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Bass, trout fishing offer best catches
Compiled by The News-Review Smallmouth bass fishing in the South Umpqua River and trout fishing in some high lakes and streams offer the best catches for anglers.
FISHING REPORT
Night fishing for bass has been steady at Lake Moomaw, reports Larry Andrews at the Bait Place. Trollers are pulling good numbers of trout from depths of 35 feet and more, but few of the trout are large enough to keep.
FISHING FORECAST | TOM HIGGINS
Offshore trolling offers the best opportunity for action in the Carolinas. Parties fishing out of one marina, Hatteras Harbor, boated and released 26 billfish.
Eight miles of fishing paradise
The morning was hot, and only getting hotter. I walked down to the riverbank, where a soothing cool breeze blew off the clear stream. Without a soul in sight, I cast my line out to the middle of the current, just downstream of a series of logs and branches.
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On April 5, 2005, Google announced the integration of its Keyhole digital mapping service with the popular Google Maps service ( .com ). In addition to a great overhead view, Google Maps allow you to click and drag maps with your mouse, zoom and pan, search for specific locations, get detailed driving direction, and more.
How It Benefits Outdoor Enthusiasts
Google Maps benefits outdoor enthusiasts for a number or reasons. The main benefit is that Google Maps allows you to see what you couldn't see before, at least without spending money on aerial maps, as they provide free access to their satellite imagery.
I live in Springfield, Oregon near the McKenzie River and Willamette River. Both rivers are great for fishing trout, steelhead, salmon, and more. With so much river frontage passing less than half a mile by my house, you'd think it easy to find a new spot to fish. The only problem is that the area is riddled with housing and farm tracts, with no easy way to access the river without traveling a couple of miles near the edge of town or several miles outside of town.
Plus, topo and road maps only tell part of the story. In regards to fishing, what about current, trees, weeds, rocks, gravel, and other structure? We all know that aerial maps answer a lot of these questions. With Google Maps' satellite imagery, I've already determined several locations that I'll be trying this year. With deer hunting season around the corner, I'll also be using these maps to scout out some new hunting locations.
I also recently visited Moab, Utah for the 2005 Easter Jeep Safari , and could have benefited greatly from the use of such detailed maps while traversing many of the offroad trails in the area. 4-wheel and offroad enthusiasts, bikers, hikers, and scenery buffs will notice the trails, trailsheads, and landmarks such as Lion's Back, Arches National Monument, and other spots of interest.
The Good and Bad
Google Maps provides both detailed street level and satellite imagery maps. While the street level maps cover the entire United States, Canada, and the UK, the high resolution satellite images seem to cover only more populated areas. For outdoor enthusiasts visiting urban areas, this is great. But for those visiting rural or wilderness areas, Google still has a ways to go before more detailed imagery is available.
Images seem to be pretty up-to-date, at least within the areas I checked. For example, my house is located near a new housing development, and I can see houses that were started within the last year on the map.
With Google aiming to expand its reach, I'm sure that we'll see maps with greater detail and higher resolution in the future. That's good news for outdoor enthusiasts.
Things to Note
Image resolution varies by distance. At the lowest resolution/farthest distance, you can identify large landmarks such as mountains, rivers, and large lakes. At the highest resolution/closest distance, you can locate specific cars, buildings, trees, hills, creeks, and more. Satellite images are current within a year or so, but they are not in real-time. |