# hammering sandbass



## Goags (May 28, 2004)

Never heard of this until yesterday...doubt my bud would let me take a hammer to his BassCat, anyway. 

RAY SASSER 
RAY SASSER The Dallas Morning News 
Staff Writer 
[email protected] 
Published: 25 January 2014 05:31 PM 
Updated: 25 January 2014 05:31 PM

Veteran fishing guide Johnny Procell reports that he has been hammering the sand bass at Lake Ray Hubbard lately. Hubbard is a productive fishing lake for several game fish species. Fishing is particularly good for white bass, also known as sand bass.
Procell has been fishing at Hubbard for more than 30 years, using every trick in the book to guide clients to a successful fishing trip. Lately, heâ€™s been using a rubber mallet to hammer on the side or bottom of his boat and make the fish bite. Itâ€™s a technique that he first saw 40 years ago at Lake Whitney.
â€œI was guiding two clients, and we had not had a bite by the time the weather took a turn for the worse,â€ recalled Procell, a retired Grand Prairie firefighter. â€œA heavy fog set in and the temperature dropped 20 degrees, so I took a compass bearing and headed for the boat ramp.â€
Procell was going slowly in the fog and was halfway to the ramp when he heard a distinctive knocking sound. He was concerned that someone was lost or stranded by a faulty engine, so he headed slowly for the noise.
When he finally got close enough to see, Procell spotted a lone, elderly angler with two fishing rods jammed under his leg. He was using a rubber mallet to bang on the side of his boat.
When Procell asked the angler what he was doing, he replied that he was calling up sandies and stripers. Procell laughed and asked how many heâ€™d caught.
â€œThatâ€™s when both of his rods bent double and he first reeled in a big sand bass and then a 10-pound striper,â€ Procell said. â€œWhen he asked us to come closer and help him, I resisted for maybe half a second, then pulled my boat alongside his. As long as he beat his boat, we caught fish. When he stopped beating the boat, all the fish disappeared from my sonar and we caught nothing. When he resumed hammering, we began catching fish again.â€
It was a remarkable experience that Procell filed away, but he was more of a largemouth bass angler in those days. Years later, on a slow fishing trip at Ray Hubbard, Procell remembered that foggy day at Whitney. He drove his boat down by the dam and found a school of fish that he figured to be sand bass. He started hammering and the fish started biting. 
The same phenomenon has been reported at Lakes Tawakoni, Cooper and Texoma. Neither Procell nor anyone else seems to know why pounding on a boat would make fish bite.
â€œIt goes against everything I was taught as a kid and almost everything I have learned as an adult,â€ he said. â€œWeâ€™ve been taught to be quiet so we didnâ€™t scare the fish. However, for many years I have fished under the I-30 bridge near Rockwall, and it seems that every time a boat comes by we catch a fish in its wake. Many fishermen get irate when a boat cruises past, but not me.â€
Procellâ€™s theory is that the hammering sounds travel through the water and somehow mimic the sound of moving baitfish. He doesnâ€™t hammer unless his sonar shows the proximity of a game fish school. 
â€œOn a day last March, we were fishing near the southernmost tip of Robertson Park,â€ he said. â€œI was using the hammer and my clients were having a field day. We soon were surrounded by 28 boats. When the other anglers realized what was going on, it sounded like a construction zone and everyone began catching fish.â€


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## poco jim (Jun 28, 2010)

Every hardware store sold out of rubber mallets in the Lake Livingston area when you posted this! LOL


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## RB II (Feb 26, 2009)

Yep, old fishermen (especially guides) are just about the best liars of all time. And with a solemn straight face. LOL


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## Yort69 (Jan 31, 2011)

this !



poco jim said:


> Every hardware store sold out of rubber mallets in the Lake Livingston area when you posted this! LOL


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## danmanfish (Jun 17, 2010)

Houston hardware stores are running out of rubber mallets now.. lol..


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## texcajun (Feb 22, 2009)

I saw where a guy on a different forum built a box with a motorized hammer for just this purpose. Apparently it does work.


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

Y'all are just too easy but you ask for it..............
Three words and an ampersand..........PETER PAUL & MARY


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

Now that's good stuff !!!


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## Goags (May 28, 2004)

Lest you guys think I'm jerk'n your chain, I contacted Johnny today and he confirmed it's for real. He's one of the most respected guides in the Dallas area, and I had no doubts as to what I'd read. Awaiting his approval to paste our dialogue. I wouldn't have posted it if I thought it was BS.


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

I felt you meant it, and for all I know it may very well work. Letting a slab down on the bottom to thump thump over and over seems to call them in to a degree. The hammer seems a bit extreme, but who knows?

This just in: With the expected lows, Home Depot understands the run run on pipe insulation, but not the rubber mallet sales.


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## Goags (May 28, 2004)

Here ya go, the unvarnished/unedited truth from JohnnyP...hope it helps ya'll to hookup! He IS one of the "good guys"

Hello Jerry,
I in no way intended to sound hateful in my response. I got the same response of non-believers some forty years ago when I introduced the "smoking technique.' Even though the main stream fishing fraternity would not embrace my technique and were often down right disrespectful, I non-the-less kept on giving seminars and catching more fish than just about anybody else. The technique gradually caught on to the masses and today many guides will try to tell you that they discovered the process of cranking a slab rapidly through a school of fish and then kicking the reel into free spool. By repeating the process over and over, non aggressive fish can be made to bite via the "reflex strike" syndrome. Only thing is they are forty years to late. My process was written about extensively in those earlier years by some of the most respected writers of their times. Articles detailing the process appeared in Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, Bass Master, and Fishing Facts magazines to name some of the better know ones.

Without waxing poetic, I came along at a perfect time. There were few real guides and even fewer who knew how to read and understand the emerging electronics. I got in on the ground floor with Tom Mann Bait Company[later Humminbird-not a misspelling] and helped the engineers develop the first digital chart recorders. I do not claim to be an overly intelligent individual. I am however, a student of my surroundings. I never really care about what is happening around me at a given moment; rather I want to know why something is happening.

You most certainly have my permission to print this or any of the articles written by me or about me on any of the social media forums. I am getting on in age and I want to leave behind some of the [secrets?] that I have learned over the past fifty years of guiding. Anything that I can do to help anglers will just be a feather in my cap. Encourage anyone that you see or "chat" with to visit my web page for I have more unbelievable beliefs and fishing methods to reveal.

The Cajun Guide/Johnny Procell 

*m:* Jerry Poindexter <[email protected]>
*To:* johnny procell <[email protected]> 
*Sent:* Monday, January 27, 2014 6:52 PM
*Subject:* Re: hammering sand bass

Dang, Johnny, thanks for the reply! I wasn't doubting what I read in the DMN, until I got the responses to my post...then it made me wonder. All doubts are off w/ me! Would you mind if I pasted your response on that site? If so, no problem. I do have a son and son-in-law that I'd like to put on some sandies/hybrids/stripers sometime in the spring w/ you. Jerry
----- Original Message ----- ​*From:* johnny procell 
*To:* Jerry Poindexter 
*Sent:* Monday, January 27, 2014 6:36 PM
*Subject:* Re: hammering sand bass

Hello Jerry,

Thanks for your response. I assure you that it is not a prank and I am willing to back it up. If you or they decided to fish with me, I will show you how the technique works and how to use it. I have a standing offer that if anyone fishes with me and the method does not work, then the trip is free. I am not a betting man, but I will wager $500 that the process works just as I say it will. Think about it, I have everything to loose and nothing to gain if I am lying! It might also benefit any who questions the technique to listen to The Texas Fishing & Hunting Show on Saturday and Sunday on station 1080 in the mornings and see how many other guides have adopted the process. I have talked at length about the technique and the proper way to take advantage of it. Look at my fishing report for next month and you will see the only qualifications that I make. The process will not work if one just randomly stops in the lake and begins to beat on the boat. There has to be an unseen school of fish nearby. I will also show anyone how to {see** these fish that the best of electronics does not show. For the process to work I must see a certain pattern on the bottom that most experienced anglers would never notice. This is the secret to the whole technique. If you still have reservations about the technique, call over to Harbor Bay Marina and ask them what guide consistently produces larges catches of sandies and hybrids during the winter months. Do I have any takers on my wager? I realize that the darn process sounds too good to be true, but in this case it really works. Thanks again for the email and if there be non believers amongst you, then let's get it on!

The Cajun Guide/Johnny Procell


*From:* Jerry Poindexter <[email protected]>
*To:* [email protected] 
*Sent:* Monday, January 27, 2014 5:14 PM
*Subject:* hammering sand bass

After reading Sasser's column yesterday, I posted it on a SETx fishing site...they seem to think it's prank. Please tell me you weren't just kidd'n. Jerry

http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=790137




​


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## Ready.Fire.Aim (Sep 22, 2009)

I went Striper fishing with a guide on Lake Texhoma in Nov. When the bite slowed down he would thrash the heck out of the lake with an old fishing rod. 
Dang east thing, but it worked! We limited out .


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

It stands to reason that any action that stimulates the fishes sensory mechanism will get some sort of response. 
Thrashing or sound could indicate the presents of food or danger. If no threat appears, I am sure they would then seek out the source of the disturbance looking for food.
The tuna fishermen that use the long poles to haul in their catch spray water streams on the surface to trick the fish in close to the boat.
In the many years of working offshore in Asia I was always intrigued to see large ocean fish being attracted when we we driving large steel pilings with steam hammers.


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## Snookered (Jun 16, 2009)

Sunbeam said:


> The tuna fishermen that use the long poles to haul in their catch spray water streams on the surface to trick the fish in close to the boat.


I can 100% verify that spraying water gets ling close to the boat too....been doing that one for years.....shoot it in front of them and lead them to the boat, never on top of them....
snookered


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I have used the thrashing rod, well Lee did it for me as it aggravates my arthritic shoulders too much and I could not quite get the rod to sound like a thrashing fish the way he can, I sure do miss him! 
A little old time trick that is similar to that I use a lot is to let a hooked fish thrash at boat side before releasing or boxing it.
You can watch the sonar screen blow up with incoming fish where just a few were around moments before. 
Offshore fishermen use this with chicken dolphin with great success.
This is a little aside, but I have learned that when working a school of stripers that you can catch and release a lot of little fish from a school with not much of a problem with the school catching on and leaving.
However if you hook and loose a large fish from the school, it's like the last bell rang for the school year and they are out of there quick.
It's like they watch the larger fish for direction.
Not an every time thing, but most of the time.


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## GSMAN (May 22, 2004)

I don't doubt this technique works. I am sure there are times when this works like a charm. We beat the water with a paddle when we pull up to an offshore rig to see if any ling are home. It really works.


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## Capt. Doug Russell (Aug 24, 2010)

My dad started taking me along on numerous fishing trips with Johnny about 20-25 years ago when I was just a small kid (mostly Ray Hubbard and Fairfield). The techniques he taught are etched into my mind and I can assure you that the "smoking technique" works. I never saw the hammer but, if he said it works, I would bet that it does.


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## Spooley (Feb 24, 2013)

After being on West Galveston Bay when thunderstorms came up and the bite went crazy with fish leaping from the water after baitfish, as well as lake Conroe where I live, I can only guess in theory that somehow the noise created from the hammering on an aluminum boat mimics the sound of a thunderstorm. I have always had great success fishing during a thunderstorm, albeit unconventional as far as safety is concerned.


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