I've seen an old man man pull up many a fishing rods with one of those old school metal fish stingers that looks like a chain with safety pins on it. Tie one end to a rod with heavy line. Unsnap all the hooks so that they're all open to snag stuff. Cast it out and slowly drag it back along the bottom.

"When there was no fowl, we ate crawdad, when there was no crawdad, we ate sand."

"YOU ATE SAND!" - Raising Arizona