RED BLUFF — In more than 15 years as a fishing guide, John Kenyon has hooked plenty of fish and many other items, including anchors and lawn chairs. But what he pulled from the Sacramento River in his latest fishing trip required a bomb squad.
Kenyon said his latest catch Sunday was a home-made pipe bomb he found near the mouth of Battle Creek in Tehama County.
“My father-in-law had the net ready and we got it up towards the boat and it looked like an anchor so we put it away and got the line up and we got it right to the boat and realized, my father-in-law was like…That’s a bomb! Get everybody to the front of the boat,” Kenyon told KRCR-TV.
They pulled the device to the shoreline and waited for the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office to arrive, he said.
As they waited, another fisherman nearby pulled a second pipe bomb from the water.
Kenyon Thinks His Run-In With the Bombs Could Be From Other Fishermen Trying To Cut Corners
“We saw him hook something and he yelled at me, Jon we just hooked another bomb,” Kenyon said.
The Shasta County Bomb Squad was called in and later confirmed both devices were live pipe bombs and said they were destroyed on site.
Kenyon thinks his run-in with the bombs could be from other fishermen trying to cut corners.
“I think that they are probably trying to blow up salmon and knocking them out and trying to take them, that’s what I think,” he said.
The Tehama County Sheriff’s Office is advising fishermen in the area to be careful saying it is unknown if other devices are concealed in the water below.
