Fishing With A Magnet

pgill said:
Great topic guys. I guess you can never know what you will find in the water!!! I am not sure how long a coin will last under water before it rusts away ???

God bless
Peter
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Forever in fresh water. In salt water - gold lasts eons. Copper (pure) and silver centuries unless in contact with or near gold or each other. Nickels and clad??? You won't be catching any of them with a magnet, anyhow. Stick to Canadian coins and steel wartime cents (n'yuk, n'yuk).
 

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Ahhh, this topic got some old memories going. Many years back when I was a wee lad, my dad and his fishing cohorts were running a trotline after many beers. As luck would have it they didn't fasten the outboard properly and it took a dive in about 8 or 10 feet of water. They couldn't quite remember where it came off at the following morning, so they took an old magnet and dragged the bottom where they thought it should be. They finally found it but the mag wasn't strong enough to pull the engine back up. My dad being the less sane one of the group dived in and tied off a rope to the outboard and pulled it up.

I should have a few speaker magnets laying around. This topic has peeked my intrest in what might be in the local waters near home. ;D
 

Back in the day when I was younger and stupider I managed to flip a small 10' flat bottomed aluminum fishing boat end for end while traveling at top speed with a 25 merc outboard. Luckily, I was not injured and when I realized I was treading water, I swam back to the capsized boat and was rescued by two fishermen who saw the whole event and had their anchor up and were on the way to me before it even happened. Long story short...I lost all my fishing gear including a metal tackle box in about 20 feet of water.

Three weeks later, I saw a buddy of mine and told him the story and he immediately suggested that he had a great magnet he found somewhere and wanted to try it out...well, after about a half day of hunting with his 30lb magnet, we actually found my tackle box and pulled it up (still closed) but never found the two rods and reels.

Moral of the story.....
The boat should weigh more than the motor.

Jim
 

Here's a magnet I've wanted to buy for a little while.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=36905
It's a 250lb pull bar magnet with a threaded hole and a screw-in ring! Not too bad for $17.99!!
I'll definitely be getting one to use up and down a 1,000 ft. fishing pier out at Fort deSoto park in 6 weeks when I go home to Florida!!! It's doubtful anyone's used a magnet there before... and I know I've lost my fair share of lures, spoons, and a couple of rod & reels there!! :-\

Bran <><
 

find the biggest stero speaker in a garage sale and rip out the magnet core. You'll be surprise how strong those magnets will be. Drill a hole right through it to attach a rope and if you lose it you'll only be out a couple of bucks. I have the magnet from a teeny teeny speaker that is stonger than any refridgerator magnet four times as big. Just imagine how stong a speaker magnet will be if it 8 inches across!
 

Well, since I just found out there's a Harbor Freight store about 15 min's away from me on the other side of town... I went a bought one of the 250lb magnets today!!! It's MUCH heavier than I thought it would be?! I was almost thinking about taking it back and getting the 150lb magnet, but this one may do the job well this Summer. I'm still undecided. Either case, they are really inexpensive!

Bran <><
 

Well, in case anyone's still reading this thread... I finally got out and used my 250lb retrieval magnet!! Because of the particular bar magnet having two magnets surrounding by heavy metal casing, I had to first rustproof my magnet.

I was thinking that some sort of Rustoleum spray paint might do the trick, but then realized that the abrasiveness of the sand and metal objects grabbing onto it might scratch the paint right off.

So my next idea which ended up working WAY better than I had imagined was to get a can of that rubber/synthetic dip stuff that you would normally use on the handles of pliers, screwdrivers, or other tools. I remembered seeing some at Home Depot once so I went and got some.

I did one full dip in a aluminum pan, then hung it by a biner clip from a rope between two trees. After it dried, I dipped the steel screw ring on the top in next. I then had to let that dry and followed it up with touch up painting on all the spots that I could find that wasn't fully covered. It took a total of about 3 full days for the setting of the stuff and re-applying process. At first I was sort of "in doubt" about elasticity of the rubber and thought that the first light coating would surely just get ripped off by the metal objects from the water. But after I took the thin sheet of rubber from the bottom of the aluminum pan and tried to rip it, I couldn't get it to do much more than stretch for me. With my 25ft rope, I knew it was gonna work well!

My spot I had wanted to use it on was the 1,000ft pier at Fort deSoto park here in Florida. If anyone's ever watched the newer movie, The Punisher; it's the same pier that the Punisher's wife and boy was run over by the bad guy's truck!!

So anyway, my first mistake was made by going out on Memorial Day weekend. :-\ I only had about two or three 10ft spots to drag my magnet around a bit. I got everything from fishing hooks, to bottle caps, to misc pieces of metal, to even a wooden knife handle with the blade either broken off or rusted off. Those were my finds for the night. I intend on going back out sometime this week again if I'm able. Hopefully there will be less people next time around. I haven't yet taken pic's of my finds, but I'll get them up as soon as I can!

Bran <><
 

Cool, let us know what your find.
 

A word of caution be ware of fish hooks on the rope.I use to throw the magnet and let the rope slid thru my hand then I could stop it's flight over were I had felt stuff.Once a line with hook had wraped around the rope.The weight of the Magnet impeded the hook deep in my finger stopping the rope dead.Sure was a pain to remove by myself one handed.Check your rope as you retreive.I've found stripped Motorcycles (3), complete pole /reel combos and the railings cut from the pier and throwen in.Once caught a chair that had octapuss living in the tubing,they caught me and them squirmy suckers didn't want to let go.When you catch some thing heavy it helps to lift fast and try to get it up off the bottom and swim it in with a pendulume type effect, other wise it tends to come lose if dragging across the bottom, it also washes some of the muck off it.good luck ,Urb.
 

Very good advice Urban Prospector, When fishing I had a hook land deep into my finger and ended up at the hospital while they snipped the barb off and pulled it out..... Ouch it was very very sore indeed.....

God bless
Peter
 

Trouble is a lead box full of pearls has nothing magnetic to attract.
 

Ive got the big 250 pould pull from Harbor Freight, almost lost it the other day in Dickinson Bayou..I "caught" a 55 gallon drum...you bet I will triple roping mine from now on..I had 110 pound test line on it, but that will not do....What are you guys using for rope? Thanks, Tom
 

JakePhelps said:
thats why chain is better than rope, no knots that can come undone of fray.
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Chain is not a good idea, unless it is non magnetic...
 

wow that takes me back some,, when i was a kid we would go fishing with rods and a magnet or two,, always finding some sh*t we used to go over the fields and find the odd meteorite aswell,, pitty they dont stick to gold & silver :)

H/H Tallpaul.
 

25 years ago I got 4 stitches in finger from hand holding magnet will trying to drill a hole it.

That put a end to trying :o
 

Michigander2005 said:
25 years ago I got 4 stitches in finger from hand holding magnet will trying to drill a hole it.

That put a end to trying :o
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Go to Harbour Freight, and for 19 dollars, you can get a 250lb pull magnet, with a really nice bolt in eyelet..I have three 125lb test ropes attached to mine about 35 feet or so...(need a little more tho) In the water it will really pull...Drug up a 55 gallon drum with it...Have not found anything good so far, but I do carry it with me, along with all my other detecting, and digging tools...I look like a grave robber....When I caught the drum, I thought for sure my rope would break, so at that moment, I said I will triple this...Pulled up a bike the other day...Stolen I guess.....Lots of fun tho...Tom
 

:D Yes I have, and it sometimes pays off,here in Texas there's alot of old wells,I've offten have put down a magnet,on a chain or a rope and have gotten some good rewards,once a 2qt.canning jar with about $50 worth of old dimes and quaters dating back from the 40's,also old guns that were rusty,but my best find was inside an old oak tree with a huge hole(about the size of an LP record),just for kicks I put it inside the hole,the first thing that came out was a small owl that scared me.Well I lowerd the magnet down inside the hole,a little more than a foot and I felt like I hit something,and I hooked a 1911Colt 45 pistol that was not load and it was missing the clip but it did work.My dad called the police,they came out and took it and about 6 months later they gave it back to us. So happy hunting
 

I tried a few times in the Fall. I used one of the 250 lb pull magnets from harbor freight. Mostly pulled up junk. My best catch was a working LED flashlight from a boat launch. I also caught a few hooks and lures. I wasn't able to pull up anything close to being big. Anytime I hooked onto something that put up a little resistance the drag along the bottom would pull it off.
 

Last Active: November 18, 2006, 18:04:07
wish old Phelps would check in he all growded up now :'(
 

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