Old bicycles, a gun, bullets, bolts and signposts — those are just a few of the items that Rose and Michael Jerome have recovered while magnet fishing.
"You name it, and we've pulled it out," Rose said.
Using a very powerful magnet, the Jeromes retrieve pieces of metal from the bottom of harbors, rivers and lakes around Burlington. Even if it is raining, the two will spend the day trying to reel in a metallic catch. The Queen City residents picked up the hobby about two years ago after seeing videos on YouTube.
The process is relatively simple. The Jeromes chuck an eight-inch-diameter magnet into the water and reel it back in with a 65-foot rope. The rope also has a hook attached to help snare sunken treasures. The rope can pull up to 1,700 pounds and the magnet can pull up to 2,000 pounds, they said.
Their favorite fishing spots are Perkins Pier and the Winooski River behind the Ethan Allen Homestead. While magnet fishing near the homestead, Michael said, he hauled in a sword handle from the 1700s that a historian valued at $2,000.
"The joy of magnet fishing is you never know what you're gonna get," Michael said. "It's just a mystery. You drop [the magnet] in, and you're like, 'Oh, what do I got?'"
They once pulled in a gun at Perkins Pier and reported it to the police, who determined it was a pellet gun, according to Michael. The pair bring a wagon with them to carry the bigger catches that they want to keep or sell, but they don't hang on to many of their finds.
One day last month, for instance, the couple hooked two old bike frames at Perkins Pier — almost doubling the total number of bikes they'd hauled in during their two-year careers. Rather than keep the rusting items, they had city park workers haul them away.
"We clean up the lake," Michael said. "[We're] getting stuff out of the lake that can harm fish and other creatures."