Tools for Finding Wild Trout Streams
In the last few years a wealth of online tools, based on Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, has become available on the Web. These tools make available USGS survey maps and aerial photography archives, plus databases of geographic features such as streams and ponds. You can view this information at virtually any scale, and make custom maps. Many of the maps in this website were drawn (at least in part) by these tools.
For the fly fisherman interested in wild trout streams, they eliminate much of the guesswork involved in exploring a new stream. Instead of mucking about on the ground, getting frustrated and lost, you can do the initial leg-work from your computer. With a little experience in interpreting the aerial imagery, you can make highly informed decisions about whether you want to explore a stream at all. You can find the most likely access points, and figure out your route to get there.
Useful tools include:
- Commercial websites which offer USGS
topographic survey
maps.
- Web-based GIS viewers which allow you to render custom
maps.
- Google Earth, an amazing next-generation earth-imagery
system
- Downloadable GIS data which you can view on your own computer
Best of all, most of these systems and data are free. Even the commercial topo map systems are inexpensive.
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