Rippled sea floor vs. a flat bottom

[Crunchyhippo]

When you go out in the water and the sandy bottom is rippled, does that mean it's sanded in or something and not going to be particularly productive? I went out this past weekend, and the sand was rippled under my feet, and I didn't get a single hit after two hours. Not even trash. I wonder if it was because I hit the tide at the wrong time, and all the good stuff sank to China or something.

 

[Crunchyhippo]

Bump.

 

[philber]

I dont water hunt beaches, but I believe you are correct. Soft, fluffy sand moves around easily. You are looking for stiffer, almost hard pack sand that has settled and compressed. Hopefully a knowledgeable hunter chimes in and clarifies this

 

[Crunchyhippo]

I dont water hunt beaches, but I believe you are correct. Soft, fluffy sand moves around easily. You are looking for stiffer, almost hard pack sand that has settled and compressed. Hopefully a knowledgeable hunter chimes in and clarifies this

I wonder if this is the reason why I wasn't finding anything in the water, since I was detecting at high tide and the sand was mostly rippled then? Is that a normal phenomenon at high tide?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I wonder if this is the reason why I wasn't finding anything in the water, since I was detecting at high tide and the sand was mostly rippled then? Is that a normal phenomenon at high tide?

That is normal for Clearwater area.

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Ripples are a function of wave action. velocity, amplitude, wavelength ... all that jazz.

Go to any place after different conditions and see different ripples. Or none at all. Changes in wind/wave direction also interact with the local geomorphology resulting in various effects.

Back in college days one of my buds did his thesis on grain size distributions from the shore depending on wave action. It is an active transient system.

 

[OBN]

Honestly, I don't think the bottom makes much difference if your fresh drop hunting. From what you have said.. seems you have a lot of hunters and nothing is going to have a chance to sink before it is found. I have a couple spots like that where the places are hunted by many and every thing is right on top.. its a matter of who gets their coil over it first.

 

[Crunchyhippo]

That is normal for Clearwater area.

Hmm. So, does this mean that at low tide, the sand under my feet shouldn't be rippled?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Hmm. So, does this mean that at low tide, the sand under my feet shouldn't be rippled?

If your feet sink in the sand when walking it is sanded in, if you dont sink when walking it isn't sanded in, ignore the ripples...

 

[Sand Swinger]

I wonder if this is the reason why I wasn't finding anything in the water, since I was detecting at high tide and the sand was mostly rippled then? Is that a normal phenomenon at high tide?

IMO, there seems to be no rhyme or reason when it comes to ocean sand. I've hit a beach one day, all looked normal. The next day, a deep cut has formed, where'd that come from? The day after, the cut is gone, where'd it go? Sand can be hard, can be soft, there's ripples, there's flat sand, there's trough's, cuts and bowls. Sand is constantly moving, changing shape, being pulled from the beach, then being deposited back onto the beach. All depends on the tides, wind direction, currents, storms, etc.

Keep in mind, the water that you're searching at high tide, will probably be wet sand when the tide is low. If the tide is low and I'm out in the water up to my knees, when the tide comes in, I'll probably be in waist or chest high water. Lots of goodies are deposited in waist & chest high waters, but personally, due to my PTSD incident in 1975 when seeing the movie JAWS at the beach, I don't like going in waist/chest deep water, at least in dark/murky waters of MD & DE. Clear Florida waters where I can see could be a different story. But that's why we all say that the best time to hunt ocean water is during low tide. You can get further out than during high tide and you'd only have to go out into knee deepish water, because that knee deep water will turn into waist/chest high water once the tide comes in, lol.

 

[pepperj]

IMO, there seems to be no rhyme or reason when it comes to ocean sand. I've hit a beach one day, all looked normal. The next day, a deep cut has formed, where'd that come from? The day after, the cut is gone, where'd it go? Sand can be hard, can be soft, there's ripples, there's flat sand, there's trough's, cuts and bowls. Sand is constantly moving, changing shape, being pulled from the beach, then being deposited back onto the beach. All depends on the tides, wind direction, currents, storms, etc.

Keep in mind, the water that you're searching at high tide, will probably be wet sand when the tide is low. If the tide is low and I'm out in the water up to my knees, when the tide comes in, I'll probably be in waist or chest high water. Lots of goodies are deposited in waist & chest high waters, but personally, due to my PTSD incident in 1975 when seeing the movie JAWS at the beach, I don't like going in waist/chest deep water, at least in dark/murky waters of MD & DE. Clear Florida waters where I can see could be a different story. But that's why we all say that the best time to hunt ocean water is during low tide. You can get further out than during high tide and you'd only have to go out into knee deepish water, because that knee deep water will turn into waist/chest high water once the tide comes in, lol.

Do you detect the cuts and bowls?

 

[Sand Swinger]

Do you detect the cuts and bowls?

Yes sir, absolutely. Check out this video of Merrill from Detecting NYC interviewing Terry Shannon at a sponsored hunt down in FL. There's a part in the video where they used dye in the water to show a riptide. Terry also discusses cuts, bowls, reading the beach, and lots more. Keep an eye out for the part (big tip) where he mentions detecting at the base of dunes.

 

[pepperj]

Yes sir, absolutely. Check out this video of Merrill from Detecting NYC interviewing Terry Shannon at a sponsored hunt down in FL. There's a part in the video where they used dye in the water to show a riptide. Terry also discusses cuts, bowls, reading the beach, and lots more. Keep an eye out for the part (big tip) where he mentions detecting at the base of dunes.

Experience trumps luck when it comes reading a site.
Land or water and everything in-between.

I often wonder why some can go to a like minded site. Say a beach and dig, dig, dig multiple targets trash/coins/a nice keeper.

Yet another one can strike basically out, swinging for long periods of time, and not getting many target.
I hunted beaches fairly often during the winter months while in Florida.
I certainly dug up many target from just the waterline to the dunes or greenery.
That was some years back, but so was the technology.

 

[Sand Swinger]

Experience trumps luck when it comes reading a site.
Land or water and everything in-between.

I often wonder why some can go to a like minded site. Say a beach and dig, dig, dig multiple targets trash/coins/a nice keeper.

Yet another one can strike basically out, swinging for long periods of time, and not getting many target.
I hunted beaches fairly often during the winter months while in Florida.
I certainly dug up many target from just the waterline to the dunes or greenery.
That was some years back, but so was the technology.

Totally agree. Luck is not dependable, can't be predicted. Personally, I'll take experience over luck every time. Experience doesn't automatically guarantee success, after all, we're still dealing with nature, which is always unpredictable, but experience does guarantee that our odds are greatly increased over a newbie, or even an experienced detectorist who has never taken the time to learn from others, read posts & asked questions on the forums, read beach hunting tips books, watched videos from other experienced guys, etc. Personally, it's also very gratifying to hear other very experienced detectorists confirm a couple of theories/hunches/ideas I've had over the years based on my personal experience:

1. Objects do move in the water. I experienced this in 2012 when I found a ring about 10 - 12 miles from where the person lost it, just a couple months before. Terry Shannon confirms this, along with Mark Paddack & another detectorist named Rick on the Treasure Talk weekly detecting report video on YouTube.

2. Since I discovered in 2012 that objects in ocean water do move, I’ve had a theory/hunch/idea that the areas outside of the main beach, i.e., the desolate areas in-between beaches could hold goodies. Since targets can move, objects dropped at the main beach may no longer be there but may have travelled up/down the coast & may have landed in those desolate beach areas where nobody searches. Terry Shannon confirmed this in the video I posted above.

3. Disappearing signals. I encountered this 14 years ago during my first year of beach hunting. I’d get a good signal, dig a scoop, still in the hole. Dig another scoop, still in the hole. Dig a 3rd scoop, no signal in the hole, so ran my coil over the sand I pulled from the hole but no signal. Where did it go. It wasn’t in the pile or the hole. This happened over and over until one day I got so frustrated, that I jammed my scoop back into the hole & grabbed another scoopful, dumped it, and low & behold, the target was now in the pile. Turns out it was a coin and my theory is that it was probably lying flat when I first got the signal, but jamming my scoop into the hole moved the coin from lying flat to standing upright. The surface area of a coin lying flat is much greater than the surface area of the edge of the coin, and when the coin is deep and is now standing, the detector couldn't reacquire the target, so the signal disappeared, but the target is actually still in the hole. Once I figured out what was happening, I always go back to take that extra scoopful of sand. But lots of guys, who may depend on luck & not experience, wouldn’t know what was happening, and would probably just refill the hole and move on.