When you go fishing in a river, you might hope to land a few fish ­— not dangerous weapons and old motorbikes.

But this is exactly what 13-year-old George Tindale, aka Magnetic G, has found during the past year during his hobby of magnet fishing ­— and on Sunday he pulled two military officers' handguns and a machete out of the River Soar.

Nottinghamshire Police have since collected the items for analysis.

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Magnet fishing is normally done in fast-flowing waters, such as rivers and canals, with strong neodymium magnets that are powerful enough to shift the heavy metal items.

George, who lives in the Newark area, began his unusual hobby after watching a video of magnet fisher and treasure hunter 'Drastic G' on YouTube in August last year, and straight away asked his mum, Denise Newton, if he could start magnet fishing as well.

He launched his YouTube channel shortly after, where he shares videos of his finds, and his channel has over 2,200 subscribers from all over the world.

Keen environmentalist George said: "It's always great fun to find interesting things.

"I love getting plastics out of the water too to stop them flowing into the oceans.

George has also found three live bombs, knives, 55 shopping trollies, mobile phones and four motorbikes ­— of which one was reunited with its owner.

Just some other examples of the bizarre items found in the rivers, canals and tidal rivers by George and his dad Kevin Tindale are Ford tractor weights, road signs, safes, power tools, lawnmowers, horseshoes, Sat Navs, cutlery, coins and the tops of chimney flues from boats as well as the odd canal lock key or nameplate.

He's also found a multitude of knives, including a Scotsman's Sgian-dubh, which is a dagger kept in a sock, usually worn with a kilt, and drug scales that were likely involved in crime and discarded in haste.

His collection also includes what could be an age-old stonemason's chisel that was still embedded in rock when dragged to the surface, dozens of hammers, other tools, fishing tackle and even a metal Christmas tree.

He and his dad have cleaned up and restored a 1940s air rifle they dredged up that is now working again.

Many of the items discovered have remained in the deep for decades, if not a century or two.

Many of George's finds have been collected by scrapmen and recycled, and his hobby is also good for the environment as a lot of plastic is found in the river alongside his metal treasure troves.

Denise said: "All of these things have a story to them, how did they end up there?

"He's doing a really good thing by pulling these things out of the rivers, it's much better for the environment.

"All of them have been covered in plastic so that's less plastic ending up in the sea now.

"If you have a fish tank at home, you wouldn't want all of this chucked in with them, so it's not fair for the fish in the river to live with it."

George's YouTube channel, Magnetic G, can be found by logging on to www.youtube.com/channel/UCGCvjoxN4_vKPVVLcxdvGfw

Emma Ball, first contact manager at Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We received a call from a member of the public reporting that they had recovered two firearms from a river in Leicestershire while magnet fishing.

“The firearms, which are in a poor condition and are believed to have been under water for some time, were handed into us on Monday (22 July 2019) and will be examined by specialist firearms officers in due course.

“We would urge anyone who comes across a firearm to call police immediately on 101. Weapons should not be touched as they could in a dangerous condition.”