Magnet Fishing In The Detroit River

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

[Richard]

Unfortunately two weeks ago my camera for the underwater footage hit a large piece of ice and is now in the bottom of the river. looking to get a new used one so we can continue getting the underwater footage. thank you so much for watching and sharing our videos.

I use this attached to a stainless steel cable,I do the same thing but up to 300’ in the ocean.

https://www.seaview.com/mobile/Produ...de=SEM-600-SYS

They have a smaller version,a bit pricey but when you attach the cable to them you never lose it and you can tow it behind a boat if you want to go out further,saves a lot of time.

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

I use this attached to a stainless steel cable,I do the same thing but up to 300’ in the ocean.

https://www.seaview.com/mobile/Produ...de=SEM-600-SYS

They have a smaller version,a bit pricey but when you attach the cable to them you never lose it and you can tow it behind a boat if you want to go out further,saves a lot of time.

I have seen some youtube videos of something like this being used in the Detroit river. Were those your videos? this is quite a way out of my price range at the moment. unfortunately we are not big enough on youtube or TikTok yet to be making much money. thank you.

[Richard]

I have seen some youtube videos of something like this being used in the Detroit river. Were those your videos? this is quite a way out of my price range at the moment. unfortunately we are not big enough on youtube or TikTok yet to be making much money. thank you.

No I am in the south,gulf coast,I monetize my findings which is more of a hobby.

I have a 24” circle with 6 of those magnets on and a power winch,it is surprising what is on the ocean floor and rivers.

I do not know how to swim so I have several retrieval methods,I plucked a boat motor out that I sold for 25,000,other then that it is like metal detecting,a lot of time spent finding nothing.

That company has a small camera that probably would be more suited for you that is like $200,maybe as a suggestion,if you take thin braided stainless steel cable,secure it to the magnet,wrap it around your cord going through the camera mount and up the rope,it quadruples your pulling strength and it will be hard to lose any of it.

I like those cameras because you can throw them against a brick wall and they will still work,they can take some serious abuse.

You are spending quality time with your daughter,that is priceless,the YouTube monetize aspect takes awhile to build up the viewers,some of those guys have been in there for years.

I chuckled when I saw you retrieve that paint gun cartridge in the video,I must have found thousands of those,I do not know why people have to chuck them into the water.

I will follow you,best of luck.

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

No I am in the south,gulf coast,I monetize my findings which is more of a hobby.

I have a 24” circle with 6 of those magnets on and a power winch,it is surprising what is on the ocean floor and rivers.

I do not know how to swim so I have several retrieval methods,I plucked a boat motor out that I sold for 25,000,other then that it is like metal detecting,a lot of time spent finding nothing.

That company has a small camera that probably would be more suited for you that is like $200,maybe as a suggestion,if you take thin braided stainless steel cable,secure it to the magnet,wrap it around your cord going through the camera mount and up the rope,it quadruples your pulling strength and it will be hard to lose any of it.

I like those cameras because you can throw them against a brick wall and they will still work,they can take some serious abuse.

You are spending quality time with your daughter,that is priceless,the YouTube monetize aspect takes awhile to build up the viewers,some of those guys have been in there for years.

I chuckled when I saw you retrieve that paint gun cartridge in the video,I must have found thousands of those,I do not know why people have to chuck them into the water.

I will follow you,best of luck.

We will hit 1000 subs on youtube this week I believe. We currently have 45,000 on tiktok. I'm not sure what paint gun canister you are referring to. The Whip-it cannisters? Those are used for getting high if that is what you are talking about. I'm really intrigued with this camera you have shown me. People ask me often if I metal detect too and the answer is yes and I get about the same stuff as I do magnet fishing just a lot less....rusty metal.

[Jimaz]

Pulling Up Large Finds Out of the Detroit River

I'm wondering if you'd find more stuff with a really long rope and some kind of machine to launch it waaaay out there.

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

Pulling Up Large Finds Out of the Detroit River

I'm wondering if you'd find more stuff with a really long rope and some kind of machine to launch it waaaay out there.

That is very possible especially in the Detroit River due to all the history that has fallen through the ice and off boats. i use a 100 foot rope and i can almost throw the magnet that far with my lighter 100 foot rope. with my large orange one i can only get it about 60 feet out. i would rather use a boat to try out farther. too bad i don't own a boat. thank you for posting our most recent video. i really like to see people enjoying what we do.

[Jimaz]

... i would rather use a boat to try out farther.... thank you for posting our most recent video. i really like to see people enjoying what we do.

You're welcome but thank you for making the videos in the first place.

I like that you're so calm about the hobby. It's more realistic than those who get way too excited about finding junk. I imagine the attraction is the same intermittent reinforcement that drives people to slot machines. You just never know when it might pay off big. Plus there's the exercise and cleaning up the environment and just getting outdoors in these milder temperatures. What fun!

I didn't think about a boat. That would be less of a red flag to authorities than a freakin' trebuchet pointed at Canada! LOL!

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

I didn't think about a boat. That would be less of a red flag to authorities than a freakin' trebuchet pointed at Canada! LOL! [/QUOTE]

That would be a very hard thing to explain to the border security. i dont get as excited about the common things found but a few weeks ago i was live streaming on Youtube and i pulled in a hand gun down in Ecorse....i for some reason was really excited about it....like more than i should have since it was the 6th one i have found so far.

[Jimaz]

Horrifying Magnet Fishing Items Pulled From the Detroit River

It's a stack of steak knives engraved with prayers of some sort. More Santería artifacts?

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

It's a stack of steak knives engraved with prayers of some sort. More Santería artifacts?[/QUOTE]

Thank you for keeping us relevant. this was a weird day on the river. a video prior to this one we pulled out some Cauldrons with other religious items in it. We had a great time Saturday working with friends of the Rouge. we were able to get about 25 Magnet fishers to come from up north, Wisconsin and Indiana to clean the Rouge.

[Honky Tonk]

It's a stack of steak knives engraved with prayers of some sort. More Santería artifacts?

ThatThank you for keeping us relevant. this was a weird day on the river. a video prior to this one we pulled out some Cauldrons with other religious items in it. We had a great time Saturday working with friends of the Rouge. we were able to get about 25 Magnet fishers to come from up north, Wisconsin and Indiana to clean the Rouge.

Kudos and Thanks for caring. You've almost got me hooked [ha-ha] into trying this. I need another hobby like I need another bill to pay.

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

This hobby can quickly become another bill to pay. it is a great hobby and at the end of the day when all of your muscles are screaming and cramping up you look over at that giant pile of garbage you removed from the river and think.....crap now i have to haul that away....nah just kidding it is a great sense of accomplishment. only problem is once you get a magnet you start looking for another magnet and another and then soon you have nine different magnets for different applications but you still throw the same one over and over because it is your favorite and catches the most.....kinda like regular fishing with lures and poles.

[Ray1936]

I'd love to hobby that were I younger. Alas, I'm in Las Vegas, and the only water here is Lake Mead, backed up by Hoover Dam. Only thing in those waters are gamblers who lost their wad. Sigh.

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

I'd love to hobby that were I younger. Alas, I'm in Las Vegas, and the only water here is Lake Mead, backed up by Hoover Dam. Only thing in those waters are gamblers who lost their wad. Sigh.

i would love to magnet fish in any of those places. imagine all the stuff tourists drop at the dam. and Lake mead has so much history there has to be Mob stuff in there.

[bust]

I enjoy your videos was inspired by one to check out that spot where you pulled up the cash registers. Interesting area for sure, and severely lacking in legal parking spots.
I hope you don't mind the friendly criticism: the image you used for your recent Santeria episode was a bit too much. It was interesting enough already without the [misleading] gore.
All in good fun.

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

I enjoy your videos was inspired by one to check out that spot where you pulled up the cash registers. Interesting area for sure, and severely lacking in legal parking spots.
I hope you don't mind the friendly criticism: the image you used for your recent Santeria episode was a bit too much. It was interesting enough already without the [misleading] gore.
All in good fun.

that spot where we got the cash register we just had almost 30 people show up to clean that spot. we filled an entire dumpster and pulled a lot of stuff out of the water. we partnered with the friends of the Rouge for their Rouge river cleanup.

I don't take offense to your criticism and i am very happy you watch and enjoy our videos. thank you.

[Jimaz]

I'm Pulling Out HUGE and Festive Objects Out of the Detroit River
While Magnet Fishing

What's in the baby food jars?

I'm hoping you find some old prohibition era whisky bottles. Granted, that's not likely but what a WOW factor that would be!

How much would collectors pay for that?! {he asked, rhetorically.}

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

we found out the baby food jars are actually some kind of a VooDoo spell jar. we have removed close to 20 of them so far. Old whiskey bottles would be amazing and several of the areas we magnet fish were used during prohibition but unless they are in a steel crate i doubt would possible for us to find.

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

i just want to let everyone know that on Saturday May 15th we will be at the John D. Dingell park in Ecorse from 9am to noon by the Memorial. we will be giving away Magnet fishing kits that include Magnet, Rope, Gloves, Scraper, Rope tape, Bucket, Sunglasses, Bag Towel and Hand Sanitizer to the first 25 Families with a child between the ages of 5 and 15. this is our attempt to help raise environmental awareness, tech the children one way to help clean our waterways as well as get the kits up and out this summer after being cooped up so long due to the pandemic. we will have several Magnet fishers there to help the children, interact with the families and to help clean the waters on that part of the Detroit River. we encourage anyone that is a magnet fisher or interested in magnet fishing to come on down and say hello and claim a kit if you have a child that would be interested in cleaning the waterways. we would love to have people taking pictures and sending them to us so we can put them up on our page for the event. we are calling the event "Get the Motor City Magnet Fishing". so anyone interested please come and enjoy what we hope to be a great day.

[TIMT]

Throughout the 1990s & until 2002 when I moved from Downtown Detroit [[Riverfront Towers) to California, I used to go SCUBA Diving along the shore in the Detroit River occasionally, either solo in the Riverfront Towers marina & in-front of the seawall, or with friends at various spots -- Belle Isle, in front of the Brodhead Armory [[before they put fencing up, to prevent us from doing it!), etc.

We did it mostly for the adventure -- trying to find 'treasure,' but for a few years, I was a Rescue Diver for the Spirit of Detroit 'Thunder Fest' hydroplane races and for a few days prior to that event, we'd all do training dives off a boat in the middle of the Detroit River, along the course [[familiarization with the current, visibility, bottom topology, etc.).

Visibility mostly depended on the when it last rained in the area. It was never great, but for the experienced diver, the 5'-15' average horizontal visibility [[assuming it was around Noon, with the sun directly overhead) was OK. The nice thing about the current is that if I stirred-up some silt when pulling some old bottle out of the bottom muck, the current would take it downstream, away from me if I held my place. We tried not to touch or stir-up the much much, because THAT is where the various nasty heavy metals, chemicals, etc. was.

Most of the best diving was within about 30' of shore, because that was around the maximum distance someone on shore would have tossed their old Coca-Cola, beer or milk bottle out to. Further out in the river, we'd find piles of mostly beer bottles in spots where fishermen had anchored their boats at, tossing their empties overboard and most of them drifting down-river a little but accumulating within a 5' radius of each other.

For the Thunderfest Rescue Diver training dives, it was mostly hard work -- they'd put a heavy object with some tags on it on the bottom [[usually no deeper than about 25') and a surface marker. The rescue boat would approach the surface marker from up-stream, and we'd enter the water from the moving boat at the position we thought appropriate, then when we thought it was the appropriate distance based on the current, we'd dive down to the target & retrieve the tag with our name on it. Sounds pretty straight-forward, BUT you couldn't see the bottom target or marker line at the time you needed to start descending, and if you didn't descend at the right time, by the time you got to the bottom, you would have overshot the target. With a little luck, you'd at-least see it as you passed it, then hit the bottom & try to kick hard against the current, going up-stream to get your tag off it and then surface triumphantly... But under the semi-legit guise of current & visibility familiarization, we'd also dive under parts of the MacArthur Bridge, which was obviously another good place to find stuff, albeit it was more likely to be 'contraband' than treasure. There was really just one reason someone would take a big knife or gun, or busted-open safe, etc. onto the MacArthur Bridge & toss it into the water...

It was really cool to be in the River, just 5 or 10 feet from shore, and come across some Coca-Cola bottle that dated back to the 1920s. I used to think that maybe my grandfather could have tossed it in, while walking along the riverfront on his first date with my grandmother... Oldest/rarest bottle I found dates back to the 1800s, but we found many plain milk bottles, medicine bottles and others that can't really be dated.

When I was doing the Thunderfest rescue Diver stuff, we were told that sometime in the early 1990s, a hydroplane had a blow-over & lost it's canopy, which was the same canopy used by F-16 fighter aircraft, and worth a lot of $$$. There was like a $10,000 reward at the time if we could find it. We never did. That sort of thing is heavy, BUT it's also something that could have continued to move pretty far down the Detroit River...

I don't find the news story about it on-line anymore, but when I was living at Riverfront Towers Apartments, apparently pretty much directly in-front of the complex but in about 85' depth in the middle of the shipping lane, there was a British warship that sunk sometime around the War of 1812. I fantasizing about putting on my drysuit & dual-120cfm air tanks & trying to find it, but I would have had to enter the river about half a mile upstream, ideally on the Canadian side, get down to the bottom ASAP and just hope that I drifted into it, then let the current keep taking me down the river as I worked to get back to the shoreline & out of the shipping channel before surfacing -- all pretty stupid to do. The safe & actually rather easy way to do it would have been for a boat to find it on a sonar or fish-finder, drop an anchored line to the upstream side of it, and then to drop down while holding onto the line for dear life, with a chase-boat ready to get me when I surfaced down-stream [[you can swim against the current but it takes a lot of strength & uses a lot of air, even if your using your hands on the sunken ship to help move up against the current).

Last I knew, SCUBA diving in the Detroit River --in the City of Detroit sections of it-- was illegal unless you got a permit from the DPD Harbormaster. We never bothered during our fun dives, but of course had official or unofficial consent & support from DPD Harbormaster, USCG, etc. for the Thunderfest stuff. On 'fun' dives, sometimes we would find a firearm. We'd complete our dives, get all our gear back into our cars, etc. and & then notify DPD of the find. None of them were happy about us finding evidence that they then had to deal with, especially if it looked like it'd been in the water for a while, but they never asked if we'd gotten the permit to dive in the river. In talking to a DPD friend in a position to know, they didn't like people diving/swimming in the river [[other than marked area like some spots on Belle Isle) because too many people couldn't swim to begin with, and/or didn't know how to deal with the current. Plus, the DPD Underwater Recovery Team had fun finding cool old stuff in the river & didn't want to share their treasure grounds with others.

We would wear full wetsuits, hoods & gloves, or even drysuits, and I'd often use a hand rake to poke around in the sediment. I was always concerned that sooner or later, I'd find a body or body-part, either seeing it in 'cement galoshes,' or worse -- something drifting into me & startling me, then me having a heart attack when I noticed it was a body. We'd take lots of fresh water & soap with us, and rinse ourselves off as best we could after we got out of the water, then really rinse our gear and immediately take showers when we got home, because we knew there were a lot of pollutants in the Detroit River [[& for that reason, I call it the Detroit River, not "water"). One gross thing we'd see dozens of all the time floating past us during a dive -- plastic tampon applicators. After a couple dives, I'd develop a rash...

Diving the Riverfront Towers Apartments Marina was great because the seawall blocked the current. I'd tow a surface marker above me, and my friends lounging on their boats would warn any of the boaters that may actually leave the marina [[99% of the time, the tenants that had boats there never took them out!). In addition to the beer cans & bottles, I'd find cellphones, some watches, keys, and other things that people would accidentally lose overboard. One boat-owning neighbor pointed to the exact spot his "$10,000 gold & diamond ring" fell off his finger & into the river at the marina. I knew it was only about 10' deep there, and also knew that a heavy ring should pretty much have dropped straight down, so I figured I'd be quite the hero when I found it & that I'd get to part on his 41' Sea Ray whenever I wanted to. I spent about an hour feeling around in the muck, which was about 2' deep It was like sticking your arm into chocolate pudding) but I never found it! He's probably still thinking I found it, but just didn't tell him....

Coldest dive I ever made was New Years Day in I think 1999. It was 28 degrees at a depth of 10' off of Belle Isle. At 28 degrees you'd expect it to be frozen, but due to the current --and probably all the chemicals in the River-- it wasn't.

For Ray1936: I live in Henderson NV now. Lake Mead has lots of underwater history to it -- remember, it was dry land, with some communities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1RTCp3dcIo
trees, etc. before it was deliberately flooded to become a water reservoir with the construction of the Hoover Dam. There's a very special B-29 bomber aircraft in it:
https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/histo...-mead-b-29.htm Plus the popular swimming & cliff jumping spots will have jewelry, wallets, watches, etc.

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

What a wonderful account of your time spent in the Detroit River. thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. im not a diver and if i were im not sure i would be brave enough to enter this river. i can throw my ten pound magnet straight upstream and within minutes i am pullint it straight upstream. that current frightens me at times. other times it does not seem too bad.

[Ray1936]

Great post, TIMT! Ate up every word! I've spent some time boating on Lake Mead, but except for a swim close to shore never had any experience at diving of any kind. Also knew about the swamped communities and the B-29. Local paper occasionally posts a good article of historical nature, although it generally stinks otherwise <g>. Anyway, as my 85th birthday looms ahead this fall, I suspect I'll just do my diving in the bathtub any more.

[Jimaz]

Throwing My Magnet Off a Pier and I Pulled Up Some Unexpected Objects

This week I'm throwing my magnet off a pier and I pulled up some unexpected objects. This was a family outing and Avery was stunned by what came out of the water....

It's a lot of tools and a watch this time.

So what happens to all this stuff? Is it even possible to refurbish things like pliers to a usable state? The knives should be easy to clean. Do you ever take stuff to a scrap yard?

So many catfish bells!

[MotorCityMagnetFishers]

Throwing My Magnet Off a Pier and I Pulled Up Some Unexpected Objects

It's a lot of tools and a watch this time.

So what happens to all this stuff? Is it even possible to refurbish things like pliers to a usable state? The knives should be easy to clean. Do you ever take stuff to a scrap yard?

So many catfish bells!

Yes i built a electrolysis tank and many of the pliers i have put in there are completely usable now. I cannot put stainless or copper in the tank though so i have not tried any of the knives i have found as i believe they will have stainless steel in them. we try to get scrappers to take everything every chance we get but some of the items we pulled up here belong to the city of Wyandotte. Anywhere Fisherman fish we find tons of catfish bells. thank you all for watching this weeks adventure.