San Diego Detecting

[Captain Kirk]

Boss told me we are going to San Diego on Wednesday. I'll have all day Thursday to detect, where should I go? Don't know anything about the area.

Thanks

 

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[clv]

Lots, lots, and lots of deep sand. We need a good storm to remove at least a foot of sand.

 

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[jeepGold]

I went North out of San Diego for a change. Headed to Orange County beaches and pulled 4 rings and a ton of coin. Went out at 3am til 9am. VERY relaxing hitting the beach at night and MANY more opportunities since the beaches are simply riddled with things that I simply can't understand people leaving. Shoes, hats, shirts, coolers, you name it. Maybe it was the President's Day tards that were wasted but those are the types I love to follow after. I found FOUR sterling silver rings plated in gold and two handfuls of quarters, dimes, and nickels. I'll going back and doing the same routine on the next holiday...

 

[mswarbrick]

Wow! Good for you! I need to follow you around - sounds like you know what you're doing! Lol. Next vacation guess well head north too. Headed back to Phoenix today. We found everyone in San Diego very friendly...unless they were behind the wheel of a car. Then too many were downright nasty!

 

[Captain Kirk]

Yep, everyone was right. Got skunked at two different beaches. Hitting the parks this afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[mswarbrick]

Good luck Captain! We went Balboa Park yesterday but saw no place appropriate for metal detecting. It's more of a cultural place than a park. At least that's how it looked to me. Hit a small neighborhood park and found lots of clad. Pennies everywhere and several quarters cut cleanly in half. Very strange.

 

[jeepGold]

It's not strange for clad to be cut in 1/2 at a park. It's the lawn mowers. What's strange is the signals you get while pulling them. Takes your signals that you KNOW and turns them topsy terbie.
The way I see it right now for the beaches is that people aren't going into the water because it's not "hot" enough yet. Also the sand isn't eroded so that takes water detecting off my radar for a while. I hit the towel lines and about 1/2 way into an average tide line. A fresh find is no different than an old find. It's just sooner!

 

[mswarbrick]

Thanks for the helpful info! Sounds like I need to come in summer right after a holiday and a big storm. Interesting about the quarters. Mower is what I thought too at first but then someone in the park said someone came and tossed the cut quarters around. They were not mangled at all. They were cleanly cut. Never seen that before. Maybe your mowers have sharper blades?

 

[mswarbrick]

Hey JeepGold, I got one more question for you. How do you detect in the water? I tried. The surf was just too much. Could not swing the detector. I could barely keep my balance. The three days we were there it never let up. How do you do it?

 

[jeepGold]

For myself, I only go about stomach deep and if I can get out there at a low tide that's preferred. There are times when the water is calmer than other times and nearly wave less. That's when I venture a little deeper. It's not really worth going to deep as most finds right now are closer in and you can also just wait for a negative tide that happens twice a month or so. About a month Coronado had a -2.0 low tide around 2pm. It was weird how far the water receded out YET there were very little finds. As said by someone wise on here, low tide doesn't mean more gold it just means more opportunity to find it. I got my water machine at the very end of the season and now I have to wait several months before I can reap it's potential.

 

[mswarbrick]

Thanks JeepGold for the helpful insight. If never heard of negative tide. I'll have to read up on it. I was only out about knee deep, with waves sometimes hitting my waste. Maybe I needed to be out farther or maybe it was just a very windy day, but it was like being in a washing machine. Thanks again for your help.

 

[jeepGold]

Twice a month or so the moon cycle make a nice low tide. Not always is the case but sometimes you get a negative value. For example, most so cal beaches can reach a max high tide value of 8.5+ . Lately a.m low and high tides are much higher than the mid day p.m low and high tides. There are two high and two low tides per 24hrs, at least in so cal). You want the lowest tide so you can have more ground to hunt. Anything from a 0.0 to 2.0 is a decent low tide but occationally you will see a negative tide. Last week in Newport Beach it was a -1.1 ft tide and the water line was about 30 ft to the end of the pier. Pretty crazy... A month ago it was a -1.7 tide in Coronado and that was really crazy. Guys were out there clam hunting pulling up HUGE clams.....
Here's the website that I go to. http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Newportbeach/tides/latest

Basically just go to google, type what beach you wanna go to such as," Laguna Beach tide report", hit enter and find the surf-forecast site. It is the easiest to read..

 

[mswarbrick]

Thanks for the info!

 

[RustyGold]

Yes, the water just inside the impact zone, closer to the beach, can wear you out with the waves so it's best to do the water when it looks like a lake at low tide.
Even in OC the finds are scarce in the wet or wet sand. Plus the wet sand has been super mushy and hard to walk in.
The best area I've found lately, is the dry sand about twenty or thirty yards in from the towel line.
Best of luck guys!

 

[EMPIRE-CRC]

Stay out of North County beaches!

(Carlsbad-Del Mar) Dont waste Your time Over here.Dry sand Is well cleaned.Wet is Filled in with dredged sand! Oceanside Pier is the only spot left to metal detect.You are all better off at Parks.Good luck

 

[streetglide]

Sand Diego over Easter weekend

I was Detecting mission beach this Easter week end. The beach was packed with people. Lots of new coin drops. Found about$25.00 in change mostly new drops and weathered coins. The only bling I found was one small 925 ear ring. Tough on the eye balls during spring break. Good luck Joe

 

[jeepGold]

25 in change is pretty good for MB right now. I assume dry sand? The water is about as sterile as can be.

 

[streetglide]

Yes mostly dry sand. Hit a lot of pocket spills

 

[Jeff Harris]

Coronado Island. Hit the dry sand, I found a 21gr. 14k gold ring there years ago. Thought it was a cap from a 40oz. it was so big. The Hotel Del & the Shores condos are where the $$$ folks like to hang out. Good luck.