Castleton magnet fisher hosts global 24-hour event and raises £2,000 for Help for Heroes

Date published: 28 August 2022

Castleton magnet fisher Scott Bryant raised over £2,000 for Help for Heroes with a global 24-hour magnet fishathon last month.

Scott and his Patriot Magnets team held a 24-hour session on the canal in Birmingham, using a magnet with a pull force of 2,000kg to find new treasure.

The event of 16 and 17 July took over 12 months to organise after the success of Scott’s 24-hour magnet fishing event in Manchester last year.

Scott was again sponsored by Magnet Store, and together they approached international magnet companies Brute Magnetics (USA) and Magnetar (Netherlands) to see if they wanted to be involved and meet-up with magnet fishers in their area.

Scott explained: “We all agreed on a simultaneous magnet fishing date and the plan was that I was going to do the full 24-hour aspect here in the UK and they were going to put on their events or meet ups with magnet fishers from their countries so we would all be simultaneously magnet fishing at the exact same time in different parts of the world.”

Each company and country chose their own charities. Scott chose Help for Heroes, which he has supported before, whilst Brute Magnetics chose the Tunnel to Towers Foundation (which helps build homes or pays off mortgages for families of those killed in the line of duty at home or abroad).

Magnetar chose CliniClowns (a charity for sick children, children with disabilities, and people with dementia) and Canadian YouTuber Jeremiah Bowes opted to raise money for the Royal Canadian Legion (Canada's largest Veteran support and community service organisation).

“We asked on social media if any other countries would be interested in doing the day and were blown away with the response. All the countries involved now were the UK, USA and Canada, Netherlands, Germany, Albania, Denmark, Czech Republic, Belgium, Australia, Switzerland and Sweden,” Scott added.

Scott raised £2,043.25 for Help for Heroes, pulling out over one tonne of scrap metal from the canal in front of around 95 spectators. Jeremiah raised over $2,000 Canadian for his cause (around £1,306) and Magnetar raised €2,036.40 for CliniClowns (around £1,716).

He concluded: “All in all this was very successful and a world first again. We are looking to make a global magnet fishing event and an annual day for magnet fishing. I couldn't have done this without all of the above and we as a team accomplished this.”

Scott took up the unusual hobby of magnet fishing in late 2018, after his stepson introduced him to the activity. He has uncovered treasure from jewellery, safes, weapons and medals from the bottom of canals – and has even managed to track down and reunite some of the items with their original owners.
 

Read more: Safe fished out of Rochdale canal reunited with owner a decade after being stolen in armed robberyPublished: 18 February 2019