''It's so much easier now''

[Derek Gibson]

Pinpointing areas and routes, now you have Google Earth and Sat Nav making journeys and locations to far distant places infinitley easier.

Back in the day our only recourse was the old ordinance survey maps, and plenty of leg work.

I'm thinking here of trips down to Wales, Hampshire, Dorset, Cambridgeshire, and even some obscure drains and waters in the depths of Lincolnshire. You may ask, would we have used those facilities were they available back then, that would be a definate YES.

But that's my current stance on the way it is today.

Does anyone else agree?

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I would totally agree with you on this one Derek.

I was laways very good at mapreading and interpretation, and even able to draw sections etc. from the basic OS Maps.

However, all that pales into insignificance when compared with today's technology, SatNav, Google Earth and mobile phone MapApps etc.

Would I have used it all back then,?

Well, to quote a TV programme line from that era . . . . . .







You bet your sweet bippy I would . . . . .


(Rowan & Martin's Laugh In from 1968)

 

[peter crabtree]

I use it for viewing venues. I look at lakes and pits where you can often see the contours like bars and sometimes weed. Been using it since its launch.
It's also useful to look at the walks from the car park...

 

[barbelboi]

Agreed Derek....

PS It was a good job petrol was cheap then - the art of getting lost wasn't too costly............

 

[binka]

I'm (only!) 46 but I can remember the days in my early youth when you heard of venues either by word of mouth or in the local tackle shop, I would say it's far easier nowadays with all the satnav and online gizmos such as Google Earth.

Most of my early streams and rivers, usually the Devon and Upper or Little Witham had been identified by my father when he was walking farmland inspecting cattle to buy, the promise of a good Sunday joint (the meat kind, not the spliff!!) along with the promise of some virgin river fishing ensured one of his fishing mates would take me along week in, week out.

 

[sam vimes]

There's little doubt that technology has helped immensely. However, I believe that, to some extent, it's a double edged sword. I'm now painfully aware of vast swathes of water on my doorstep that are simply unavailable to angling.

I have many gravel pits within a mile or two of me, only a small fraction of them have any form of legal angling permitted on them. There are numerous smaller stillwaters out there that could have easily been missed (and many were) in the past.

When you are actively involved in looking for a stillwater to buy or rent, it's frustrating as hell knowing that they are out there but unavailable.

 

[Keith M]

I often use Google Earth when I want to view an unfamiliar venue that I'm going to fish and I want an idea of what to expect; it's nice to be able to view in both map mode and arial photo mode because in the arial photo mode trees can often obscure paths or roads.

It's certainly a valuable tool that makes things a lot easier, I wish I had had it years ago.
SatNav is also a great boon but I have entered a Post Code into a SatNav before only to find that the post code leads me to the middle of a field so you have to beware LOL

Keith

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

Going back to my days as a kid it was on your bike to a lake your mates told you about and worry about the legal side of if you could fish it abd every now and again actually catching some fish

 

[terry m]

I use it for viewing venues. I look at lakes and pits where you can often see the contours like bars and sometimes weed. Been using it since its launch.
It's also useful to look at the walks from the car park...

Agree 100%. Some of the aerial views show gravel bars very clearly, 10 mins on a PC saves a couple of hours with a marker float.

 

[Tee-Cee]

When I first read the title of this thread, I thought it would be a dissertation on ' Sex and the Youth of Today '...........

But yes, I agree that all the technology mentioned above has made everything so much easier. Chasing around in youth on a push bike and then a Vespa, looking for new waters was not all it was cracked up to be and after being refuse entry onto public transport with a flat tyre'd bike a number of times ( in rush hour at Finsbury Park Station ) I gave it up as a bad job...
Hoiking around the wild's of Welsh Wales ( and other locations, various ) on holiday, with an OS map, following little ' blue ' dots also lost it's charm after a while.................. Walker/ Redmire Pool has a lot to answer for !!

Bike served it's purpose in carrying a bit of gear, though...

Nah, youth of today don't know how lucky they are !!

 

[theartist]

Nah, youth of today don't know how lucky they are !!

Yeah but the sad thing is how many youngsters are using the various online mapping to find a new river or pond they can go fishing on?

Its Just big kids like us doing it.

 

[thecrow]

Great tools for finding waters but they do have some drawbacks imo, one of them is that using one stops you learning the route as you blindly follow the sat navs instructions.

Google Earth is great but also saddens me now and then as I can see signs of pools and ponds that I used to fish as a child that are no longer there having been filled in long ago.

 

[robertroach]

I never use a satnav, although my smartphone has one. I like planning the journey beforehand and making my own way with maps /instructions/notes.

I do use Google Earth and Maps, however. I think its absolutely amazing to be able to look down on an area. It always surprises me how many hidden waters there are which you would never know existed otherwise.

 

[greenie62]

....I think its absolutely amazing to be able to look down on an area...

And how misleading the images are when compared to real-life viewing - sometimes! A 'flat' bank can be in reality a 10ft drop!

 

[theartist]

And how misleading the images are when compared to real-life viewing - sometimes! A 'flat' bank can be in reality a 10ft drop!

I'd settle for 10ft sometimes as it's been like rockin' up at Cheddar Gorge at some places.

---------- Post added at 03:00 ---------- Previous post was at 02:58 ----------

Google Earth is great but also saddens me now and then as I can see signs of pools and ponds that I used to fish as a child that are no longer there having been filled in long ago.

Going old school but getting a similar result I recently purchased an old road atlas and a lot of rivers on it are no longer around now

 

[pf0x]

I used to love getting maps out and looking for bits of 'blue' or where the nearest footpath was to a section of river etc (we're only talking 15 years ago!)

If you use Bing maps they have Aerial Photography like google but they also have Ordnance Survey maps too so you can get the best of both worlds.

It's too easy these days. With street view you can even find the lay-bys and parking spots!

I don't own a sat-nav or 'modern' phone so still keep a battered atlas in the car!

 

[theartist]

I used to love getting maps out and looking for bits of 'blue' or where the nearest footpath was to a section of river etc (we're only talking 15 years ago!)

If you use Bing maps they have Aerial Photography like google but they also have Ordnance Survey maps too so you can get the best of both worlds.

It's too easy these days. With street view you can even find the lay-bys and parking spots!

Good spot re the ordinance survey on Bing mate as it's brilliant especially given how much it would cost to buy O.S. maps for the whole country, BUT Bing have launched a new version which does not have O.S. mapping.

Try the new version then when it asks why you don't like it mention there's no O.S. and go back to the old version otherwise they may ditch it, which will leave us getting shot at by farmers as we won't be on the path we thought we were.

 

[greenie62]

...Going old school but getting a similar result I recently purchased an old road atlas and a lot of rivers on it are no longer around now

Similarly - old street plans can give some useful hints from the place / street names. I remember a couple of years ago during one of our annual 'once-in-a-Century' floods - a BBC reporter standing upto his oxters in the flood water saying how surprised the local residents had been! In the background of the OB was the streetname plaque on the wall of a cottage - Old Flood Lane - surprised? One's got to wonder! mg:

 

[pf0x]

Good spot re the ordinance survey on Bing mate as it's brilliant especially given how much it would cost to buy O.S. maps for the whole country, BUT Bing have launched a new version which does not have O.S. mapping.

Try the new version then when it asks why you don't like it mention there's no O.S. and go back to the old version otherwise they may ditch it, which will leave us getting shot at by farmers as we won't be on the path we thought we were.

I was on it only last night and I must admit my heart sank when I saw they were encouraging me to try a 'new' version (I couldn't be bothered at the time).

As brilliant as modern technology can be, for some reason whenever they try and 'improve' websites they seem to make them worse/harder to use. mg:

One thing I've come to realise over the years is that the "the grass is always greener" (or rather the opposite bank always looks more enticing) for anglers. We waste so much time looking for new or perfect waters that probably don't exist and we neglect the ones right under our noses.

We suddenly miss them when angling is banned or the club loses the rights and we wish we'd spent more time there fishing............ (been there, got the T-shirt). So don't neglect the waters you take for granted. You don't know how long they will last.

 

[arthur2sheds]

Speaking as one who cannot find his own @rse with both hands I find sat-nav and google a godsend... especially as my club have stopped using coaches for outings and we now travel to local-ish venues by car... I'd have no hope of finding the waters.... I can get lost in the bog I'm that bad