Google Maps A Boon to Hunters, Anglers, and Other Outdoor Enthusiasts

by Jeremy Henricks

How many times have you wondered what's on the other side of that mountain or what's beyond the next river bend?

Sure, topo and road maps provide part of the picture, but to get a real sense of a particular area, I find it easier to use a combination of topo and aerial photography maps. For hunters, anglers, 4-wheel, camping, hiking, and other outdoor enthusiasts, Google Maps provides a great perspective on the outdoors with its new satellite imagery maps.

On April 5, 2005, Google announced the integration of its Keyhole digital mapping service with the popular Google Maps service (http://maps.google.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.

About The Author

Author: Jeremy Henricks

Email: info@henricksoutdoors.com

Web Site: http://www.henricksoutdoors.com/

Details: Jeremy Henricks is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Henricks Outdoors network, which includes FishTheOutdoors.com, HuntTheOutdoors.com, and SurviveTheOutdoors.com.

How To Fish A Jig and Pig

Fishing a Jig and Pig

By Ronnie Garrison, About.com Guide

One of the best baits for big bass is a jig and pig. Check the results of most any tournament and many of the top finishers will have used a jig and pig. For a quality bite, they are great.

You can also catch a lot of fish on a jig and pig, but it is a bait that is generally fished slowly, so it is hard to cover a lot of water quickly. Flipping and pitching are the usual methods of fishing them, but they can also be cast or jigged. They are great for largemouth and smallmouth as well as spotted bass.

The jig of a jig and pig is usually a lead head jig with a fairly big hook. It is normally dressed with either a rubber skirt or hair. The pig is a trailer, often of pork rind, hence the name, or plastic. The concoction imitates a crawfish, and plastic trailers are often made to look like a crawfish.

A fairly stiff rod and heavy line is the norm for jig and pig fishing since you are after big fish and are usually fishing heavy cover. I fish mine on a six foot casting rod and use 17 to 20 pound line, usually Stren or Trilene tough lines. The "Mean Green" Trilene works well around cover.

Tie on a jig heavy enough to keep on the bottom. If the wind or current is strong, you will need a bigger jig but go with a light one if you can. I like 1/4 or 3/8 best, but will go to half ounce when necessary. I like a jig that sinks slowly, giving a big bass time to hit it. For that reason I am fishing hair jigs more - the air the hollow hairs in a bucktail jig makes it sink slower than a rubber jig.

Add your favorite trailer. A pork rind frog is always good but they will dry out. Match the pig to the size of your jig - a 101 for a 1/8 ounce jig up to a #1 or #10 size for half ounce jig. The curly tail versions are best when the bass want more action, and they make the jig sink even more slowly.

Plastic trailers like the Zoom Super Chunk or any of the crawfish imitations are also good, and they don't dry out. Twin curly tail trailers like the Yamamoto Ika are also excellent. Rig them so the claws or arms stick out from the jig skirt.

The general rule of thumb is brown in clear water and black in stained water. Many people go with a black/brown combo and others match the jig and trailer. Black/blue is also a good combination. I suspect the color is more important to the fisherman than the bass, so choose the one you like best.

Cast or pitch the jig and let it hit bottom. Let it sit there for a few seconds and imagine the legs on the jig waving and wiggling, enticing any nearby bass to eat it. if you don't a strike, shake the jig with your rod tip and move it with short hops. Think of a crayfish scuttling around on the bottom and then jumping backwards when scared. That jumping motion may make a bass think his dinner is leaving and draw a bite.

Keep working the jig and pig as long as you are in the cover. Brush, rocks and clay bottoms are all good since they are the type places bass look for crawfish. Repeated casts to good, isolated cover is always worthwhile to make a reluctant bass hit. Big bass often do not hit a bait quickly but repeated casts often will irratate them enough to make them bite.

Set the hook at the slightest indication of a bite. Watch your line and set the hook if it moves at all. If you feel weight, don't wait until you feel the bass spit out your jig and pig to set the hook.

Try a jig and pig this fall and winter. It is a good cold water bait. Don't give up on it too quickly - wait on that hawg to bite!

The Fishing Loft Newsletter - Contest Announcement

In This Issue... New Contest Announcement What's New on the Website Promotional Offers Fish Recipe of the Month Quote of the Month New Contest Announcement We were going to wait until March to announce this, but it's been long overdue. The 2011 Fishing Photo Contest is now underway. Here is the direct link to the contest page: http://www.fishingloft.com/fishing-photo-contest-2011.html You, and all of our newsletter subscribers, are the first to hear about the contest. So, get your cameras ready, take the shot of your catch, and enter it(up to 4 pictures per entry, the more the merrier) and your story about it in the contest. What do you win? You'll have to go to the website to get the details. (Check the promotional offers section below for a hint.) By the way, we might decide to increase the prize amounts depending entirely upon how many entries we receive. The more the merrier. Stop by and enter the 2011 Fishing Photo Contest today. What's New on FishingLoft.com We received a few submissions in our fishing pictures sections. If you were one of those people, and want to have your submission entered into the contest, then let us know. Go to our contact page and briefly describe which submission is yours that you want to enter. Be sure to check the contest guidelines first. Thanks. Promotional Offers Since we are awarding gift cards from bass Pro Shops as prizes to the winners of the fishing photo contest, I thought it would be a good idea to quickly inform you to check out their website to see what deals they have going on. Grab a couple Gift Cards or shop around on their site to find exactly what you're looking for. Remember, Valentine's Day is just around the corner... hint, hint. Fish Recipe of the Month Pan Fried Tilapia I cooked up a quick and easy tilapia dish a while back. I took a few pictures of the process and then sent it over to an internet friend of mine for them to post it on their website. You can check out the tilapia dish here at Susan's seafood recipe site. Quote of the Month "The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad." ~ A.K. Best You are subscribed to The Fishing Loft Newsletter. The back issues are at the following URL... http://www.fishingloft.com/The_Fishing_Loft_Newsletter-backissues.html If you wish to remove yourself from this mailing, please click on the following URL... http://fishingloft.com/cgi-bin/mailout/mailmgr.cgi?us=LQ.21139906.24400837.ad88f0e144fa9df508e991fa071652dc (If the above URL is not a link, copy-and-paste the URL into your Web browser. That will confirm your removal.) To change your e-mail address, please click on the following URL... http://fishingloft.com/cgi-bin/mailout/mailmgr.cgi?ca=LQ.21139906.24400837.ad88f0e144fa9df508e991fa071652dc (If the above URL is not a link, copy-and-paste the URL into your Web browser. That will confirm your change.)