Thumping fish

I went with a friend(Tom) to Monticello Wednesday. I haven't posted because I only took one picture then got distracted with a device he had. He is a firm believer in using the technique of "Thumping" to call up White Perch and Stripers. That's when you pound on the bottom of the boat with a paddle or wooded rod. The Striper guides swear by it and Tom uses it a lot. He got tired of holding the rod in one hand and thumping with the other so he built a wooden box rigged with a car wiper motor, cam, lever arm, and heavy metal bar. I didn't know what the box was, maybe a tackle or tool box, sitting on the floor of the boat.He switched it on to see my reaction. I'm sitting there and all of a sudden I hear this rhythmic drum beat sound. I looked at him and he was jigging a spoon and grinning at me.
I made a video of it to show y'all but I cant get it to load even after compressing the file, do maybe one of the moderators can tell me how to do it or I can send to them and they can post it.
For all of us that like to tinker and rig up things on our boats, this is a must see. I think you can find some on U-tubem but his is unique and ingenious as heck.
Here's the only picture I took. That's a nice perch by the way. Over a pound. I realized how valuable the Ipilot spot lock feature is also. Tom's motor doesn't have it and we couldn't stay on the fish with the wind blowing. We kept 15 nice sized ones like this one, but if we could have stayed over them we could have caught quite a few more.

Attachment 348132

Fish were on humps from 22 to 30 FOW. No minnows, just a Flex-it spoon for me and Tom uses a 3 jig rig. He is friends with Steve Comolander and we chatted with him at the ramp when we left. Tom uses a lot of Steve's tips. Steve said Tom found a way to keep people from crowding him on the lake. "I can't stand listening to that constant thumping" so he picks at Tom about why he really made the "Thumper Box".

Ray, it is a good idea Tom had. Remus and I talked about doing this a couple of times. He has a friend that uses one for stripers at Clarks Hill. Saves the arm fatigue and you can start and stop it when you need to. :fish Great report. I've met Steve Comalander when at Monticello once and he gave us a shout out on his video the next day. Bad thing was he called me Bigboy instead of Bigdawgg.:Rofl

I started doing this for striper at Murray last year, after 91tiger told me to try it. His dad has a box just for this same purpose as well.NO DOUBT in my mind this technique works. You can watch the graph light up with the stripers over deep water when doing this. We did it for power reeling last year, and i plan to do the same on my next trip to murray in a couple weeks. I am not sure who, but there is a company that sells a box for this purpose. I used a piece of PVC pipe on my last trip, after my extendable net handle broke from thumping it so much. lol

A good walking stick will work just as good. But the box with a wiper motor is less tiring. :biggrin

Bobo's Thumper | Facebook

Here is the guy. Bobo's Thumper out of Texas

I’ve got a Sassafras thumping stick that works great and is always in the boat if there’s a chance I might perch jerk.


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I will admit that when things get sorta slow longlining Ive been known to "thump" the bottom of my boat with a net handle a few different times and it didnt hurt one little thing. Not sure it helped that much but I know it didnt hurt. IMO...sorta like spitting in the water watching the brims come a running. It could actually draw in a few. HA! ;):)

I was taught this by and old timer when I was guiding at Clarks Hill for stripers in the 80's and 90's and I thought it was a joke at first but I found out very quickly it was a real deal


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Before the perch invasion in the Catawba, the only place for the white perch that I knew of was lake Wacammaw (we called the perch Waccammaws). a friend of mine's Dad did a huge political fish fry with the waccammaws each year. To catch them he would go out in the middle of lake wacammaw and lean over the boat and splash the water to bring them in. I guess he was simulating erupting baitfish on the surface. Sure brought those waccammaws in though.

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Originally Posted by SeaRay

I went with a friend(Tom) to Monticello Wednesday. I haven't posted because I only took one picture then got distracted with a device he had. He is a firm believer in using the technique of "Thumping" to call up White Perch and Stripers. That's when you pound on the bottom of the boat with a paddle or wooded rod. The Striper guides swear by it and Tom uses it a lot. He got tired of holding the rod in one hand and thumping with the other so he built a wooden box rigged with a car wiper motor, cam, lever arm, and heavy metal bar. I didn't know what the box was, maybe a tackle or tool box, sitting on the floor of the boat.He switched it on to see my reaction. I'm sitting there and all of a sudden I hear this rhythmic drum beat sound. I looked at him and he was jigging a spoon and grinning at me.
I made a video of it to show y'all but I cant get it to load even after compressing the file, do maybe one of the moderators can tell me how to do it or I can send to them and they can post it.
For all of us that like to tinker and rig up things on our boats, this is a must see. I think you can find some on U-tubem but his is unique and ingenious as heck.
Here's the only picture I took. That's a nice perch by the way. Over a pound. I realized how valuable the Ipilot spot lock feature is also. Tom's motor doesn't have it and we couldn't stay on the fish with the wind blowing. We kept 15 nice sized ones like this one, but if we could have stayed over them we could have caught quite a few more.

Attachment 348132

Fish were on humps from 22 to 30 FOW. No minnows, just a Flex-it spoon for me and Tom uses a 3 jig rig. He is friends with Steve Comolander and we chatted with him at the ramp when we left. Tom uses a lot of Steve's tips. Steve said Tom found a way to keep people from crowding him on the lake. "I can't stand listening to that constant thumping" so he picks at Tom about why he really made the "Thumper Box".

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Ray you have to use a video host to post videos like YouTube or some of the picture hosting sites. Enjoyed your report and I think thumping keeps amazing all of us.

From what I have been told the reason stripers respond so well to this is because when they are at the DNR hatcheries they call the fish up for feeding by hitting the side of the holding tank or the bottom of the boat when they are in larger holding ponds. So, they are conditioned to the thump meaning a meal is around. Not sure if all that is true, but it seems to make sense.

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I showed my grandson when we were feeding some minnows in training, that if he tapped the side of the container they would get excited and start eating from the floating food. He was amazed and wanted to keep feeding them. Next morning, I had brown water and a lot of dead minnows from over feeding. I guess he went back later and did it again.:Doh: I shouldn't have let him know it this early in his training.:Rofl