“I remember the old days. Lone Star metal boats, pull rope motors, wooden paddles, “fancy” metal clip type fish stringers, and a depth finder that consisted of a rope with a heavy weight. There wasn’t any such thing as a slot limit much less a limit on fish. Back then catch and release was when you dropped them in the frying oil. And maps, they were pretty much non-existent? My grandfather was an avid angler and he had some of the newest reels made and even some early plastic worm baits. All his equipment was pretty primitive by today’s standards however I’m sure he saved long and hard in order to eventually afford to buy them. Fishing must have meant a great deal to him as I know back then times were hard and money scarce. I was only about five years old when he died however looking back I would say that he obviously knew a little bit about life and living well.

Through the years things began to change. There were some early maps that people did. Most of those maps were probably tied to local advertising. Then came along AID maps. My first map purchase after getting hooked on fishing was an A.I.D. map of Lake O’ The Pines. I was immediately disappointed with the amount of detail it showed for the lake. It showed how to get there but nothing much in the area of what was fish-able in the lake. So this began this long career to improve fishing maps for me.

Through the years I often had people complain to me about A.I.D. maps. They would vent to me about just how awful and non-informational they were as far as fishing goes. I often thought that if I could get someone to pay me five cents for every time I heard a complaint about them I wouldn’t ever have to work again. I had to remember that I started this quest as a result of their shortcomings as a fishing map. I guess I should have been thanking them. Later in years it finally dawned on me that A.I.D. wasn’t really a map company at all. Their business was advertising. They were an advertising agency that just used a fishing map as a way to get them customers. There was a definite need for advertising in the rural areas around the lakes for businesses. These lake sites were usually too far away from towns so A.I.D. was filling a void for those businesses. It seems that providing actual fishing information was never in their business model. So I would say that most of us were wrong to assume they should be doing that.

What stands out was the fact that there was a need for both advertising and good fishing maps. So in short I realize that I wasn’t really fixing the problem of bad fishing maps. I suppose that I was actually trying to create something that we never really had. I wasn’t alone. Other companies came in and improved maps as well. Some of those companies were good and did credible jobs of doing that. That being said I doubt that any of those other companies will ever dedicate the singular effort to Lake Fork that we currently are providing. Our high quality fishing maps show topography and fishing information like no other map of Lake Fork. And with that we’re going to go a step further and push this to the point that we actually help you learn. We can help improve your knowledge base for this lake. And hopefully help you capture the love of this lake and the enjoyment that can be attained within. My intentions are to make this subscription based site for Lake Fork something unique and very special for all of you. I do hope you will join us.”

Jimmy Martin – Creator of Martin’s Map