This Month in Magnet Fishing: April 2026 Edition

Welcome back, treasure hunters. April was Earth Month, and the magnet fishing community showed up — kids hauled their first finds at a brand-new derby in California, divers cleared a Pacific Northwest pier, and a Tennessee newspaper sent a photographer out to a marina just to capture a few folks doing what we love. Plus a long-pending state bill that could finally crack open a closed door. Let's dig in.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press ran a full photo gallery on April 18 of magnet fishers working the docks at Chickamauga Marina, right where the Tennessee River widens out below the dam. No single jaw-dropper find made the headlines — just regular folks pulling regular junk on a regular Saturday — but that's kind of the whole point. When your local paper sends a photographer out to document magnet fishing because it's an interesting community thing happening on a sunny April afternoon? That's the hobby crossing over. That's normal now.

If you're inspired to give Tennessee waters a shot yourself, check out our [Tennessee magnet fishing guide](/where-to-magnet-fish/states/tennessee) — Chickamauga Lake's right there in the mix.

Quick update for anyone keeping tabs on the South Carolina situation. House Bill 4398, the proposed amendment that would explicitly permit magnet fishing under SC's hobby license rules, is still sitting in the House Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry — over a year after Reps. Edgerton and Hixon introduced it in April 2025. So for now, South Carolina remains the only state in the country where magnet fishing is straight-up illegal under the Underwater Antiquities Act. Bummer, but worth tracking.

For the full breakdown of what's legal where, our [state-by-state magnet fishing laws guide](/blog/magnet-fishing-laws-a-state-by-state-guide) has all 50 states covered.

The Cosumnes Community Services District teamed up with the Kiwanis Club of Laguna-Elk Grove to host their annual Youth Magnet Fishing Derby at Elk Grove Park Lake on April 18 — totally free, kids ages 5 to 13, parent-supervised, prizes for the day. Picture it: a couple hundred excited kids, magnets thrown into a calm lake, parents sipping coffee on the shore, and that one kid screaming because he just pulled up a bottle cap like it's a Spanish doubloon.

This is exactly the kind of event that grows the hobby right. Free entry, kid-sized expectations, a community organization running the show. If you've got a kid who's been bugging you to try this, our [family magnet fishing guide](/blog/magnet-fishing-with-kids-a-family-summer-adventure-guide) covers everything from gear choices to keeping younger kids engaged when the finds are slow.

April 19 saw the Edmonds Fishing Pier in Washington get its annual underwater scrub-down. A team of volunteer scuba divers spent five hours from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. pulling trash and discarded fishing line out from under the pier — different gear than ours, same mission. The Edmonds Parks and Rec team even put out a call beforehand: if you'd lost something off the pier recently, contact the volunteer leader and the divers would try to recover it during the dive.

That's the spirit, honestly. Whether you're a magnet fisher, a diver, or just somebody walking the shoreline with a trash bag, it all adds up. If you want to read more about why this stuff matters beyond the cool factor, our piece on the [environmental impact of magnet fishing](/blog/beneath-the-surface-the-environmental-impact-of-magnet-fishing) goes deeper.

With the Elk Grove derby fresh in mind, this one goes to families starting out. The FINDMAG starter kits get my nod here — they pair a sensible 600-1,000 lb pull-force magnet with rope, gloves, and threadlocker, which is everything a kid (and a careful adult) actually needs. Strong enough to get real finds, not so beastly that a 9-year-old gets hurt trying to free it from a railing. Take a look at our [magnet fishing kits guide](/magnet-fishing-gear/magnet-fishing-kits) for sizing up what'll work for your crew.

Got a wild April find I missed? Send it over — we're always looking for community stories to feature next month. And if you're not on the email list yet, you can sign up below to get these roundups (and other treasure-hunting nonsense) delivered straight to your inbox.