Sportsman’s Connection

by gunner

This month I am reviewing a product I mentioned a while ago, the Sportsman's Connection Fishing Map Guides.  I have been using these since February 2003, and I plan on using them from now on.  I was in touch with the company in early February about doing a review and for possible suggestions.  They replied to all the e-mails, and answered all the questions I had.  To me, that is the first step in knowing if a company is interested in us…the people that buy their products.

I have both the Northern and Southern books for Ohio.  Now, I know all the old places I have fished for years.  I opened each book up for every lake, first checking the all the details like roads, launch ramps, and marinas.  I was surprised at the detail these books have.  For example, they also have information pages for the lakes such as all the stocking and census information, numbers to call for information, marina numbers, and contact names and numbers.

They have all the information you need if you are from out of state and planning a trip somewhere.  There is useful information like horsepower ratings for the lakes, accommodations, park office numbers, even information on accessibility.  They have the shore length, maximum depth, average depth surface, water area size, and they even list the nearest towns.

The lake maps themselves have all the info needed to plan a productive day on the water.  It shows old road beds, creek channels, slopes and drop-offs, depth in every range, parking area, launching areas, camping, and picnic areas.  Some lakes are marked in a numbered grid with fishing info listed for each section.  Also listed is the amount of fish stocked for past years, by year, the type of fish stocked, and its size when it was stocked.

For years I used to take an inch to a two-inch three ring binder and make my own “Book” of area lake maps.  I am glad someone finally did it right!

The areas Sportsman's Connection has completed:

10 Minnesota Regional Guides

6 Wisconsin Regional Guides

7 Michigan Regional Guides

2 Illinois Regional Guides

2 Indiana Regional Guides

2 Ohio Regional Guides

The areas that are coming soon:

Iowa

Missouri

Kentucky

Tennessee

Pennsylvania

New York

All in all, these books pass with flying colors!  You can look at your local fishing supply store and see if they carry these books.  If they don’t, tell them they need to!  You can order online at www.sportsmansconnection.com or call 1-800-777-7461 and order by phone.

If you have a tackle store of your own and would like to stock these, all the information can found on the site or on the phone.  If you do decide to start to carry these books in your store, they supply free display stands.  They have a few different stands, from corrugated to metal and rotating wood displays.  Each stand has a set number of books that need to be ordered.  For example, the two tier rotating wood stand (which by the way is a great looking stand) will come free with a minimum order of 36 books.  A four tier wood stand is available with a minimum order of 72 books.  Give them a call or drop them an e-mail, and be sure and tell them you heard about them here on “Reel fishing with gunner”!

I would personally like to thank the fine people at Sportsman’s Connection for the chance to review and suggest ideas for their product.  They now have a long-time customer in me…

I hope you find these as useful I as I have!

gunner