Waypoint
Also called GPS mark, spot lock pin
A GPS pin dropped on a spot worth remembering, like a brush pile, a drop-off or the boat ramp.
Hit the mark button and the unit stores your position. Come back next week, next month or next year and it will guide you to within a few feet of the same place. That turns a lucky spot into a repeatable one, which over a season compounds into a real map of the lake.
Mark more than fish. Ramps, hazards, shallow bars and the spot where you snagged something worth avoiding are all worth saving, and the accumulated set is more valuable than any single fishing waypoint.
Naming and organising them matters once you have a hundred. Most units let you assign icons and categories, and the ones that sync to a phone app make backup possible, which is worth setting up before a head unit fails and takes five seasons of marks with it.
Accuracy is around ten to fifteen feet on consumer GPS, so a waypoint gets you to the area rather than onto the exact stump. Mark from directly over the spot and drop a second pin from a different approach if it matters.
Mark the spot as soon as you catch a fish, before you unhook it. Waiting until you have landed and photographed it puts the pin fifty feet away.
Related terms
Where this comes up
The guides that use waypoint and show it on real gear.
Waypoint is one of 206 terms in the glossary.
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