Stream Maps marketed by Seattle Times

1912 Views 18 Replies 14 Participants Last post by Rialto, Dec 10, 2009

John Dude

Discussion Starter · Dec 9, 2009

I keep seeing these Stream Maps advertised in the Times, so I looked at them on the web site

www.streammaps.com

They are very detailed, but since they cover a whole US state on one sheet I question their usefulness/advantage over a plain state Gazetteer in its book form. Has anyone experience with the actual map? Do you find they are useful for locating fishing places?

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Kent Lufkin

· #2 · Dec 9, 2009

If you'd asked George, he'd have told you to use the search function at the top of the page since yours is a question that's been asked here many times. Seems to me they're called Dr. or Professor Somethingorother's Stream Maps, and no, most people think they're huge waste of money.

Was me, I'd ask Santa for a set of Topo! state series CDs (by National Geographic) for Washington instead.

K

JesseC

· #3 · Dec 9, 2009

If you're a cheap S.O.B like me, you can use this site with some success as well
http://www.digital-topo-maps.com/

also, the google maps terrain feature is pretty handy. I think the advice from Kent is probably spot on though. I use the WA Gazeteer with limited success and will probably be buying the National Geographic topos sometime soon for my backcountry misadventures.

Be Jofus G

· #4 · Dec 9, 2009

Kent Lufkin said:
If you'd asked George, he'd have told you to use the search function at the top of the page since yours is a question that's been asked here many times. Seems to me they're called Dr. or Professor Somethingorother's Stream Maps, and no, most people think they're huge waste of money.

Was me, I'd ask Santa for a set of Topo! state series CDs (by National Geographic) for Washington instead.

K

Kent, do you know if you can print those maps from the CD's or is there some sort of DRM lock on them? I'd like to get the same set, but only if I can take them to a print shop and get 4' X 6' or so prints made.

steeli

· #5 · Dec 9, 2009

It's the annual holiday sale of the same map....happens every year.
I have a copy; kind of cool on the wall, but there's plenty of much better maps sources for streams in the state. My two cents.

Old Man

· #6 · Dec 9, 2009

The only way to find a good spot to fish is to go out and look for it. A map might get you close. But brush busting is the only way to find what you are looking for.

P.S. I have the Natgo disc set for all 50 states. It's good and it also gives you elevations. Just have to put the arrow on a spot and your good to go.

Salmo_g

· #7 · Dec 9, 2009

The Gazeteer and TOPO! are the best map tools I've found. I print out sections from TOPO for the areas I'm going hiking in. Never need to buy another USGS topo map, unless it's for a different state.

Sg

Luvlite

· #8 · Dec 9, 2009

Not sure if this is exactly what people are looking for but it has been helpful for me in the past.

http://www.fws.gov/wetlands/Data/Mapper.html

This combined with topos and online information about public/private lands provides a lifetime of exploring.

Tim Lockhart

· #9 · Dec 9, 2009

steeli said:
It's the annual holiday sale of the same map....happens every year.
I have a copy; kind of cool on the wall, but there's plenty of much better maps sources for streams in the state. My two cents.

Pretty obvious when you look at the whole pitch who it's aimed at. A map that claims to be exhaustive, a book loaded with "secret spots," another one on "catching the big one," and a couple of other gizmos.....people who know fishermen but don't know anything about fishing buy this stuff as gifts. Why not - there's a market for it.

But yeah, a very small handful of good resources, some gas and a bit of legwork always gets it done. I like the Gazeteer and TOPO as well, plus online aerial shots can be useful at times...MSN/Bing's birdseye view can be really cool when available. Closeup photo footage from 4 different angles has been a nice tool more than once. I have a few other favorites but they tend to be pretty specific to me...I'd tell anyone to poke around the various books and online resources since there's so much out there. We all fish differently plus have different knowledge and capabilities so it's worth the time spent to find and own a good "customized" set of resources.

For what it's worth, it really doesn't take a lot of exploration before you'll have more productive outa-the-way spots than you can rotate between. Once you figure out the finding water and finding fish part, that becomes the next problem. I hate it.

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Northern

· #10 · Dec 9, 2009

I have one; I got it specifically to be mounted/framed and it's on the wall in my study. It's a really nice piece of art that shows the amazing density of streams/lakes in WA, and I occasionally use it to locate a previously unknown-to-me stream or trib that I hear mentioned, but since it really has no other features mapped besides the water, it's not of much use for locating fishing spots. That is, no roads, towns, etc.

Kent Lufkin

· #11 · Dec 9, 2009

Be Jofus G said:
Kent, do you know if you can print those maps from the CD's or is there some sort of DRM lock on them? I'd like to get the same set, but only if I can take them to a print shop and get 4' X 6' or so prints made.

Yes you can print from them. One of the ways I like to use 'em is to print on the special Adventure paper sold by NatGeo. It's waterproof and tearproof, so the maps are pretty indestructible out in the field.

Since the Topo! maps are intended to be viewed onscreen, they were scanned at the standard screen resolution of 72ppi. That means that blowing one up will result in a soft and fuzzy map if you go much higher than 72ppi. Also, you're limited to printing an onscreen area on a sheet of letter- or legal-sized paper. If you want to print a large swath of territory, you'll need to composite a number of screen grabs and then print from it.

Below is a greatly-reduced composite created in Photoshop of Montana's Smith River from a dozen of so screen grabs, each on a separate layer and then aligned. Saved as a single layer PSD, I could import the file into a page-layout program like InDesign and then print individual pages from it.

K

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Be Jofus G

· #12 · Dec 9, 2009

Kent Lufkin said:
Yes you can print from them. One of the ways I like to use 'em is to print on the special Adventure paper sold by NatGeo. It's waterproof and tearproof, so the maps are pretty indestructible out in the field.

Since the Topo! maps are intended to be viewed onscreen, they were scanned at the standard screen resolution of 72ppi. That means that blowing one up will result in a soft and fuzzy map if you go much higher than 72ppi. Also, you're limited to printing an onscreen area on a sheet of letter- or legal-sized paper. If you want to print a large swath of territory, you'll need to composite a number of screen grabs and then print from it.

Thanks for the info man :beer2:

Tom Savelle

· #13 · Dec 9, 2009

RE: TOPO! Maps-

I use them also, and have crafted similar composites to Kent's creation. In most cases, I am only going to cover a small area, so I print a section on both sides of the page so I only have a single piece of paper.

I've not found one locally, but National Geo has a printing kiosk that retailers can put in their store. You can print your own maps at the kiosk. More along the size parameters of a Green trails map. And of course the kiosks feature that waterproof and tear proof paper.

Allison

· #14 · Dec 10, 2009

The Seattle REI has the Nat Geo mapmaking machine.

That said, I've been using Topo! since it was owned my Wildflower and it totally rox. One thing that's super cool is the feature where you draw your route and then you can do a 3-d flyover to check out your route as if you were a bird.

Rialto

· #15 · Dec 10, 2009

Kent Lufkin said:
Also, you're limited to printing an onscreen area on a sheet of letter- or legal-sized paper. If you want to print a large swath of territory, you'll need to composite a number of screen grabs and then print from it.

Kent - The program actually lets you select a print area beyond what is shown on the screen. The area can then be saved as an image (there are a number of format options) and printed on a large scale printer with no seams. As an example, attached is a JPEG of Seattle I just created. Absent a large scale printer though, you're stuck with the cut and paste technique.

David Loy

· #16 · Dec 10, 2009

I bit on the stream map during a weak moment. While not totaly worthless, I'd trade it for a cold Beverage.
I have Topo for the US at work.

Kent Lufkin

· #17 · Dec 10, 2009

Rialto said:
Kent - The program actually lets you select a print area beyond what is shown on the screen. The area can then be saved as an image (there are a number of format options) and printed on a large scale printer with no seams. As an example, attached is a JPEG of Seattle I just created. Absent a large scale printer though, you're stuck with the cut and paste technique.

Thank you! That would've saved me a LOT of work on that Smith River map!

K

Be Jofus G

· #18 · Dec 10, 2009

Rialto said:
Kent - The program actually lets you select a print area beyond what is shown on the screen. The area can then be saved as an image (there are a number of format options) and printed on a large scale printer with no seams. As an example, attached is a JPEG of Seattle I just created. Absent a large scale printer though, you're stuck with the cut and paste technique.

That's exactly what I was hoping for. There are a few print shops in the seattle area that will print these out for you if you can get it to them in jpeg, png or pdf format. Awesome!

Rialto

· #19 · Dec 10, 2009

I should have put this in my original post. To print larger areas deselect the "Select 1 Full Page" box on the printing sidebar. You can then stretch the red rectangle-X over the area you want to print. Once the print area is set, use the "Export Map To Disk" function on the File drop down menu.

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