I hit 4 beaches earlier in December, all within easy driving of Orlando. Daytona, New Smyrna, Cocoa and Melbourne. I had best luck in Daytona, try in front of the higher end hotels. Cocoa is closest and was ok for finding some coins and some jewelry drops. Further south I found lots of other detectorists. One beach north of Melbourne in 1 hour there were 3 other MDing dudes and shovel tracks from some others that were recently there. I found 2 pennies there... not even foil or can slaw, but any day MDing is better than nothing.
Hunted the beaches just south of Sebastian inlet down to Wabasso where Disney is, from the 12th to the 17th of December. Beaches were pretty much sanded in. Had a good time looking but had no luck finding anything of value. You might get lucky on the beach at Wabasso finding recent drops. Remember hunting in the water is illegal!! Good luck!
I live in fort pierce which is in the heart of where the 1715 plate ships wrecked. out of 15 ships 7 are left un found although 1 was possibly found recently and only has the name " power plant wreck" due to its close proximity to our power plant. most of the area's shore lines have been renurished due to the hurricanes in 2004. you have to really look for the compacted sand unless ya like digging up fishing weights. some people get lucky every now and then but not very often. the best time to look is after a hurricane washes all the tax money/ renourishment sand back out to sea. there are also many places to look on land for more recent items pertaining to the Seminole wars and armed occupation act. the whole area is rich in history and culture daing back to the ays Indians that predate the Spanish. in general all of south florida is good for searching / and history buff's but don't plan on getting rich on your first search, although it might happen. another place to consider that is rich in more modern history is the banks of the peace river I know many of people that have found barbers and the such along that river. to clear it up yes its illegal to search in the waters of the beaches, you have to stay 3000 foot radius from any search lease. which is most of the coast. most people just follow the rule " from the toe of the dune line to the mean low tide level. so with this being said the best time is low tide. florida was horrible at keeping historic places in the 1800's-early 1900's so what iv'e been doing lately is trying to research and recover the old Seminole war forts that have fallen to the land grabs for grove acreage. to sum it up all of Florida is a good searching area, but do a little research on the lands history and changing environment before you go out unless you just want to find keys and such. im a new member here and really enjoy the info everyone shares on here so id like to say thank you to everyone.
we were at wabasso, vero, turtle trail, and bonsteel last week. found .36, a couple of fishing weights, a lot of bottle caps, and a fake reale.
Good Luck and have fun!!