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Short Stuff: Magnet Fishing · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and this short stuff. As I said already,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and this is short stuff, so let's go. So when
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I was a kid, I don't know if your dad
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: ever did this. Something tells me your dad may have
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: had a brief foray into metal detecting. Yea. It seemed
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to be maybe a little bit of a I don't
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: know about fat or craze if it was that widespread,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: But I know quite a few of us in our
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: age group who's mothers and fathers. For some reason, more
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: fathers than mothers, uh, and there were generally more mothers
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: going seriously like, you're kind of spent three hours on
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the beach doing that, uh, roaming around the beaches and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: forest of America with a metal detector hoping to In
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: my dad's case, I think he was probably hoping to
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: strike it rich was some rare find. Yeah. I think
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: all of them were secretly some of them might have
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: tried to play like you know, they were really just
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: in it for the science or whatever, but they were
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: hoping to find some roaming horde for some reason in Indiana,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: And I thought it was cool at the time. Because
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I would do anything to to try and get my
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: dad to pay attention to me. So I would tag
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: along and I would metal detect right alongside of him,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and I thought it was pretty cool. Uh. And I
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: found myself when I heard about magnet fishing just recently
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I learned that this is a thing, saying, oh, wow,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: that looks like something I might want to try. And
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: then I went, oh my god, I've become my father. Yeah,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: where you like, maybe I'll strike it rich. No, but
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I just think it's kind of kind of cool and fun. Well,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the idea of it. I think you can get into it,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and it will be easy to get into because the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: barriers for getting into magnet fishing our purposefully kept low
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: so that everybody can't get into it. Because it's supposed
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: to be really fun past time, and we should tell
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: everybody what magnet fishing is. I mean, if there's ever
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: been a term that we needed to define, it's magnet fishing.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Are you fishing for magnets? Yes, are using magnet magnets
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: to try and get a fish out of a lake. Yeah,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: there's so much mercury and fish now that you can
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: magnets to catch them. No, that's what not when magnet
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: fishing is magnet fishing is having a rope tied to
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: a dope, very strong magnet magnet, which we'll talk about
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: what these magnets are and how they work and stuff
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and that, and dropping it in a canal or a
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: river or a lake or off of a bridge into
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: any of these bodies of water, dragging it along and
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: hoping that you pull up uh something cool or valuable
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: or both. Where does the dope come in? I don't know.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I guess you should well never mind, So yeah, I
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: can use my imagination. So um from looking at on YouTube,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: what I've seen, more often than not, what comes out
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of the lake or the river the canal is not
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: anything most people would want to touch. So I think
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: like being a magnet fisherman, you're you're you have to
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: be fascinated by icky things, rusty things that were once
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: not rusty or ikey, and that the fact that they're
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: underwater now makes them by nature interesting to magnet fishers. Yeah.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: And this is, by the way, comes from our old
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: colleagues at house stuff works dot com and they aptly
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: point out that this is pretty it's it's caught on
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: here in America pretty well, especially during the pandemic. They
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: did interview someone who in our own state of Georgia
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: who opened a magnet place to like kind of furnish
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: supplies for people, and he was like, man, this it's
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: like during the pandemic and during lockdown, things really blew
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: up because you can socially distance. It got people out
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: of the house. It really passes the time something you
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: can take your kid and do. So it's really been
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: booming in the States in the past couple of years,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: but it's long been popular in Europe, and for good
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: reason because Europe is old are and they're more interesting
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: fines and you're way more likely to find some old
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: unexploded munition that you might want on yourself, even though
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: it's very dangerous then you might in America. Yeah, we
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: should buzz market that dude too, because he seems okay.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: But brute magnetics in North Georgia. Yeah, Clay Copeland, so
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: um what what they've put together are And he's actually
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: the reason that I said that this is this um
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: hobbies being kept accessible purposefully because the he said that
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the most powerful magnet that they sell, the top of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the line can pull over two thousand pounds of metal
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  Speaker 1: out of whatever waterway you're fishing in. Um, it's still
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: only like two dollars. Yeah, not bad for a hobby. No,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: And if you stop and think about it, you could,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: like there's a two thousand pound piece of metal that's
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: getting close to like a car, you know, didn't it.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know how much carve's way. I don't know,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Like two thousand pounds is what I'm guessing. Probably the
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: topped out at two thousand pounds, so like a hummer
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: probably weighs two thousand pounds. Okay, I think that might
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: be wrong. But the point is this, there's a two
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: thousand pound magnet or a magnet that can pull two
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: thousand pounds or two hundred bucks. That's a good deal. Okay,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: that is a good deal. Uh. You know, any kind
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of hobby when you're buried or entries a couple of
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars and you could spend hours and hours like
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: with your kids or something, not bad at all. You
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: should be sure of a few things. One that you
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: have that you're really good at tying knots, because what
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: you don't want to do is lose that magnet and
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: then have to get a magnet to fish out that
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: magnet so be good, really good at tying knots. You
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: want to a rope that's fifty two d feet depending
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: on you know, if you're obviously dropping off a bridge,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you're gonna want the longer rope. And I saw that
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: nylon pair record is a really good option because it's
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: like a thicker one because it's it's got that perfect
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: mix of tough toughness and elastic city. And the magnets
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: that you would buy two are not your normal refrigerator magnets,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: which are made of fair rite um. The ones that Mr.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Copeland cells are made of neodymium, is how I'm going
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: to say it. I think that's right. And neodymium is
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: a it's a rare earth metal and they mix it
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: with a boron an iron and it's just again super strong,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Like you're not going to pull anything approaching two thousand
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: pounds with a a refrigerator magnet, even if it's super
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: super big um. And that's the point. You want to
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: fairly compact magnet that is also designed in a streamline
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: manner so it's not gonna get hooked up on all
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: sorts of muck. And kelp and seaweed and all that
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: stuff too. Should we take a break? I think so
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: we're really just getting started with magnet fishing. Everybody, all right,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back by the way during our break.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I just looked it up. The average weight of a
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: car is about pounds, okay, so I think like one
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: of those smart cars maybe about two thousand pounds. I'll
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: take smart car. It's basically the same thing as a hummer. Uh.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: And before I forget the other thing I meant to
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: mention on what you might need to get started is
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: a tetna shot. I mean, it's kind of funny to say,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: but that is no joke because you are pulling old,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: rusty things out of the water inevitably, and that's the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: nature of magnets and metal and being underwater. So you
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: do want a tetna shot and to have like some
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: like gloves and stuff like that. You also want to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: have um some common decency because one of the reasons
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: that um some magnet fishers fisher people have a bad
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: reputation in some places like the UK and Germany are
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: apparently two places where they kind of frown upon magnefishing
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: because people magnetfish pull out some metallic junk that they
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: don't want and just like leave it on the side
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: of the river or the sidewalk that like the walking
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: path alongside a canal or something like that. Kind of
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: get the impression that if you haul something out, it's
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: up to you to either keep it or throw it away,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: not just leave it there, yes, or turn in in
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the case of unexploded munitions, if you find an old
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: World War two hand grenade or bullets. I mean, it
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: seems like I looked up a lot of these fines
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and stuff, and it is disturbing how many weapons are
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: in bags in rivers. Uh. It really makes you wonder
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: why it's in there. But lots of guns are found,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of bullets are found.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I saw one where this little six year old girl
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and her parents pulled six hundred bullets out of a lake. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And like I said, like a K forty seven someone
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: found a Tommy gun. Wow, that's a pretty good find.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: That's revolver pretty good. Fine, But you know people are
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: dumping dangerous things, uh era like Civil War era swords.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Pretty good fine, Um, but there are dangerous things down there. Uh,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and if anything is unexploded, don't just I think the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: assumption is it's always dangerous, so you should probably get
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: in touch with somebody about it. Yeah, and that's especially
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: true in Europe, where a lot of World War Two
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: artillery and ammunition. Until welighing around. Yeah, um, I saw
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: a blog post Chuck that I guess I hadn't heard
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: about the Tommy gun because it was called like the
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the greatest magnet fishing fines of all time, really, and
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: one of them was like a bench, like a park bench,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and the caption was who couldn't use a free bench?
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Like they were really trying to sell? So I guess
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: that the Tommy gun hadn't been found yet. I saw
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: one guy who there was a picture of him holding
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: up a machine gun standing beside no why. It was
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: either eight or ten of those stupid rental scooters electric scooters.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: People just throw those in bodies of water. Yeah, and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: shopping carts too. You know who does that? People did? Teenagers?
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: I saw one guy found a human body that had
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: handcuffs on. No, yes, no, yes, boy. I used the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: wrong search terms for magnat fishing fines because I didn't
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: see anything like that. I just searched for like most
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: interesting fines A body with handcuffs? Are you for real? Yeah?
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I mean you know that's what this one goofy website said. Goodness, wow,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: that was pretty much my worst fear when I was
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: a young STERVEYK. Shanning in Lake Erie. Yes. Yeah, and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: just bumping into a body that I just knew was
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: out there five feet away from me, headed right towards me.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: The idea of finding one magnet. Oh my god, I'm
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: gonna have to go like chill out for a little
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: bit before we record our next short stuff. Well, could
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you imagine they're pulling this thing out and it's it's
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: coming up handcuff first, So either around the ankles, are
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: around the wrist. Yeah. So I mean that's that's a
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: pretty crucome discovery. Yeah good Lauren, Well thanks for ending
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: it like that. Sure, Well, we're not quite done. It's um.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to say how discouraging it is that
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: people are pulling out so much trash. It's great the
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: people that are doing this to pull out the trash
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and dispose of it. Well, but as I was researching
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: this yesterday, Emily texted me that our house is next
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: to sort of this bamboo forest with a creek, and
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: she saw a truck pull over and throw a gigantic
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: microwave into the creek and speed off and it Now
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I have to go fish that microwave out. She got
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: his license plate. But I'm like, what are you gonna do?
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: You know, over to be like the cops in the
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Big Lebowski. Oh yeah, we got a whole team of
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: guys working on it. But now I gotta go fish
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: this microwave about it Just there's no way I can
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: let it sit there. You're gonna get yourself a two
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: dollar magnet magnet from Mr Clay Copeland of Brute Magnetics.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I probably should, because that'd be the easiest way to
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: do it, and it would be legal in Georgia. Legality wise,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: we should mention that it's everywhere so far except for
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: South Carolina. It is legal because in South Carolina it
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: falls under the South Carolina Underwater Antiques Act, which prohibits
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you from collecting things with equipment deployed from the surface
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: of the water. And that even means magnets. Yeah, especially magnets,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: is what I heard. Yeah, in Europe is a little
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: more controlled, not controlling, but they have more restrictions in
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: things in place. Right. Yeah, again, there's a lot of
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: unexploded ordinance. It's just the right age to blow up
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: in your face accidentally when you're inspecting it to figure
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: out what it is. That's right, So it makes sense.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: So that's magnetficient. Go forth, check out brute magnetics. Get
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: yourself a magnet and throw away the stuff you don't want.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Don't throw it back or just leave it on the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: side of the road. Okay, uh, that's it for short stuff.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Since Chuck agreed, that's official. See you later. Stuff you
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio. For
• 13:30
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