Overlay Trout Stocking & Stream Maps on OnX Hunt

[maps]

Couldn't tell from a search if this had been posted before but I was happy to figure this out and happy to share. Turns out with a little bit of a process, and with a Premium or Elite membership to OnX Hunt, you can upload trout stocking maps to overlay over your OnX Hunt maps. Just know going in, the import option is available for Premium or Elite members only. It's honestly not the most useful thing in the world but I like that I can get a view of streams along side OnX's layers of public access on one map and that I can have it accessible on my phone.

How it works is, OnX lets you import .kml or .gpx files into "My Collections". The state publishes a few useful maps in that .kmz/.kml format regarding trout stocking, wild trout streams, etc. on: https://www.pasda.psu.edu/. Unfortunately, those maps are too big to directly upload into OnX (4mb upload limit), so you need to break them down into smaller files first.

To do so, you download the .kmz files from the state, unzip them to .kml format, and then import them into Garmin BaseCamp (free desktop app.) From Garmin BaseCamp, you can export chunks of the streams (called "tracks") in files less than 4mb in size. Mine happened to export from BaseCamp as .gpx files which OnX will also accept.

Then you can upload to OnX via "My Collections" - I'd recommend checking the box to create a new folder for each map you upload. Upload all .gpx files for an individual map (i.e. Class A Wild Trout) at the same time into one OnX folder, this way you can toggle that map by toggling the folders visibility.**

I did this for three maps myself:
Class A Wild Trout: https://www.pasda.psu.edu/uci/DataSummary.aspx?dataset=986
Stocked Trout Waters: https://www.pasda.psu.edu/uci/DataSummary.aspx?dataset=963
Wilderness Trout Streams: https://www.pasda.psu.edu/uci/DataSummary.aspx?dataset=983

For anyone interested, I uploaded the chunked-up (AKA ready to upload to OnX) .gpx files for the three maps above to a google drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RJXvnGxcBZJt33E6aHYt60AegyoIFVVZ?usp=sharing

**Fair warning, showing these folders on the OnX desktop web app (via chrome) for me was brutally slow, just too many tracks on the map at one time I guess. I recommend hiding the folders if you're not actively looking for streams. It had no performance impact on the mobile app however which was nice.

Hope this helps

 

[DaveKile]

@Mike thank you. So I keep a personal Google Drive Map of my favorite streams and gonna plan with these layers. I ran into a 5mb limit with trying to import the PASDA Class A data set. Did you break these up in your Google Drive?

 

[maps]

@Mike thank you. So I keep a personal Google Drive Map of my favorite streams and gonna plan with these layers. I ran into a 5mb limit with trying to import the PASDA Class A data set. Did you break these up in your Google Drive?

Yeah those three maps above are broken up and ready to go in my Drive.

The trick to break them up is to load them into Garmin BaseCamp first, then you can select a subset of the streams and click File > Export User Selected Data to export those into their own smaller file.

 

[goose54cdd]

It sounds great, but I'm not that savvy. I can't even get my printer to work.

 

[cpc1027]

Nice work!

I did the same thing with QGIS and GiaGPS, and had a similar experience with the maps being slow to load all of those tracks in the web app and the mobile apps. I ended up deleting the big data sets because it was making things unusable. My current process is to specifically export a subset of streams for an area that I am scouting or planning for, and keep them around in the app for the duration of the trip.

I also have a Trout Routes subscription, which has all of the stream import work done for you, but their lack of support for GPS coordinates is really a disappointment. I'm hoping, now that they have been acquired by OnX, that GPS integration will be coming soon. I know OnX is/was working on a fishing-oriented app too, so it will be interesting to see where that goes.