I can’t tell you how many times I have fished a spot, caught a bunch of fish and asked myself, "Are there any other places like this?" While it has taken me many years of fishing the Ten Thousand Islands to learn my spots, I think I have a better way to explore the area without even leaving the dock - aerial maps.
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For those of you that don’t know me, in addition to being a captain, I am also licensed professional land surveyor. During the course of my surveying career I have utilized aerial mapping on many projects as a planning tool and as a basis for large surveys. With this knowledge in hand I have been utilizing aerial maps for several years to look for promising fishing spots. Yes, it works and I have found a bunch of them.
I know that the internet is loaded with mapping sites but two of the easiest to use (for me anyway) are Google Earth and TerraServer-USA. Both of lease sites are free and both are useful for planning a trip to the remote back country of Everglades National Park.
Google Earth has recent color aerial maps and TerraServer-USA has older black and white maps. At first glance it would seem like the Google Earth color images would give it the edge but in reality I like the older black and white aerial maps because they have better resolution and the contrast is great.
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It’s easy to zoom down on an area of interest and look at the various features like creek mouths and oyster bars. That secret spot that you have been coveting may have a hidden creek coming into it and that creek may be the reason for the fish you have been catching. From the water you cannot see the creek mouth because it’s overgrown but with an aerial view its sticks out like a sore thumb. Look at these aerial maps of Gopher Creek and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to understand why it’s a great place to fish. Just look at the creeks feeding into those bays. I can hear the Snook and Tarpon popping right now!
The beauty of these maps is that they are available 24 hours a day and you can view them to your hearts’ content. You can plan your next outing days in advance utilizing the aerials. I print them out and use them to navigate and explore an area. In the case of Google Earth you can extract latitude and longitude from the map but honestly I just keep it simple and navigate around like I always have without GPS.
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After a successful trip I take a few minutes to look over the aerial maps and try to indentify the spots I have fished. This way I can commit them to memory and see if any other interesting features exist (like a creek or oyster bar).
With some of the many software packages that are available you could download your GPS trails into the maps and save the data for a future trip.
Finally, one of the best reasons to use the aerial maps is so you can day dream about your next trip or call your buddy to say, "See that point? I caught a big Snook right there yesterday but don’t tell anyone".
Everglades Pro Fishing Charters
Captain Jim Stoner
Captain Doug Stoner
954-444-9995
