If your choice is to only have one machine that is waterproof, and will work in most salt water conditions I would say you are limited to three machines, and they are the Tesoro Tiger Shark, Fisher CZ 20, and the Minelab Excaliber. I also live in North Texas, and own a Tesoro Stingray II, which is basically the same as the Tiger Shark, just the previous version. I chose this because it is one of the best all around machines ever built. It is light enough, and balanced enough to excel in land hunting, is very sensitve to gold, is waterproof to 200 ft. and works well in most water hunting conditions. There is no machine that is perfect for everything, but this is a close as it gets. The Minelab, and the Fisher have thier advantages too, but with land hunting important to the mix I would have to give the nod to Tesoro.