During the fishing season, you find some exceptional areas to crappie fish. When you use the GPS to pinpoint the areas that are known to have crappie populations, you can program that area into the GPS.
The waypoints will help you out the next time you go fishing. Some anglers actually sell their waypoints, which pinpoint the area to fish for crappies, for a fee. These waypoints are marks on the GPS for certain lakes. By using these waypoints, you can go right to the area where the fish were biting last month or in some cases, last year.
Before you use the waypoints to find the crappies and beat other anglers to the punch, you must know what a waypoint is and how to use it. The waypoints are logged into the GPS as latitude and longitude. The waypoints will guide you back to a specific area within three meters.
When you use the waypoints to track the crappie, you will be heading back to a point that was home to the crappies. This would be idea for fall and winter crappies, but many anglers can swear by this method during the summer months as well.
Keeping track of the waypoints will get you right back to the location where you have had good fishing. By returning to these areas, you do not have to spend time searching or guessing where to start looking. The nice thing is that it cuts down on wasted time because you go directly to the spot using the GPS waypoints.
The fact that the waypoints can be within three meters, you can be very close to the area. If you have a map, you may want to make note of a point of interest or some other thing around the area as well.
The waypoints are just another way to pinpoint where you want to go back to when fishing the lake for crappie. If you do not have a GPS, you can do this with a map of the lake and mark the locations. There are many ways to beat everyone else to the fish. You just have to be creative.
Before the day of GPS devices, anglers used a map with latitude and longitude marks on the sides. Doing this will also help you track the waypoints. Many anglers will tell you that this is a good way to go right back to the place where you had the best luck.
Here is a sample waypoint:
N31.06.25 W 97 28.40 Then here you can give a little description
N31 06.73 W97 28.53 Then here you put another description.
These waypoints continue until you reach your destination. To keep every set of waypoints separate, give them a letter for the name of the lake. This will help you in the future when you fish different lakes with a GPS or a notebook. Some anglers will give coordinates out, but they have not used the coordinates for a while.
This would mean that you would not know for sure if the lake has underground any changes. Any changes on the lake can change where the fish are or if they are still even close to the waypoints. Remember to check for changes on the lake before relying on the waypoints.
Dan Eggertsen is a fishing researcher and enthusiast who is committed to providing the best crappie fishing information possible. Get more information on crappie fishing here: http://www.askcrappiefishing.com/.