and the birds eye views aren't available for many lakes.

Google Earth has better overall visuals for most lakes but the topo overlay feature works slowly and sometimes not at all.

Finally, the topo overlay that allows you to layer the topo map over the visual and adjust the transparency is a add on that is only available for oceans, the great lakes and tidal rivers.