YOUNGSTOWN — A family of three gathered at Mill Creek Park recently, as the son cast a magnet into Lake Glacier.

Joe, Debbie and Ryan Danyi of Poland look for ways to spend time together, and their latest adventure is magnet fishing.

“We try to get ourselves into really different, unconventional things,” Joe Danyi said.

Tying a strong magnet — the two Joe and Ryan use can pull 1,200 pounds and 1,500 pounds — to a long cord, father and son throw the magnet into water and slowly pull it back, hoping it unearths something in the muck below the surface.

When pulling into the parking lot last week on Price Road at the park on the city’s West Side, a tank standing more than 4 feet tall could be seen.

That was what young Ryan Danyi had caught.

“I was blown away,” he said.

BIG CATCH

Recounting what happened, the fourth-grader from Montessori School of the Mahoning Valley said he kept throwing the magnet into the water.

It kept catching something near rocks underwater, and each time he and his dad threw the magnet back out, the item seemed to loosen.

“I couldn’t move it” once they found out it was a tank, Ryan said. “My dad pulled it out.”

Giggling, Ryan said that the tank was heavy. “I thought he was going to go into the water.”

Ryan has also caught a BB gun the first time the duo went magnet fishing.

Ryan said he threw the magnet back into the water after his dad told him it was time to go. “He said, ‘You have two more left and we’re going to go, so make them good.'”

That’s when the magnet latched onto the gun, Joe Danyi said.

The patriarch noted that he’s caught less-exciting items, such as fishing lures and pieces of metal.

He is holding out that they’ll find something from the Industrial Age, “something of historical significance.”

In his spare time, Joe Danyi said he’s going to try restoring the tank to learn a little more about it.

FILMING FOR FUN

Debbie Danyi is in charge of videoing Ryan, so that later the family can edit footage for Ryan’s new YouTube channel.

She said magnet fishing “is a lot of fun because it’s a family adventure. We love family outings.”

During an outing to Lake Evans in Poland, the family saw a soaring bald eagle.

She said that had she not been there, the emotion “would not have been the same” if Joe and Ryan had simply told her about it.

By coincidence, a bald eagle flew by the family again on its recent outing to Lake Glacier.

Joe came up with the idea to try magnet fishing after watching videos on YouTube.

Ryan said they decided to give it a try after seeing random things people have pulled out of water, such as a motorcycle.

Ryan said he thinks he catches the bigger items because he drags the magnet slowly, and not because he has patience.

“Mainly because I can’t drag it as fast” as his dad, he said.

Joe added that Lake Glacier, specifically right above the waterfall, seems to be a great place to do magnet fishing. That’s where they found the tank and gun.

Debris, he said, “is jammed in the mud.”

Writing about his trip magnet fishing later that day for a school assignment, Ryan said he posted the photo of the tank after catching it.

“I’m definitely going to talk about it” when he gets to go back to school, he said.