wouldn't go without it!
Let me start by saying the original reason I was interested in a sifter was really just to have a place to put my scoop. Its heavy and after a day hauling it around I could scratch the back of my knees without bending over! The sifter fixed this problem 100% I don't carry it anymore it floats behind me. I quickly learned a couple of other reasons that turned out to be just as important.
First it almost completely eliminates time spent looking for targets. This increases coil swing time, thus more targets. Locate a target, scoop it, check the hole, if you got it dump scoop, bottom media & target in sifter and move on. Wave action does the rest. Every so often I simply pick out my finds.
If I'm hunting inland lakes instead of lake michigan I fill my holes. In lake michigan the holes are self filling, sometimes faster than I like! On inland lakes gravel and larger media won't filter thru sifter but spread out evenly, over entire bottom of sifter that is when I use my vibra probe (waterproof pinpointer)to quickly locate and recover targets. Also on inland lakes that have marl/clay bottoms just dump it in the sifter and eventually its gone leaving only the target. If you have ever tried to make this stuff dissolve in a scoop you will love a sifter!
Second my recovery rate on very small targets has gotten considerably better & faster. I'm talking about earrings, charms & those pesky small round sinkers. Even though the scoop that I use has small holes at the back (1/4") I believe that shaking bottom media around in a scoop just encourages the small stuff to find a hole and slip thru. I can remember having to make several attempts on small targets that made it thru the scoop, quite often never recovering them at all. Now the only time I don't recover small stuff on the first go round is if it is in bottom of scoop and falls thru b4 I can get load dumped in sifter. Also I now recover small round sinkers that quite frankly I would of never recovered while shaking around in a scoop, they look so much like small gravel, looking at them isn't enough to identify them, but the vibra probe picks them out very quickly.
It turns out that my detector (cz-20) does not like the vibra probe, drives the detector & me crazy. Well it takes about a minute for the probe to shut off after last detecting metal. I simply put the holster for the probe on my sifter. After using probe I put in holster and start hunting again because the sifter is connected to me with a short length of rope (approx. 8') I'm out of range for the probes signal. Also this makes probe very convenient when needed. I have 3/16 holes in the sifter that I use but my hunting partner has 1/4" holes. there doesn't seem to be any differance in small stuff recovered.
I also put a water bottle, a large mesh bag for junk & my camera on my little floating island. It will hold all of the above, several full scoops of bottom media, my scoop, my detector, and me if needed!
I clip the sifter to my scoop and carry over my shoulder for the trip to the water. Once in the water you won't know its there unless you're in the wave break zone on big water, in a river with a strong current, or it's very windy. All of these issues are easily overcome with some simple modifications to hunting style i.e. hunting into wind or current or removing targets b4 entering wave break zone in case of accidental sifter overturn.
I wouldn't consider going water detecting without the sifter any more than I would consider going without my scoop!
HH Steve
