So what is magnet fishing and how did we start….
On the first lock down we were watching a programme called River Hunters and they were using an underwater metal detector, we wondered if a magnet would work.
So we checked on YouTube and to our surprise there were people already doing it.
We went on eBay and bought a magnet and rope, then headed to the Esso bridge, as we call it, on the Thame river.
Our very first find was a push bike. During that day, we also found horseshoes, poles, bars, a zippy lighter and lots of fishing lures.
We continued around the Thame river, pulling out an unbelievable amount of dumped metal that scrap man Alan, as he’s known in Thame, took away for us.
We moved onto the old Crendon bridge, where we knew the story of an ammo truck crashing into the river in WW2…would we find anything?
Over the next few months we found a hand grenade and an artillery shell, and the bomb disposal team had to be contacted to take the found equipment, to blow it up, in the field next to the river.
Bullets were found, a revolver gun and numerous other bullets, that were all handed to the police. We also found a “Tommy” lighter that would have been issued to one of our troops.
This was now really exciting, not only clearing the water of scrap, but also finding history!
Over the next few months, we continued around the river, up to the Oxford Road bypass bridge, finding bikes, trolleys, poles and even a mark 1 escort car door!
Positive Feedback
The Duck Race event, organised by the Round Table, took place and it was nice to get some feedback. Before we started our magnet fishing, Captain Ducky was always tripping over stuff in the river, this time however his path was pretty clear and it was obvious we were making a difference to the environment.
On that stretch of river we had pulled out around 4 tonnes of scrap metal. We then started looking at surrounding villages. Chearsley bridges had lots of car parts, 28 road cat’s eyes/road studs, a road direction signpost and even a Vespa motorcycle frame! Ickford river bridge had approximately 12 guns including a pump action shotgun, 2 large safes, 31 car wheels and an all manner of tools. Now it was the fishermen saying what a difference we were making, that they were no longer getting snagged and losing equipment.
A gun was found in Ickford duck pond, train track and over 300 shotgun cartridges under a rail bridge near Haddenham. Quite a few knives were found in Shabbington and mobile phones everywhere we went.
Important Information
It’s really important to remove anything you’ve pulled out from the water and leave the area as you found it.
It is also important not to keep illegal items, such as guns, knives, stun guns, knuckle dusters and to hand them in to police.
With any explosives, the area needs to be sealed off, police should be called via 999 and it is ideal to supply the 3 words from the what3words app, that can tell them your exact location. They will call the bomb disposal team, if required.
How to find us
We do have a Facebook group, mainly to show people what is actually in our nice looking rivers and for people to help in identifying things.
It really took off, with lots of local people interested in what we were doing.
We started going out a bit further, to Aylesbury, Buckingham and Banbury.
We are also taking our own scrap to the scrapyard rather than getting a scrap person to collect.
Scrap Service Directory
Dippers and Scrapper is a Facebook group that has a directory of scrap collectors, broken down into counties that will collect from magnet fishers, free of charge and we use this service when we have too much to take ourselves.
What we’ve been up to
We started going to Oxford, where we met other magnet fishers. Many have become friends and we meet up regularly. Through our success, we are now affiliated with Online Magnets website and you are welcome to use our discount code Thame10 that gives 10% off any purchases. This company supplies the best and most powerful magnets, capable of pulling just about anything out of the water.
We have been visiting Oxford regularly, as it’s full of scrap and history.
Radio Oxford has even put together an interview with us available on BBC Radio Sounds which you can listen to on the website. Fox FM and the Oxford Mail have published interviews, all the national online publications have run stories of bombs found and BBC TV News, South Today shown the grenade we found being blown up in Buckingham.
40 of our Facebook group members attended a recent event we organised in Oxford, either to meet us and to see what we do, or those that have bought a magnet having followed our adventures!
3 tonnes of scrap was pulled out of the river Thames on that day.
If you are interested in what we do, find/want to have a go yourselves, feel free to join our Facebook group, Thame Magnet Fishing
Happy (magnet) fishing!
