magnet fishing - WKTV Journal

You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There’s still lots of good in the world.
S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders

By Faith Morgan
WKTV Intern

The usual haul from magnet fishing — odds and ends.(WKTV/Matt Kavaluskis)

Try Magnet Fishing

For many people, fishing is a common hobby during Labor Day Weekend. The Grand River is a perfect site for fishing and more recently popular: magnet fishing. Using strong magnets, you can lure metallic treasures that were lost along the bottom of large bodies of water. Just make sure to do so carefully and turn in any dangerous or suspicious items to your local police.

Listen to a local band

Looking for some new music to listen to during your Labor Day weekend travels? Grand Rapids-based For the Universe releases its self-title record at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4. The heavy metal band’s new record will be available to download and stream through the Bandcamp app.

Studio Park showing outdoor films (Studio Park GR)

Watch Movies in the Park

Celebration Cinema is hosting Sunset Cinema at Studio Park throughout the month of September. This Friday, Sept. 4 through Wednesday, Sept. 9, the film “Arrival” will be featured. When mysterious spacecraft land across the globe, expert translator Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is sent to decipher their intent. As tensions mount, Banks discovered the aliens’ true purpose and, to avert global war, takes a chance that could threaten humanity. “Arrival,” released in 2016, also stars Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. For ticket prices and showtimes you can visit https://celebrationcinema.com/

Fun fact: Chocolate Holidays

Super Simple Chocolate Milkshake (Smucker’s)

We love the delectable taste of chocolate so much that we have national holidays surrounding this treat. This month we celebrate three chocolate holidays: Sept. 12 is National Chocolate Milkshake Day, Sept. 13 is International Chocolate Day, and Sept. 22 is White Chocolate Day, which really isn’t chocolate, but hey, we’re fine with that. Time to go buy some chocolate!

If you fish out a gun, or something like this old grenade, the Grand Rapids Police Department recommend you call your local police and let the experts handle it. (WKTV/Matt Kavaluskis)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

Fishing on the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids is nothing new. You can see anglers on the banks almost every day, year around.

But a not-so-new version of fishing for fish with the usual bait, fishing for anything metal with magnets, is turning up some unusual catches. From the usual odds and ends, to guns and even an unwisely disposed of military grenade, to — and we have the photograph to prove it — an antique metal toilet, one local magnet fisherman has stories to tell.

Magnet fishermen find the strangest things — like an antique toliet. (WKTV/Matt Kavaluskis)

“Me and my buddy have pulled up all sorts of stuff, including five guns and a World War II grenade,” Matt Kavaluskis, a lifelong Grand Rapidian and a community volunteer at WKTV Community Media, said recently. “And for that iron toilet, we used three magnets and fourth rope to haul it up.”

Kavaluskis said that while the usual finds — metal odds and ends, large and small — are usually just turned in for scrap. But we are not taking about a little scrap here and there. He points out that in addition to the toilet, they recovered a metal cross beam for a sign that weighed nearly 200 pounds.

His favorite magnet fishing spot, he says, is on either side of the river at the Sixth Street Bridge — “That’s were we have found the most stuff.”

Most guns fished out of the Grand River of of no value to the police, except for getting the off the streets. (WKTV/Matt Kavaluskis)

And those guns? That grande? They turned them over to the police, as a Grand Rapids Police Department spokesperson said they should do so.

“With the popularity of magnet fishing, things like this are going to happen,” Sgt. John Wittkowski said to WKTV. “… for the most part we just take them and melt them down. They are really just paperweights, but for obvious reasons we do not return them.”

Unlike in the movie or on television crime dramas, the guns are rarely of any real value to the police.

“Typically, they are in such poor condition, they are of no evidentiary value,” Wittkowski said. “We may check the serial number if that is visible, but usually they are not much use to police.”

But about that World War II antique which Kavaluskis and his buddy turned in …

“If we are taking about a grenade, that is more of a safety issue,” Wittkowski said. “That is very unusual. People occasionally will occasionally bring us things … say they found something when there were going through their father’s belongings. … They are usually inert, but you never know.”

But the bottom line advise from the police department is simple: if you find something like guns or things that could be explosives, call your local police and let the experts handle it.

Back to fishing for the everyday stuff: What might be the beginners tackle box look like for a magnet fisherman?

“Magnets start at $29, go up to $300, depending on what pull weight you want,” Kavaluskis said. “Each magnet comes with 70 feet of rope, a carry box, set of gloves and a carabiner clip. There is like four or five really good magnet companies.”

And what is next on Kavaluskis’ magnet fishing to-do list? He says there is the motorcycle he and his buddy think they know the whereabouts of.