Gogal Publishing Company History
The story of Gogal Publishing began in 1990 when current co-owner Mike Gogal was invited by his next door neighbor Frank, an avid trout fisherman, to join him and his friends on their annual opening day of trout season fishing trip. Mike had fished with his dad as a kid but having moved to Philadelphia in 1976 to build his career, he hadn't thought of fishing in over 13 years.
The trout fishing was great on that trip and Mike was immediately hooked on fishing once again. Throughout that year, Mike fished extensively. He wanted to explore as many new places to fish as he could find. The problem, he discovered, was that there just wasn't much good information available on where to go fishing. Sure there were lists of stocked streams but finding them was often impossible. Even if he did find a particular stream on a map, there just wasn't any guarantee that the stream section he chose to fish was actually stocked.
The next year, Frank again invited Mike on his annual opening day trip. This time, it poured rain and the secret stream where they always fished had risen to
a point where fishing was impossible.
During the previous year while Mike had been exploring fishing spots, he had also taken a marker and drawn the stocked streams he found on a detailed road map so he could easily find them again. That rainy night, he pulled out his map and showed the saddened fishermen that there was another
place close by for everyone to fish. Once they all settled where they would fish, everyone starting asking " Where can I get one of those maps?"
After that trip, Mike decided to see if he could actually create a trout fishing map that people might buy. This turned out to be a monumental task and consumed the better part of a year but in 1993, Gogal Publishing was born. It's first map, 257 Miles of Trout Fishing covered the 7 counties surrounding Philadelphia. This map detailed the exact sections of each and every trout stocked stream as well as all of the lakes that were stocked with trout by the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission. These streams and lakes were printed on a detailed roadmap so that fishermen could easily find where to fish. Mike's map was a runaway success.
In subsequent years, Mike expanded Gogal Publishing's product line with multiple maps that covered trout fishing for the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. At the same time, he had also started a new series of maps for
bass fishermen but unfortunately, a personal tragedy forced Mike to cease publication of his maps in 1996 before he could introduce his bass maps. Through the years, Mike never lost his love of fishing and always had the dream of reviving his business.
In 2006, almost 10 years to the day after Gogal Publishing suspended operations, Mike purchased a Garmin Nuvi to help him get around. That GPS unit once again sparked an idea. He began to think of developing a fishing map that could be downloaded into GPS devices for fishermen.
In 2008 during Mike's
annual neighborhood block party he got to talking with his neighbor Mark Burdack and told him all about the idea.
Two days later, Mark was knocking on Mike's door and wanted to talk about this idea in detail. He had been so struck by the concept that he had spent the next day researching much of the technological challenges involved. Mark was convinced it could be done. It ends up that Mark had worked on the development of PDA devices many years earlier and had all the skills Mike needed in a partner to make his dream a reality.
In 2009, Mike Gogal and Mark Burdack formed Gogal Publishing Company LLC and began development of this new concept. Again, this proved to be a monumental task but on May 22, 2010, Gogal Publishing introduced its first new product, Pennsylvania Sport Fishing GPS Map. This map was the fullfillment of Mike Gogal's dream of creating a Pennsylvania map for bass fishermen.
Gogal Publishing Today
Today, Gogal Publishing is a home based business operated by the families of Mark & Barb Burdack and Mike & Nancy Gogal. On February 1st of 2011, we introduced our newest product line with The GPS Fishing Guide to Pennsylvania and a series of three Pennsylvania Trout & Bass Waters maps. So far, the reception from both customers and the press has been phenomenal. You'll find a number of links below to press coverage we've received.
April 3, 2011 - Lehigh Valley Express-Times
March 27, 2011 - Pottstown Republican Herald
March 24, 2011 - Bucks County Courier Times
March 15, 2011 - Allentown Morning Call
March 8, 2011 - West Chester Daily Local
February 13, 2011 - The Philadelphia Inquirer
Future of Gogal Publishing
With Pennsylvania under our belts, we are now concentrating our efforts on the monumental task of expanding our product line to serve anglers across the country. Right now, work is under way on GPS Fishing Guides for New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, and California. We cannot promise when any of these will be available but rest assured, we strive to make sure our information is accurate and meets our goal of answering the one question on every fishermen's mind, "Where are the fish and how do I get there?"