Magnet Fishing

Well most of one anyway. I didn't think it was a real one to begin with and just threw it in my trolley, but cleaning up in some rust remover and some vigorous brushing revealed "United States Property" and a serial number engraved on one side, and the letters G.H.D on the other which confirmed that it is the body of a real gun!

Definitely wasn't expecting to find this in the canal in Gloucester. I think it's from WW2 judging by the state of it and the markings, but I'm definitely not an expert.

Here's a picture of the other side, the G.H.D engraving isn't really visible on camera though:

Pulled out this gnarly looking anchor from right in the middle of the canal junction before the CRT bridge operator came out and told me I wasn't allowed to magnet fish in the canal. After that I walked 100m down the towpath and pulled out all of this stuff:

First trip out with the massive Barbarian magnet and it's definitely better at sinking down into the mud, although I don't think I'll be doing full 20m casts with it without a lot more practice.

Tightening the locking nut was extremely difficult using a stainless steel spanner, I really should have seen that coming and found a non-magnetic one 😅

The Barbarian makes the little Hardcore look like a kids toy. I just hope I don't get it stuck to a harbour wall or steel bridge when I get to take it for a spin!

For anyone looking to buy their first magnet or upgrade (I've just grabbed myself a Barbarian) there are good discounts at the two major sites that serve the UK (and also much of the rest of the world).

Magnetar are offering discounts on a lot of their range and accessories, and you can get an additional 10% off using the code UNFILTERED10.

Online Magnets are offering 15% off everything using the code Black15.

This was a very nice location to be for a few hours in the afternoon. The moored narrow boats and passing ones made me slightly envious of the lifestyle of living on one. It seems like a very cosy way of life, and the freedom of being able to drive your house around to different places on the water is very appealing. Also I wouldn't have to travel far for magnet fishing!

I think next time I'll bring a change of clothes so I can pop into the pub for a pint afterwards.

I think I wil be more careful when walking past scaffolders working in the future given how dropsy they apparently are. I think there's loads more scaffolding down where I pulled those up but it was the last spot of the day so I only had time for a few casts.

I let a couple of passing kids have a go and they managed to find someone else's small fishing magnet, so they were pretty pleased to get one for themselves, and I saw them again later that day having a go in Castle park. I also pulled up another larger single sided magnet that someone hadn't loctited their eyelet on properly.

I didn't find much this time around but that's frequently the case when trying new spots. I definitely want a bigger magnet, there was a lot of deep mud and a larger one would really help finding stuff buried in there.

I was very tempted to create traffic chaos using this sign I pulled out, but I decided that Bristol has enough of that already

I pulled this out in two halves about 45 minutes apart from each other. The second half had numbers on it that I thought could be a date, but on further inspection of the first half it looks like the numbers continue on it, so unfortunately I don't think this was cast in 1828.

I got far more than I was expecting at this spot, given that it's on the edge of a village rather than city centre, including a still working fire extinguisher:

A car stereo amongst some other bits:

And the most nails I've ever found in a single trip by far, with the stuff I didn't find particularly interesting:

Most of what I found was keys and coins, mostly coppers but I might have a quid total if I'm lucky! Not sure who accepts dirty, heavily tarnished coins though.

Two bikes this time, but I'm pretty sure there's two more down there in the mud. It's really thick mud in that section so I think all the heavy scrap is sunk in there deep down.

I developed a bit of an audience while trying to pull out the second bike and got a round of applause when I eventually pulled it out! It was good to brighten some people's day but I think I'll go somewhere quieter next time. As always I was very pleasantly surprised with the overwhelming majority having positive reactions to what I was doing, and one woman even came and had a go.

Most interesting finds were these two Israeli coins and one Indian coin:

I frequently get asked what happens if I get my magnet stuck and can't pull it out - well this is what I did after I plus 3 passers by couldn't pull it out.

I ended up driving my car down the harbour wall and attached my rope to the towhook. A conveniently placed mooring post made it so I could wrap it round and pull the magnet pretty much perpendicular to the harbour wall.

I had an interesting find that I definitely wasn't expecting; a fossilised tooth from what I think was a prehistoric marine reptile, not magnetic but fell off when I was removing chunks of metal from the magnet:

And here is the pile of scrap metal I ended up with:

This was a very good location, every single cast brought up multiple bits of metal, and I never moved from the first spot I stopped at along the harbour wall. I suspect I could go back thousands of times and still pull loads out.

I pulled out 107 in about 3.5 hours as well as one big bonus canister. Nearly every single cast I pulled more up. Nothing particularly interesting this time unfortunately but I did get 2 bikes from the old YoBike scheme and a Voi scooter with the battery removed (presumably stolen).

Near the end of the day a young woman asked to have a go and promptly got hooked after a few casts, so hopefully I've helped create another future magnet fisher!

I found these four in the Gloucester & Sharpness canal. The nail I found near the two swing bridges at Purton, and the others further down towards Sharpness where the old railway bridge collapsed. I thought the mooring hook might come in handy as a rope anchor in places where there's nothing to attach the rope to.