Bing.com Maps' Birds Eye View.

[ChrisAW]

My friend pointed this out to me the other day. Bing.com uses a feature in their maps that allows you to see a "Bird's Eye View" of some areas all around the US. This is not your normal aerial view, where you'll zoom in to 1000 feet up an not be able to get any closer. This is much closer.

After messing around with it, I thought I might check out some of the lakes I fish. If the lakes you fish are on the clear side, you can see under water cover VERY clearly. I've found down tree's, rock piles, sunken dock sections, points, drop offs, and under water current channels. All kinds of things that wasn't able to spot while on the water.

This could be a very useful tool for anyone who will be visiting a lake they aren't familiar with.

http://www.bing.com/maps/

Just type the name of your favorite lake into the search engine bar at the top of the page. At the top of the map, there is a button with "Aerial" on it. It will lower, and also have a "Birds Eye View" Selection. If its available for your area, and the water is clear enough, you might find some new spots to hit.

[Long Mike]

Bing is the same thing as Virtual Earth, just a Beta version.  I prefer V.E. at this time, although the aerial photos are the same.  To me V.E. is a lot less cumbersome to use.

[ChrisAW]

I've been searching for ten minutes just trying to find a way to USE Virtual Earth. Not quite sure what it is, but atleast all I have to do with this is go to Bing.

[IwillChooseFreeWill]

Google maps and Google Earth has always worked very well for me, plus anything relating to Microsoft is unnecessarily more difficult than it should be.

[basspro215]

its has helped me a lot I've been looking at my local lakes on their for a while and it's awesome i even downloaded the 3-D version

[keepinsane]

WOW thank you that is sweet I have a tournament right after ice off on a lake in indiana I have not fished before thats really helpful

[TeamPhntom]

The pics for my area aren't high res.

Just curious, what lakes are you looking at where you can see some cover?

[Red Bear]

bing.com maps are even more outdated than google. i was looking around one lake and houses that have been there 2-3 years are not even on the bing.com map, but are on google maps...

[RedhookRR]

Phntom we would never be that lucky.

[Mike D from Lunkerville]

Google maps and Google Earth has always worked very well for me, plus anything relating to Microsoft is unnecessarily more difficult than it should be.

you would think that MS would have figured this out by now, but they are still light years behind apple and can't seem to catch up.

[smbrule]

I use both Bing and Google maps. I can access birds eye view quickly via Streets and Trips however, for lakes I fish it is not provided.

Google maps for lakes I'm interested in provide a better view of under water islands.

I use Google Earth via Acme Mapper 2.0 on the web which in addition to the satellite view provide road maps and the combination of both. In addition, topo maps and terrain maps are provided although I find them less useful. Acme maps also provide radar if desired.

As I transfer lat/lon to my GPS I prefer the cross hair on Acme to position lat/lon vs. G.E. mouse pointer which is too easily moved out of position.