While some fisherman are probably used to reeling in an old boot, let alone an actual fish, one man in Coventry was stunned when he caught almost 60 mysterious engraved cubes believed to be connected to a Hindu prayer ritual.
Magnet fisherman Will Read was out sifting through shallow water with his two young sons on Friday 8 May when he came across the strange haul.
At first, he just thought they were useless bits of rubbish on the bottom of the River Sowe, but upon closer inspection he realised they were each engraved with detailed inscriptions.
Read, 38, told Coventry Live: "We were out magnet fishing as our daily activity in lockdown and we were at a relatively isolated spot.
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"At first we found keys and pennies and other bits and bobs and then we looked down and saw what we thought were tiles.
"I was live-streaming to friends on Facebook and I bent down and started picking them up. I also thought they might be rocks. I showed them to the camera and as I looked back more and more kept appearing."
Read, from Finham, cleaned up the small blocks and shared photos of them online to try and find out more detail.
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Based on the responses the post received on Reddit, Read believes the cubes may be inscribed with sanskrit symbols, and could be connected to a Hindu prayer ritual.
"There were all sorts of stories flying around at first, the cubes really captured people's imaginations," Will continued.
"What I learned is that they are Indian in origin and they show incantations for prayers which take effect when they are thrown in running water."
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One Reddit user wrote: "These are jyotish tokens with the Rahu yantra to be used for a Rahu Ranga Mantra recital and practice. Likely for personal gain.
"You are right that these are magic squares, but more specifically they are called Navagraha Yantras. There are traditionally 9 of them (one for each 'planet'), each having a distinct combination of 9 numbers. Together they can be combined to form their own 'Magic square'.
"You can read this really interesting mathematical study/presentation on them here."
But while online speculation can be helpful, it's not always particularly definitive.
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Instead, Will plans to get the cubes professionally appraised to see if they're worth anything.
He said: "I will get them appraised to find out more about what they are and how much they are worth. I could be sitting on an absolute pool of cash, or they could be worth nothing. But I won't make any decision on what to do with them until I've found out more about exactly what they are."
Having also found a silver coin with the cubes, Read also plans to go back to the river to see if there are anything else lurking in the dirt - though cleverly he's not telling anyone where exactly the spot is.
Featured Image Credit: Will Read