How to use Google Earth's time machine to find secret bass structure

Hey, Keith here.

Do you ever wish you could see what was under the water before the lake was filled? Well, you can.

During a recent trip with Tim Bye at Sam Rayburn, we targeted his secret "bump," which I discovered to be a concrete culvert when I used the Google time machine to reveal the lake's secrets.

Most anglers miss countless productive spots because they rely only on electronics, not realizing Google Earth can reveal structure that's been hidden underwater for decades.

Today, I'm showing you how to use Google Earth's time travel feature to find secret structure and upload those coordinates directly to your fish finder.

BEST LINKS

What I looked at this week

• This Google Earth hack will instantly make you a better fisherman (Southern Salt)

• How to convert your Google Earth files to a fish finder format (Simplistic Fisherman)

• Google Earth placemarks to GPS waypoints (Louisiana Sportsman)

• Pro secrets exposed! Google Earth trick to help break down water faster (Andrew Upshaw Fishing)

• Best Garmin fish finder: Complete model breakdown (Anglers)

Deals of the week

• Bass Fishing Electronics has a Refurbished Garmin Panoptix LiveScope LVS32 System marked down from $1,499.99 to $949.99!!!

• Googan Squad has its Mondo Wormin Bait Bundle for $22.99, down from $57.99.

• Berkeley has a pack of PowerBait Power Swimmers for $3.00, reduced from $5.99.

DEEP DIVE

The mystery structure that changed everything

Tim Bye's reputation as an excellent crappie fisherman made our early morning run to Sam Rayburn Reservoir feel like a guaranteed success.

Our destination was what Tim simply called "the bump," a productive spot he'd discovered using his Garmin LiveScope that consistently held crappie.

When we arrived at the coordinates, Tim fired up his LiveScope and showed me exactly what made this area special.

On his screen appeared what I can only describe as a lifted platform, square in shape with a flat surface that jutted up from the lake bottom. Whatever this mysterious structure was, it had been the reason Tim caught so many crappie from this exact spot over multiple trips.

We started jigging the structure with our crappie rigs, but the fish simply weren't there that morning.

After 20 minutes of unproductive jigging, Tim turned to me with a suggestion that would completely change my perspective on structure fishing.

"Oh, well, you want to catch a few bass?" he asked, to which I immediately responded, "Absolutely."

I was reaching for my baitcast rod when Tim stopped me with advice that seemed counterintuitive for bass fishing.

"You don't need that. The crappie rod will work because we're jigging a ledge that drops straight down."

Following his lead, we lowered our Bobby Garland jigs straight down toward the structure, and within a minute I felt the unmistakable thump of a solid bass.

I set the hook and reeled in a healthy two-pound largemouth that had been suspended along what Tim explained was a vertical drop.

As Tim described the technique, the picture became clear: "Whatever this structure is, it juts out of the bottom straight up a few feet, forming a straight drop ledge where bass circle, waiting for baitfish to swim over."

That morning we caught and released about 14 bass using this vertical jigging approach, but my curiosity about the mysterious "bump" was just beginning.

The Google Earth revelation

Returning home, I couldn't stop thinking about that square platform and what it might actually be.

I opened Google Earth and navigated to the coordinates where we'd been fishing, then discovered the feature that would revolutionize my structure fishing approach.

Using Google Earth's historical imagery slider, I was able to go back in time to when the lake was drawn down 15 feet.

That's when the mystery of Tim's "bump" was finally solved.

The square platform was actually some sort of drainage culvert that had protruded from the ground.

But the culvert discovery was just the beginning of what Google Earth revealed about that area.

Another popular bass fishing lake of mine is Lake Randleman in North Carolina. After tinkering with the time machine, I found actual roads, building foundations, and other structural features that had never appeared on my electronics.

These hidden features represented decades of untapped fishing spots that no other angler knew existed.

The game-changing GPS integration

Finding the structure was exciting, but being able to fish it precisely required solving a technical challenge.

• I discovered that Google Earth allows you to drop pins on specific locations and save them as KML files on your computer.

• Through online conversion tools, I was able to convert the KML file into a GPX file, which is the format that fish finders use for waypoint data.

• After converting the file, I uploaded the GPX data directly to my LiveScope, giving me pinpoint coordinates for every piece of structure I'd identified.

Now my fish finder can guide me to the exact location of culverts, roadbeds, and foundations that remain completely invisible to other anglers' electronics.

This process works for any reservoir, giving you access to structure that's been hidden underwater since impoundment.

Advanced Google Earth techniques

Beyond finding current structure, Google Earth's historical imagery offers additional strategic advantages for bass fishing.

You can locate lakes during drawdown periods by scrolling through years of satellite imagery until you find exposed structure that's normally underwater.

These drawdown images reveal stumps, creek channels, and rock piles that you can fish from the bank when water levels return to normal.

The key is systematically going backwards year-by-year through the historical imagery until you capture your target lake during a significant drawdown period.

Many reservoirs experience periodic drawdowns for dam maintenance, creating perfect opportunities to photograph normally submerged structure.

Document these features with screenshots and GPS coordinates, then upload the data to your fish finder for future reference.

BONUS TIP: Focus on transition areas where old roadbeds meet creek channels or where structures intersect with natural contours. These combination spots often hold the biggest bass.