Does anyone hunt in the water on winter storm eroded beaches?

[time4me]

It seems like all the posts (and videos) I see of winter storm eroded beach hunting is always wet sand hunting. Is there a reason other than cold water and air temps that people don't hunt the knee to chest deep water?

Is it because the sand that is pulled off the beach is now piled up in that area in the water say 1 to 10 feet out past the low tide water line?

Thanks for any input you may have.

Jim

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

It seems like all the posts (and videos) I see of winter storm eroded beach hunting is always wet sand hunting. Is there a reason other than cold water and air temps that people don't hunt the knee to chest deep water?

Is it because the sand that is pulled off the beach is now piled up in that area in the water say 1 to 10 feet out past the low tide water line?

Thanks for any input you may have.

Jim

One of the main reasons at least for many of us is the surf is not exactly easy to hunt in in the winter months, besides the water being very cold, surf is really rough durring the winter months lot of the times, makes for rough detecting. "Murphy's law" also plays in to the game, with it usually being rough on the weekends.

 

[time4me]

One of the main reasons at least for many of us is the surf is not exactly easy to hunt in in the winter months, besides the water being very cold, surf is really rough durring the winter months lot of the times, makes for rough detecting. "Murphy's law" also plays in to the game, with it usually being rough on the weekends.

Ok, let's assume you get a real calm winter day with air temps in the low to mid 60's. Swells are only knee to waist high.

Should one assume that there's reachable finds out in the knee to waist deep water, or is this area sanded in from the erosion off the beach?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

One of the main reasons at least for many of us is the surf is not exactly easy to hunt in in the winter months, besides the water being very cold, surf is really rough durring the winter months lot of the times, makes for rough detecting. "Murphy's law" also plays in to the game, with it usually being rough on the weekends.

Ok, let's assume you get a real calm winter day with air temps in the low to mid 60's. Swells are only knee to waist high.

Should one assume that there's reachable finds out in the knee to waist deep water, or is this area sanded in from the erosion off the beach?

Due to the tidal changes in the winter months, the sand bars are tore up and the sand moves over to cover the troughs where a lot of the targets have collected. In the winter months there is more sand covering the beaches and low areas where gold seems to concentrate, but it is certainly possible to find targets. Rip Tides and heavy wave action from low pressure areas, storms, winds and Nor'easterns cause cuts and low areas that we look for.

I try to hunt in the water looking for holes casued by rip currents when possible, but due to wave action it is not always possible, I then look for low areas, cuts and hunt the wet sand....

 

[bootybay]

Myself.. at the jersey shore, if its NOT real rough, I will venture out to just above my knees as long as I have waders on.. but, we here have a terrible undertow and honestly I am afraid of that.. so I stick to mostly knee deep and less..

 

[digum smacks]

funny you ask that.i ask myself that often,ive been hunting awhile and figured 90%of people who metal detect are old folks and 90% of them wont go in to the water if they have to put on waders or a wet suit.with constant bad weather in the winter months means sanded in beaches

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I hunted Daytona Beach last Friday, I spent over an hour in the surf chest deep testing out my Excal with the WOT coil mod, water was very cold even with my long sleeve farmer john on. I found a total of 1 pull tab in the water, and it was deep....Good news was the mod worked perfectly, Excal was very stable...

East coast beaches here in my area are sanded in real bad at the moment. Could really use a Nor'Eastern or 2 or maybe a sub-tropical storm to move some of that sand................

 

[Tom_in_CA]

My experience here in CA, on the beaches at the ocean, is that the time spent doing it is not worth the returns. You will be constantly battling waves, trying to swing, isolate, dig, etc.... Why not just wait for a super minus tide day, and simply WALK out there? I find no more targets out in the wading-deep water (on our central and northern CA beaches anyhow), verses at the low water mark. Sand is not stationary, and targets move around (especially during storms and such). So just because people wade and swim, and are thus likely loosing more jewelry *in* the water, as opposed to *outside* of the water, doesn't necessarily mean that the jewelry out there always stays out there. There might be some of mother nature's pocket work, that might put heavier items out there in the rolling surf. But those things could've been brought down from up high, and aren't necessarily down there, because they were lost there. I know some hunters who think that is the best zone during receding tide/erosion, and will wade out to hunt it. But Lord help them if they're battling 15 to 20 ft. seas. Perhaps down in the calmer So. CA waters, or Bay type swimming pool conditions, but here in central CA where I'm at, even if you could withstand the rushing surf (holding on for dear life), you'd get very little detecting time in, because you'd spend all your time waiting for the water to recede, so you can make mad dashes and swings with your coil, before the next wave deluges you.

I sometimes fight surf if I feel there's heavy targets (lead and thus gold potential) out in the ebbing surf, but I certainly wouldn't call it "wading", as the water is going in and out, so it's never one constant height.

After the right storm conditions, there is no "rule of thumb" that says the targets are necessarily "out in the water". There can be nice rings up in the mid-band wet sand parallel, just as they can be at the base of a cut, or out in the water.

Now for undisturbed freshwater hunting, where the water level doesn't change much, and it's true that the rings in the water, will remain in the water, then yes, wade.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

We wade in the surf on the East coast and we do find more jewelry in the Spring to Fall months in the water, but I highly doubt I would do the same wading on the West coast, and for the very same reasons you say TOM....