Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Magnet Fishing

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

Magnet fishing has nothing to do with fish. It's more like metal detecting in waterways. Please enjoy our take!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to

believe. You can find in Major League Baseball, International Banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and this is short stuff as I said already and this is short stuff so let's go. So when I was a kid, I don't know if your dad ever did this. Something tells me your dad may have had a brief foray into metal detecting.

It seemed to be maybe a little bit of a, I don't know about fad or craze if it was that widespread, but I know quite a few of us in our age group whose mothers and fathers, for some reason more fathers than mothers, and there were generally more mothers going seriously like you're kind of spent three hours on the beach doing that. Roaming around the beaches and forest of America with a metal detector, hoping to, in my dad's case, I think he was probably hoping to strike it rich with some rare find. Yeah, I think all of them were secretly, some of them might have tried to play like, you know, they were really just in for the science or whatever, but they were hoping to find some roaming horde for some reason in Indiana. And I thought it was cool

at the time because I would do anything to try and get my dad to pay attention to me. So I would tag along and I would metal detect right alongside of them and I thought it was pretty cool. And I found myself when I heard about magnet fishing just recently, I learned that this is a thing. Saying, oh wow, that looks like something I might want to try. And then I went, oh my god, I've become my father. Oh yeah? Yeah. Were you like, maybe I'll strike it rich? No, but I just think it's kind of cool and fun. Well, I like the idea of it. I think you can get into it and it will be easy to get into because the barriers for getting into magnet fishing are purposefully kept low so that everybody can get into it because

it's supposed to be a really fun pastime. And we should tell everybody what magnet fishing is. I mean, if there's ever been a term that we needed to define, it's magnet fishing. Are you fishing for magnets? Yes. Are you using magnets to try and get a fish out of a lake? Yeah, there's so much mercury in fish now that you can use magnets to catch them. No, that's not what magnet fishing is. Magnet fishing is having a rope tied to a very strong magnet, which we'll talk about what these magnets are and how they work and stuff. And dropping it in a canal or a river or a lake or off of a bridge into any of these bodies of water, dragging it along and hoping that you pull up something cool or valuable or both.

Or does the dope come in? I don't know. I guess you should. Well, never mind. So I can use my imagination. So from looking at on YouTube, what I've seen more often than not, what comes out of the lake or the river, the canal, is not anything most people would want to touch. So I think like being a magnet fisherman, you have to be fascinated by icky things. Rusty things. That were once not rusty or icky in that the fact that they're underwater now makes them by nature interesting to magnet fishers. Yeah. And this, by the way, comes from our old colleagues at howstuffworks.com. And they aptly point out that this is pretty, it's caught on here in America

pretty well, especially during the pandemic. They did interview someone who, in our own state of Georgia, who opened a magnet place to like kind of furnish supplies for people. And he was like, man, it's like during the pandemic and during lockdown, things really blew up because you can socially distance, it got people out of the house, it really passes the time, something you can take your kid and do. So it's really been booming in the states in the past couple of years, but it's long been popular in Europe. And for good reason, because Europe is older and there are more interesting finds and you're way more likely to find some old, unexploded munition that you might want on yourself, even though it's very dangerous.

Sure. Then you might in America. Yeah, we should buzz market that, dude, too, because he seems okay, but brute magnetics in North Georgia. Yeah, Clay Copeland. So what they've put together are, and he's actually the reason that I said that this hobby is being kept accessible purposefully, because he said that the most powerful magnet that they sell, the top of the line, can pull over 2000 pounds of metal out of whatever waterway you're fishing in. It's still only like $200. Yeah, not bad for a hobby. No, and if you stop and think about it, there's a 2000 pound piece of metal that's getting close to a car, you know? Isn't it? I don't know. How much do cars weigh? I don't know, like 2000 pounds is what I'm

guessing, probably the topped out at 2000 pounds. So like a Hummer probably weighs 2000 pounds. Okay. I think that might be wrong, but the point is this, there's a 2000 pound magnet, or a magnet that can pull 2000 pounds for 200 bucks, that's a good deal, okay? That is a good deal. You know, any kind of hobby when you're buried or entries a couple hundred dollars and you could spend hours and hours like with your kids or something, not bad at all. You should be sure of a few things. One that you have that you're really good at tying knots because what you don't want to do is lose that magnet and then have to get a magnet to fish out that magnet. So be good, really good at tying knots. You want a rope that's

50 to 100 feet depending on, you know, if you're obviously dropping off a bridge, you're going to want the longer rope. And I saw that nylon paracord is a really good option because it's like a thicker one because it's got that perfect mix of toughness and elasticity. And the magnets that you would buy too are not your normal refrigerator magnets that you're made of ferrite. The ones that Mr. Copeland sells are made of neodymium is how I'm going to say it. I think that's right. And neodymium is a rare earth metal and they mix it with a boron and iron and it's just, again, super strong. Like you're not going to pull anything approaching 2000 pounds with a refrigerator magnet, even if it's super, super big. And that's the point. You want a fairly

compact magnet that is also designed in a streamlined manner. So it's not going to get hooked up on all sorts of muck and kelp and seaweed and all that stuff too. Sure. Should we take a break? I think so. We're really just getting started with magnet fishing, everybody. All right, we'll be right back. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh god.

Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yeah, we know that Michael and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Not another one. Uh-huh. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mange Shatikler and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life.

In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get second-hand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, Major League Baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world can crash down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the

iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. By the way, during our break, I just looked it up. The average weight of a car is about 4,200 pounds. Okay. So I think one of those smart cars may be about 2,000 pounds. Sure. I'll take a smart car. It's basically the same thing as a homer. And before I forget, the other thing I meant to mention on what you might need to get started is a tetanus shot. I mean, it's kind of funny to say, but that is no joke. Because you are pulling old rusty things out of the water inevitably. And that's the nature of magnets and metal and being underwater. So you do want a tetanus shot and to have like some

like gloves and stuff like that. You also want to have some common decency. Yes. Because one of the reasons that some magnet fishers, fisher people, have a bad reputation in some places like the UK and Germany are apparently two places where they kind of frown upon magnet fishing. Because people will magnet fish, pull out some metallic junk that they don't want and just like leave it on the side of the river or the sidewalk, like the walking path alongside a canal or something like that. I get the impression that if you haul something out, it's up to you to either keep it or throw it away, not just leave it there. Yes. Or turn in, in the case of unexploded munitions, if you find an old World War II hand grenade

or bullets. I mean, it seems like I looked up a lot of these finds and stuff and it is disturbing how many weapons are in bags in rivers. It really makes you wonder why it's in there. But lots of guns are found. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of bullets are found. I saw one where this little six-year-old girl and her parents pulled 600 bullets out of a lake. And like I said, like AK-47, someone found a Tommy gun. Wow. That's a pretty good find. That's a heck of a find. A Civil War revolver, pretty good find.

Sure. But people are dumping dangerous things, like Civil War-era swords, pretty good find. Sure. But there are dangerous things down there. And if anything is unexploded, don't just... I think the assumption is it's always dangerous, so you should probably get in touch with somebody about it. Yeah. And that's especially true in Europe, where a lot of World War II artillery and ammunition is still laying around. Tons of stuff. Yeah. I saw a blog post, Chuck, that I guess hadn't heard about the Tommy gun because

it was called like the greatest magnet fishing finds of all time. Oh, really? And one of them was like a bench, like a park bench. And the caption was, who couldn't use a free bench? Like they were really trying to sell it. So I guess the Tommy gun hadn't been found yet. I saw one guy who, there was a picture of him holding up a machine gun, standing beside no lie, it was either eight or ten of those stupid rental scooters, electric

scooters. People just throw those in bodies of water. Yeah. And shopping carts too. You know who does that? Bad people. Disaffected teenagers. I saw one guy found a human body that had handcuffs on. No. Yes. No.

Yes. Yes. Boy, I used the wrong search terms for magnet fishing finds because I didn't see anything like that. I just searched for like most interesting finds. A body with handcuffs. Are you for real? Yeah. I mean, you know, that's what this one goofy website said. Goodness gracious.

Wow. That was pretty much my worst fear when I was a youngster vacationing in Lake Erie. Oh, body. Yes. Man, just bumping into a body that I just knew was out there five feet away from me, headed right toward me. The idea of finding one magnet. Oh my God. I'm going to have to go like chill out for a little bit before we record our next short stuff.

Well, could you imagine they're pulling this thing out and it's coming up handcuffed first. So either around the ankles or around the wrist. Yeah. So I mean, that's a pretty gruesome discovery. Yeah. Good lord. Well, thanks for ending it like that. Sure. Well, we're not quite done. It's, I just wanted to say how discouraging it is that people are pulling

out so much trash. It's great, the people that are doing this to pull out the trash and dispose of it well. But as I was researching this yesterday, Emily texted me that our house is next to sort of this bamboo forest with a creek. And she saw a truck pull over and throw a gigantic microwave into the creek and speed off. And now I have to go fish that microwave out. She got his license plate, but I'm like, what are you going to do, you know? I mean, you can turn it in.

Yeah, I'm sure the APD will be all over that. Yeah. It'll be like the cops in the Big Lebowski. Oh, yeah. We got a whole team of guys working on it. But now I got to go fish this microwave out. I just, there's no way I can let it sit there. You going to get yourself a $200 magnet for Mr. Clay Copeland of Brute Magnetics? I probably should because that'd be the easiest way to do it. And it would be legal in Georgia.

Legality wise, we should mention that it's everywhere so far, except for South Carolina. It is legal because in South Carolina, it falls under the South Carolina Underwater Antiques Act, which prohibits you from collecting things with equipment deployed from the surface of the water. And that even means magnets. Yeah, especially magnets is what I heard. Yeah. And Europe is a little more control, not controlling, but they have more restrictions and things in place, right?

Yeah. Again, there's a lot of unexploded ordinance that's just the right age to blow up in your face accidentally when you're inspecting it to figure out what it is. That's right. So it makes sense. So that's magnet fishing. Go forth, check out Brute Magnetics, get yourself a magnet, and throw away the stuff you don't want. Don't throw it back or just leave it on the side of the road, okay?

Agreed. That's it for short stuff since Chuck agreed. That's official. See you later. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.