Fishing with Dynamite

[Reluctant Poster]

While browsing through Meccano Magazines from the 30s (Some great articles on aircraft engines) I found this article.
The good old days!

 

[manta22]

When I was stationed in Babenhausen, Germany in 1961 with a Corporal missile Ordnance detachment, we received a FNG. He was sent to our unit by mistake, a clerk-typist had made a typo in his orders, transposing two numbers in his MOS. Instead of his actual MOS, Small Arms Repairman, he was mistakenly identified as a Corporal Missile Radar Repairman! He had no electronics training and our small arms were in perfect working order so he had nothing to do but mark time, waiting for his paperwork to be corrected.

Bill was older than most of us and had seen prior service in the USMC in the Korean War. He told us that in Korea, the troops got so tired of eating C-rations every meal, every day that they frequently "went fishing" in a nearby river. Standing on the riverbank, they would take a grenade, pull the pin and drop it in the water where it sank, exploded, and they would scoop up the fish that rose to the surface and take them to the Mess tent.

This had been going on for a few weeks with great success. One day a Marine had a Chinese Communist grenade and, after pulling its pin, dropped it into the water as usual. To everyone's horror it did not sink! The wooden handle kept it floating on the surface where it blew up and knocked everyone on their ass. After that, they only used US issue grenades.

 

[fubar57]

Did that at the last logging camp I was in. The superintendent gave us the key to the powder shack so we could blow up exposed rocks on the roads to make it easier for him to grade. On the way back we stopped at a bridge that had a large river pond underneath. Tied one stick of powder to a largish rock, lit the fuse and dropped it in. When the powder went off about a dozen or so Dolly Varden came belly up to the surface. Pretty quickly about half righted themselves and swam away. The others were dead. When we cut them open we saw that the blood line that runs down their spine had exploded and we figured these were the ones rally close to the blast. On the coast we called fishing with dynamite, using "CIL Wobblers"

 

[cvairwerks]

Fishing with "Hercules" lures.....

 

[Reluctant Poster]

Note that Meccano magazine was a boy's magazine. Presenting dynamite fishing as a fun thing to do would not go over well today.

 

[GrauGeist]

Fishing with "Hercules" lures.....

Yep, Hercules fishing lures work good.

Interesting fact: fiberglass boats are better than aluminum boats when doing that.
The aluminum resonates to the blast, unlike fiberglass, and any body part touching the aluminum (feet, hands, etc.) will go painfully numb.