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Sister-in-law's OH went magnet fishing yesterday and came back with a bag full of rusty crap.
Anyone else do it, any success stories?
Never knew it was a thing, but having looked it up on line, folk seem to have more success than 'dectorists'....
[i]Anyone else do it, any success stories? [/i]
Me, I won a teddy bear at the fair 🙂
Used to play it when I was a little younger
[url= https://www.aliexpress.com/item/14-Fishes-2-Fishing-Rods-Wooden-Children-Toys-Fish-Magnetic-Pesca-Play-Fishing-Game-Tin-Box/32737818474.html?spm=2114.search0303.3.1.KxrGDS ]Magnet fishin[/url]
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I heard about it for the first time last week - http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/six-year-old-girl-reels-13393439
I've been doing it for about a year now....I love it! It started when I was looking at random YouTube videos, as you do, and one thing led to another....I bought a cheap 90kg neodymium magnet and thought it would be a good giggle and cheap day out with my boy. Now, I just pop the magnet in my frame bag when I'm off out on the bike for the day and plop it in at dodgy looking places! I ride down the canal to my mums house once a week, so have ample opportunities to have a go.
So far, I've found two safes, a very nice axe head, loads of 1p's, 2p's, 5p's and 10p's....not all of the silver coins are magnetic though....a bike trailer and a very rusty Raleigh chopper sprint GT!
Loads of other stuff I have forgotten too, but the locks always throw up a windlass or two....I take them to a local lock house, where the fella gives me three quid each, and sells them on to hydro-pikeys for six quid each...win/win!
You would be amazed at the amount of people who stop to watch, get hooked and end up getting a set up for themselves! It's cheap, addictive fun!
My mate has pulled out a live artillery training shell and a pair of shotgun barrels, removed via hacksaw!
What in ****s name is a hydro pikey? When you say 90kg magnet what does that refer to, the weight it will hold? Surely if you get something of that weight you can't land it? Think I need to go on YouTube.
6 year old girl near us found 'thousands' of rounds of live ammunition 😯
looks fun, might get one, suppose all of the bikes I can see in the Thames when at low tide will be too corroded to even turn into pub bikes? expect they are all utterly knackered or nicked anyway.
Now got this lyric as an ear worm now ..
"We all knew someone at primary school who had a very powerful magnet"
I'm going to go for a spin down the canal in a bit, and I'll plop it in and update later
How much ferrous metal is in a live round?
Stedlocks,
Just wondering, how do you get the magnet off the bike, or do you have to throw both in the water?
Pffft...squirrel fishing is where it's at these days
How much ferrous metal is in a live round?
Plenty of ammo is loaded into steel cases, much cheaper than brass. Most common is .223 Rem as it is often used by US shooters in their beloved AR 15 assault rifles.
What in **** name is a hydro pikey? When you say 90kg magnet what does that refer to, the weight it will hold? Surely if you get something of that weight you can't land it? Think I need to go on YouTube.
I'd hazard a guess that a hydro-pikey is an itinerant narrowboat dweller with a mangy dog and dreads who'll deal in any old crap that'll pay for mooring fees, cider and weed, and a 90kg magnet is, as you suggest, the weight it can carry.
Probably a good idea to but the magnet into a heavy duty cordura nylon bag with a rope attached, to keep it clear of ferric cruft that'll accumulate all over the magnet itself, while doing the aquatic equivalent of dumpster-diving.
Holy thread resurrection magnet man
just done an hour with a strong magnet as a practice for taking my grandson down the local river at the weekend
and apart from lots of nails , bottletops, tin cans , and random chunks of metal
this is the interesting haul
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great fun so hoping little Fred enjoys it
I caught a sea-brass* once
*I know )-:
And I got some Ferox Trout
I wouldn't like to meet the fish that dragged that into the water
I believe James Haskell is a keen magnet fishing bloke.........
Damn it! just bought one on the basis of this!!
They do it a lot in Canada, on the South Saskatchewan that runs through Medicine Hat.
They catch loads of Steelhead trout.
Is it just me, or isn't there something a bit sinister about hammers, axes etc that have been thrown off bridges? Murder / serious assault weapons? Where do magnet fishermen stand ethically with respect to involving plod in their finds?
from what I have read plod is enthusiastic as it could help solve a few crimes
I have not heard of any golf club or hammer murders in our area since the yorkshire ripper
If I tried it around here I’d just end up having the worlds largest collection of shopping trolleys.
Had a go at this a few weeks back after seeing a few people doing it on the Brecon and Monmouth Canal, actually great fun!! Pulled up a fair amount of cutlery and a spanner in the space of 10 minutes. The guy I was borrowing the magnet and rod off (he used it for accuracy!) said he'd found a small firesafe with cash and jewellery once and his mate had found a set of keys that had a reward keyring on in that paid out £50.
As for the hammers/axes having a salubrious motive? If you're on a canal they've most likely fallen off a canal boat but you never know.
This wasn't too far from us - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/05/father-son-find-cache-12-weapons-trawling-river/
Was it just me on reading the thread title that imagined you threw maggots with ball bearings inside them into the river, waited for fish to eat them and then dragged a magnet through the water to catch them?...
Never heard of it but want to do it now!
Surprised more actual fish aren't caught by this method, seeing as how they are all full of heavy metals these days...
Pff, much more profitable doing it in the trenches at work, found a Bahco shifter down there once that still worked plus plenty of screwdrivers.
Opps. Just bought one. So what is the technique? Go to bridge, dump off side attached to string, walk back and forth, pull up?
There's an old black country joke about catching a whale in the canal.
Burrit day ave ony spokes.
</span><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #444444; font-size: 12px;">dump off side attached to string
Dirty boy.
I think you have to be choosy about what kind of bridge though. Throwing it off a motorway bridge could lead to an entertaining struggle to land your prize.
I'm still at it....my son and I have found three safes, a couple of nice old axes, fishing rods (caught by the reels) and my best find is a branding iron, which I believe is something to do with the great western railway. Whatever, it's a nice pastime, doesn't hurt anyone, helps the environment, and could, potentially, find me some treasure!
Or a load of rusty crap.
Oh, and I've got a 200kg pull magnet now....none of that pissing about with the little ones!
Do you wrap it in anything to stop random bits of ferrite sticking to it?
Also. Presumably it's quite dangerous if your fingers get between magnet and some metal. Any safety tips for a soon to be 130kg magnet owner?
Are you strong enough to pull 200Kg if the magnet sticks to something metal and immovable?
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 12px; background-color: #eeeeee;">Presumably it’s quite dangerous if your fingers get between magnet and some metal. Any safety tips for a soon to be 130kg magnet owner?</span>
There won't be much finger between a strong magnet and the metal 🙂
I'm a little disappointed with your finds so far people...
No Tizer pull rings ?
Sad
Presumably it's more that the magnet will attract crap from a greater radius around it than actually trying to raise a sunken boat?
I always put my 200kg in a carrier bag with my wetsuit gloves (top tip!) and then that goes in an old canvass ripstop thing that I can strap to an aluminium framed bike.....a steel one it goes on my back in a little rucksack. This keeps it away from my phone and cards, and stops me messing em up!
I've only lost one magnet, my 90kg one, but managed to retrieve it on a subsequent trip!
Generally, the thicker the steel, the harder the pull....most of the time, you get small objects that are wet and slimy, so the magnet pops off. If there are any steels supporting the river bank, keep well away from them! You'll know quite soon if there is likely to be stuff in the spot you're using, as you'll generally get a hit really soon after starting.....if you get nothing in 10-15 throws, move along a bit and try again!
If you can find a road bridge, that crosses a river in an isolated spot, your golden!
There won’t be much finger between a strong magnet and the metal
I’ve got a couple of small circular magnets, about 3cm across, glued to the base of a pair of small camping lights, they came with a clear warning about catching skin between them! They’d certainly give you a nasty blood-blister!
Some magnet fishers pulled a WW2 shell out of the canal near us a few months back. I'm sure these things don't just explode after 70 odd years but I'd still crap myself if that was me.
"...your golden!"
Oh, the irony 🙂
"<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 12px;">Are you strong enough to pull 200Kg if the magnet sticks to something metal and immovable?"</span>
I'm keen to know this too.... how are people hauling safes out of the muddy canal?
How the hell do you get the safes out?
Presumably it’s quite dangerous if your fingers get between magnet and some metal
I did this with my mate's magnet when I was about 10yo and it took the pad off my finger.
well I took my grandson down the cut today for half an hour.
his first throw only dragged in another golf club
I'm really struggling to find another way of posting images, since photobucket went tits up.....but try this
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/xfIu0
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/y35Et
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/KwHa7
As a precaution the socks-and-crocs were destroyed in a controlled explosion. 💥
Just got my 200kg beastie in the post this morning, got a bit to close to the microwave!!!
Let the treasure [rusty old crap] hunting begin.
When you pull out a load of old shite, like shopping trollies and stuff that's just to large and buggered to bother keeping, what do you do with it? Leave it on the side for the canal and rivers trust to deal with, or take it home and wait until you have a large enough pile to be worth weighing in?
(I really hope the answer isn't chuck it back in).
Thread revival!
Just spotted this news story;
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/family-goes-magnet-fishing-and-finds-a-bag-full-of-guns/
Flippin hell, that's amazing. I don't think I'd be so keen for my name to be made public! Looks like a gang of some sort has hidden them to be retrieved later... Douglas may become a target...
Interesting article. As I read it, it sounds like the guy had a good look through the bag for anything to “upcycle” then took the guns to the police.
if I found a bag of guns and ammo I would be calling the police to come and collect them.
I saw some people doing this down my local canal recently.
It's only because of this thread I realised what they were doing!
Otherwise I would have been quite confused! Seems interesting I guess ..
A mugger pushed a man into a canal before pulling the victim's wallet out of the water with a fishing magnet.
A Chinny Reckon story but he's sticking with it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-45023683
if I found a bag of guns and ammo I would be calling the police to come and collect them.
I'd be too tempted to have a go first.
I’d be too tempted to have a go first.
I think I'd be reluctant to put my fingerprints and DNA all over guns of such incredibly dubious origin!
ferric cruft
Beautiful.
There's a guy on Youtube called drasticg. I've watched a few of his videos out of interest and he's found parts of shotguns, numerous knives, knuckle dusters, safes, CCTV Hard drives etc. Crazy what people throw into canals hoping they will never be seen again...
That one is from Deansgate locks in Manchester.
To be fair, if he pulls a hard drive out the canal with a massive magnet then there isn't likely to be much left on it!
Leave it on the side for the canal and rivers trust to deal with, or take it home and wait until you have a large enough pile to be worth weighing in?
(I really hope the answer isn’t chuck it back in).
Leave it seems like the MO around some of the manchester ones,
Perhaps this is part of the reason the royal mint doesn't use ferrous metals in coinage...
JHJ you have obviously never waved a magnet over a coin.
Nope...
and I've never been to Llantrisant either officer...
The only time i've ever done it is if i've dropped something in the river at work. Then not always successful at retrieving the item i've dropped 🙁 Similar to when I actually fished many moons ago and couldn't catch a cold.