Home » News » Local » ‘Magnet fishing’ is a growing hobby and a YouTube hit

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WBBH) – Off Kismet Parkway in northeast Cape Coral, Dennis Dove slides a silver toolbox toward the back of his truck bed. He’s getting ready for a little fishing.

“Cut-resistant gloves,” he said while pulling out some equipment. “These are my tools that I use.”

That even includes a heavy-duty winch puller.

“I hook both ends to something solid,” he explained. “To help pull whatever I have in the water out.”

But Dennis’ type of fishing is a bit unique. There’s no lure – no line – and no actual fish.

On a bridge overlooking the canal, he grabs a long rope with a large magnet attached to the end. He lowers the magnet toward the water, swings it back and forth, and then lets it fly.

“Oh, we did get something,” Dennis declared, pulling the magnet out of the water and up toward himself. “Piece of metal. Maybe a signpost.”

You’re probably thinking the same thing as the people who drive by him: what the heck?

“A lot of them come up and look at me like, ‘What are you doing?’ I say, ‘I’m pulling metal out of the water and cleaning waterways.’ They say, ‘Really?’ They look at what I’m pulling up and they say, ‘Thank you,’” Dennis says, chuckling.

The hobby is appropriately called ‘magnet fishing’ and Dennis has done it at bridges all across Cape Coral.

He’s found a whole lot more than just old, corroded signpost pieces. He brought along a few of his favorite finds, including a rusted samurai sword and what he believes is an old cannonball.

“I don’t know why this stuff is in the water,” he shrugged, laughing.

Some of his GoPro footage from previous fishing trips shows him pulling up larger items: everything from bicycles to riding lawn mowers.

“I’ve pulled out safes, I’ve pulled out flat screen TVs, I’ve pulled out lock boxes,” he explained. “Everything I pull up, I wonder the story. That’s the uniqueness about what I do.”

Dennis has created a YouTube channel to showcase his discoveries called SWFL Treasure Detecting.

And he’s not the only one doing this. There’s an entire corner of the internet dedicated to magnet fishing. One Florida man has more than 17,000 subscribers. Another man who appears to be in Wisconsin has half a million people watching.

“Magnet fishing has gone so big, so fast. It’s amazing,” Dennis explains. “I think it’s the mystique — not knowing what they’re gonna pull up.”

Every once in a while, he pulls up something that really surprises him.

“22 magnum,” he described, showing off a rusted gun he recently found. “Excitement! It’s just like, oh my. A gun!”

Dennis has found six guns since just October.

Brandon Sancho of the Cape Coral Police Department said people should call them if they do find a firearm while magnet fishing. An officer will come out and check on the weapon. Dennis has called CCPD each time he’s pulled up a gun.

“Just because a weapon has been underwater, doesn’t mean it still can’t fire,” Sancho explained.

“If that weapon, or whatever the case is, still looks pretty good and we can see a serial number, we can also confirm it with our records to see if, you know, we can actually use it to possibly help convict some suspect of a crime,” he added.

Sancho warned of Cape Coal’s new city ordinance, which bans fishing under bridges where signs are posted.

“The police are not really gonna give you too much of a hard time if they see you are just fishing. If there is no signage, you should be okay,” he explained.

Dennis urges anyone who tries magnet fishing to be very careful. The magnets are strong and can be tricky to work with. He also wears a reflective vest and says it’s important to be wary of the traffic whizzing by while pulling up items.

In addition to helping clean up the canals, Dennis says he earns about $100 every couple of weeks when he turns in the scrap metal that he finds.

Most of all, he says it offers the same thing as real fishing: time to relax.

“(It’s) very peaceful,” Dennis says, casting another magnet into the water.

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Copyright © 2022 Waterman Broadcasting of Florida, LLC

Copyright © 2022 Waterman Broadcasting of Florida, LLC