A passerby noticed their personal belongings on the river bank and alerted police
The bodies of a father and son were removed from the water at Cooper Bridge in Huddersfield on Saturday night at 7.20pm.
Police were called to the River Calder earlier on Saturday after a member of the public found unattended personal items next to the water at around 11.20am.
A set of car keys found at the scene were matched to a vehicle by police officers, who then visited an address in Pudsey at which the car was registered. They spoke to the man's wife who said the pair had gone magnet fishing, a type of fishing that uses a magnet to collect items from the water, that morning.
An underwater search team from Humberside found the bodies of the two men, aged 43 and 19.
West Yorkshire Police duty inspector Carlton Young said: "We received a call at 11.18am on Saturday from a concerned woman who had found some personal property at the side of the river, a jacket, camera and car keys.
"They were still there when she returned half an hour later or so and she raised the alarm to us.
"We traced the car keys for a Jaguar X-type to an address in Pudsey and the man’s wife told officers that they had left home at 6.30am to go magnet fishing.
"She had been expecting them back at lunchtime."
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said it is "unknown how they ended in there and enquiries are ongoing."
A police cordon is in place.
