04/21/2026
It’s been around a long, long time, good read !
Fish calls that go "thump" (Secret #6)
This one sounds a bit weird, but given the source, and the fact that I have seen homemade “thumpers” used on the water with good success, I no longer doubt it, at least in some scenarios. Buck Perry also wrote of “thumping” the boat or making noise so the fish knew you were around and started looking. The tip comes from Paul Johnson who was Berkley’s director of research and development for nineteen years. It was featured in his 1984 book, “The Scientific Angler.”
✅ This secret is one I discovered quite by accident, while my son and I were out recovering lost lures for fishermen on a popular reef. Huge boulders in the reef area made it a perfect holding area for a variety of species, but it was also difficult to fish without getting hung up.
✅ On one particular day the lake was calm. As we swam around a boulder we spotted a yellow object that we then saw was a cut-off mushroom anchor. At first it looked much bigger than it really was, but then everything looks one-third larger underwater. The anchor must have weighed a full ten pounds, and the dive boat seemed a hundred miles away.
✅ We started back with our treasure, which grew heavier as we moved along. Finally, all I could do was pick it up, swim a few kicks, then drop it back to the bottom. After about the fourth thump we noticed that we were being surrounded by fish, whereas up until then we had seen nothing.
✅ Bass, walleyes, and even a muskie came flashing across to see who was making all the commotion. Whenever the fish left I thumped again, and again they returned.
✅ Remembering this tidbit, I tried the same tactic the next time my son and I were out fishing. The action was slow, so I reached over and grabbed the anchor line, then thumped the mushroom anchor on the bottom, fifteen feet below the boat. Within minutes we had our first fish.
✅ About every fifteen minutes thereafter I repeated the thumping. This trick seems to work best when you give just a few thumps, spaced a half minute apart rather than in a steady tom-tom beat.
“The Scientific Angler.” Paul Johnson, 1984
Illustrator, SCOTT ZOELLICK
