Find your way around with July's featured sponsor, GMCO

George Martin
GMCO President

Virginia angler Rick Mills once drew a tournament partner, a professional fisherman, who was sight fishing. While the pro worked one fish on a bed, Mills, in the back of the boat, picked up a Carolina rig and cast into a nearby creek channel. He pulled out a couple of nice fish before the pro could catch that bed fish. How did Mills know what to do from the back of the boat?
He had a map. The creek channel was on the map.

George Martin makes maps. His company is GMCO (pronounced G-M-Koh). He says, “Knowledge is security. Knowing where, and what, and how things are about to happen allows you to react to them better, so you know why things are happening."

A map can provide that knowledge and security.

Many non-boaters don’t bother with maps of the waters they fish. They trust the driver to find fish. How does the driver do that?

He starts with a map.

And what if the driver isn’t on fish? What if he’s sight fishing? What if he pulls up to a spot and starts catching fish like crazy and the rider doesn’t know why?

A little map study can save the day.

Martin says the best map companies get a good control base, get in touch with a lot of government agencies, and look at a lot of aerial photography. GMCO does that and more. Martin says, “we go the next step further. Every map that we do now, we have a network of, what I call, network experts, either local tournament anglers, striper guides, commercial fishermen, or professional fishing guides." Those experts provide both subtleties and corrections that make GMCO maps standouts for recreational use.

Martin says he's not looking for secret holes from his experts, but for “information that would make it better for the average person to come out ... and enjoy this body of water." His list of experts includes well-known Virginia guides and guide groups such as Jim Abers (804-372-3557) at Kerr and Gaston, Ken Penrod's Life Outdoors Unlimited (www.penrodsguides.com), Reel Bass Adventures (www.reelbassadventures.com), Teddy Carr (www.sturgeoncreekmarina.com/carr.htm), Wayne Olsen (www.sturgeoncreekmarina.com/olsen.htm), Chris McCotter (www.annapoint.com/shostore.htm), and Glenn Briggs (www.lakeanna-va.com/briggs.htm) The guides who lend their help to Martin are listed on GMCO maps.

Martin cites his Lake Anna map as one heavily influenced by experts. He says it isn't perfect, “but it's enough that the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies use our map.”

GMCO currently produces maps of coastal waters ranging from Delaware Bay to Little River in South Carolina. Martin says his goal is to add three to five new maps a year.Currently GMCO has saltwater maps, offshore charts, tidal charts and, a new venture, maps for upland rivers, starting with the upper Potomac.

There’s an element of trust placed in a mapmaker when a fisherman buys a map. Martin says, “One of the big goals of everything that we do at GMCO, we do want to make it a safe area for somebody to go out to enjoy, whether it's a tidal map, impoundment, or offshore chart, or an upland river.” That means taking note of as many obstructions as possible.

Becoming involved in mapmaking was, for Martin, “one of those touches of fate.” He was majoring in drafting at Maryland's Crossland High School, with plans to become a custom home architect. Looking for a job that would help his school situation, he saw a small ad for a draftsman in The Washington Post. It said “draftsman needed, no experience, will train." Martin jokes, “I was qualified.” That ad landed him at the mapmaking company ADC, and he started his career on April Fools Day, 1974, as the company's 25th employee. He says, “over the next 20 years I did everything for them except actually run a printing press."

He was looking for something more as he approached his 20-year anniversary with ADC. The company wasn't doing much with its outdoor line of maps, and Martin says he thought he could make a run with the product. After three months of negotiations, he came to terms on buying out the outdoor mapping division. On July 1, 1994, GMCO was born.

Martin had a solid foundation for starting. ADC founder Richard E Robinson was an avid boater and fisherman who started fishing from a canoe, eventually owned three or four boats, and fished saltwater out of Cape Hatteras. The company's original mapping and sales strategy in the late 1960s and early 70s was built around places where Robinson fished. Robinson hired another avid angler, Thomas L Sutton, who loved doing the outdoor work that goes with mapmaking. Martin soon became part of the mix.

Martin remembers the days in which “you had to throw this black hood over your head and look at this screen that was like the size of a small portable black and white TV, which was called Loran A." Since then, he's seen some changes. When Loran C came out he “was convinced then that life couldn't get any better." When GPS technology came out he said, “this is it, it can't ever get any better."

Whatever is next, GMCO will be a part of it.

GMCO’s office can be reached at (888)-420-6277. The company’s fax number is (703) 451-3926. Email is gmcomaps@erols.com

The company’s excellent Web site, which includes company information, map samples, and ordering information, is www.gmcomaps.com.