At right and top chart below: Captain Vic Galgano’s charts feature detailed information for safe navigation and successful fishing.

At home and on my boat, I turn to The Fishing Chart Series by Captain Vic Galgano to plan an upcoming trip, to pinpoint the exact location of a particular piece of productive bottom structure, and for other important information. Captain Vic's charts are detailed, colorful and easy to read, and each chart features dozens of latitude/longitude coordinates, LORAN TDs, and magnetic courses and distances for safe navigation and successful fishing.

Above: A commuter chart on the back of each chart provides magnetic courses and distances between various locations on the chart. Lat/lon coordinates and LORAN TDs are also provided for inlets, bouys, wrecks, reefs, shoals, ridges and other productive fishing locations.

The four-color charts are not paper and they are not laminated. Instead, they're printed on vinyl sheets, which means they're totally waterproof, they're very easy to handle, they can be folded and stored away in an instant, and they're incredibly durable - they do not fade, fray or deteriorate.

There are several charts in the series that will be of particular interest to readers of Chesapeake Angler. They include the Maryland/Virginia Capes, Baltimore and Wilmington Canyons, and Delaware Bay.

The Maryland/Virginia Capes chart includes the Ocean City Inlet, Cape Charles and Cape Henry, south to the Virginia/North Carolina state line, and east to Washington and Norfolk canyons. On it are the Jack Spot, Ham Bone, Hot Dog, 21 and 26 Mile Hills, Bluefish Canyon and other hot spots. The Baltimore and Wilmington Canyons chart features Carteret Canyon to Poorman's Canyon south to Baltimore Canyon. Clearly marked and pinpointed on the Delaware Bay chart are all of the reefs in Delaware's Artificial Reef Program, Ship John, Miah Maull, 14-Foot, the Mohawk Wreck, Brown Shoal, Overfalls Shoal, the coral beds, and many other productive fishing locations on both the Delaware and New Jersey sides of the bay.

On the back of each chart is a commuter chart that features magnetic courses and distances to and from various locations, including inlets, fishing spots and canyon positions. There are also dozens of lat/lon coordinates and LORAN TDs for inlets, buoys, wrecks, shoals, ridges, lumps, banks and other important locations.

Some of the charts also include a list, from the Sea Grant Publication, of hangs and obstructions to trawl fishing.

As an added bonus, some of the charts come with a free fishing booklet that contains information on where, how and when, including what rigs, baits and lures to use, to catch the various species of fish that are available at the locations covered in that particular chart.

Other charts in The Fishing Chart Series by Captain Vic Galgano include Cape Hatteras, Cape May Rips Including Five Fathom Bank, Hudson Canyon, Eastern Long Island, New York-New Jersey Bight, and various New Jersey coastal charts.

The charts are $18.50 each, plug $1.50 shipping and handling. Contact Captain Vic Enter- prises at 8 Iris Court, Milltown, NJ 08850-2122, or call (732) 821-8810, or email either viccapt@aol.com or viccapt@comcast.net.