Heavy metal fishin’ — locals land the strangest things, sometimes get police involved

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

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?

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

“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.