Sean Hoernke
The Aerial Advantage

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell Sean Hoernke has discovered some untapped honey holes by studying satellite photos of tournament waters.

Topographic maps have been available for decades, and they're the type relied upon by anglers most often. But here in the 21st century, more high-tech options are available, and pros are starting to take advantage of them.

Texas's Sean Hoernke, who fishes the FLW Tour and Series, spends a great deal of time studying aerial satellite photos of tournament waters on the Internet. They were a huge factor in his victory at the Red River Central EverStart (now Stren) in 2003.

Looking for an Edge

"As anglers, we're always looking for that little bit of an advantage over the competition," Hoernke said. "Something like this might not necessarily make you win, but it could help you catch a few more fish to make the cut or make a bigger check or whatever."

The sites he turns to most often are Terraserver and Google Earth.

"Both of those are free and they're easily accessible," he said. "They have a couple different map styles – the older aerial photos and a new style of map that's really detailed."

Prior to the Red River event in 2003, he used the photos to discover 1 1/2 miles of backwater on the other side of a culvert. He procured an aluminum boat, went through the pipe and caught all 10 of his weigh-in fish there over the first 2 days to secure his spot in the Top 10 cut.

"That place wasn't on the regular maps of the Red River," he said. "You couldn't tell what was on the other side.

"That little bit of research really paid off on the water. Knowing what's available to you on a body of water can be a huge key to your success."

Topos Still Valuable

He's quick to point out that the aerial photos have not rendered traditional maps obsolete. He still uses topo maps frequently.

It multiple maps of a particular area are available, he'll acquire one of each.

"If there are two different brands, then I want both," he said. "A lot of times one will show some subtle irregularities that the other one doesn't. Like for (the Old Hickory FLW Series), there was a river ledge with a high hump that was on one map, but wasn't on the other."

That ledge helped him achieve a 37th-place finish and pocket a check for $10,500.

Not all of his map or photo discoveries pay dividends, but coming up with a productive one every now and again makes all of the hours of study worthwhile.

"For every one of those good places you find, there's probably 15 dead ends," he said. "But when you do find one, it's a home run. If you can find some untapped water, that's an angler's dream come true."