Being a small water angler I don’t have the convenience of maps. The one thing I do have is the conveniences of a computer. If you want to improve your small water success rate tenfold the one program I recommend you get if you don’t already is Google Earth. Since its launch in 2005 it has become the biggest advantage in my arsenal when approaching new bodies of water. Google Earth allows me to see off-shore structure, standing timber, brush piles and most importantly depth changes before ever stepping out the door to wet a line. 3 of these features I could never see walking the bank and that put me at huge disadvantage without knowing it. I used the ol 1, 2, 3 depth finder trick like most small water technicians to feel my way around and it wasn’t very productive most of the time. By adding Google Earth to my bag of tricks not only did I get the advantage of finding more productive water quick, it made me advance my learning by forcing me off the bank and for small water anglers that alone can pay-off big time!!! Learning to read Google Earth is easy and well worth the effort. I started out by searching large bodies of waters first to get a better idea of what I was looking at. The bigger waters tend to have more defined features to study and learn steep channels and humps really stood out. The first thing I noticed was the darker the color the deeper the water, the lighter the color the shallower the water. Learning those two characteristics was the key to my success on seemingly featureless bodies of water, like ponds.  After getting comfortable with the program I quickly found my favorite hot spot and start picking it apart. I was focusing on potential travel routes leading to and from feeding areas, spawning flats and through cover. These routes looked like dark narrow bands winding through the pond and once I found them I knew instantly I had eliminated 80% of the unproductive water I was fishing.Now that I had figured out where the fish are traveling I switched gears and started pin-pointing exactly where along these routes the fish would consistently hold. Places I keyed in on was light colors fading to dark signifying slow tapers to deeper water or dark spots along the channel signifying quick drops, small ditches, grass mats, and brush piles. I knew that places like this would offer my greatest chances of catching the biggest fish the pond had to offer and I was right!!! After a few minutes of study, I felt confident that I had a good game plan for the day. I pulled up to my first spot and caught a dink within a couple of cast. A couple of casts later I stuck a 3lber. Every fish I caught was giving me more and more confidence. As the sun began to fade I pulled up to a spot I had hit earlier in the day, a small rock pile about the size of a 5 gallon bucket.  After 2 rips off the bottom with a rattle trap, Bam!!! The fight was on. I knew instantly that I had just hooked a really good fish. All my studying had paid off; I landed the biggest bass I had ever caught out of that particular body of water at the time, a hefty 7lber. I had been fished this pond for a few months before that day. Learning to use Google Earth and its features to my advantage has paid off so many times I don’t care to count. With a little time and effort you too can pick apart your waters and catch some of the biggest fish of your life!!!