Beginners luck

Have you ever noticed how some beginners have the most incredible good fortune.
People making incredible finds who have only been metal detecting a short time. 
In my opinion, the main reason why beginners are able to make incredible finds is because they are newbies. 
I use tales of fantastic "beginners luck" as motivation to keep thinking and treasure hunting outside the box. 
I really do not believe there is such a thing as beginners luck, novice beach and shallow water hunters make the find because they are not preconditioned to search in a certain way. 
They have probably never heard of the list of things that you are supposed to do by detecting forum experts and bloggers before you can find treasure.
Search two hours before low tide, use a super large search coil, dig everything,  etc
Beginners have no sense of beach hunting right or wrongs, they are prone to do what other beach and shallow water hunters have forgotten to do.
They go treasure hunting regardless of the conditions or place they are about to search. 
With no preconceived best things to do and best places to search on the beach, they go out and have so called beginners luck.
Most times in obvious places that seasoned beach or water hunters would probably have over looked anyway.
I always avoid box hunting and try hard to hold on to a beginners simple view of beach and shallow water hunting.  
Maybe that is why I am so lucky, I never do the expected and think like a beginner with a free mind. 
the next time you go to the beach, free your mind and try thinking outside the box.
Ask yourself where would a beginner have beginners luck? 
It is probably in an area on the beach or inside the water where others would not think to search.

Keep moving

Try to move around as much as possible, avoid going back to the same beach over and over again just because you made a good find there in the past. 
You can always tell a beach or shallow water hunter that moves around a lot, by the variety of their finds.
People who specialize in finding one type of find, such as old silver coins or gold rings often go back to their comfort zone of a beach they are familiar with.  
Weekend warriors often make this mistake, taking the easy approach of following the detecting crowd to the same beach every Saturday or Sunday morning.
Searching the same beach day after day in the hope of finding another old silver coin is like waking up in the movie Groundhog Day. 
This kind of narrow thinking leads to a lack of variety in your metal detecting finds.
I love searching for Spanish silver reales on shipwreck beaches in Florida, I know the beaches that produce them but I never go back day after day regardless of the conditions. 
I make my Spanish treasure coin hunting a part of my bigger beach and shallow water treasure hunting plan, searching a variety of beaches leads to a variety of metal detecting finds.
If you want to make good finds on a regular basis, you are going to have to stalk and chase those good metal detecting finds down.
I firmly believe that you will find this a better beach and water hunting strategy than waiting for treasure to show up on the same beach every day. 

These three gold chains were found on three different beaches, two of the gold chains were found on beaches that are not detected as often as larger tourist beaches in the area. 
As you can see by this photo, moving around is a good gold jewelry hunting strategy. 
Its tempting to go back to the same beach when you find something, even more tempting when you find something else.  
Before you know it, you are like a gambler playing the slot machines feeding money into the slots because you got a little payout.
Just like the slot machines, beaches that do not pay out very often are best left for small time gamblers.
Play to win on several beaches, where there is not always a beach hunter waiting for a different result every day. 

How to read the beach and water.

When people ask me how I am able to find treasure on a regular basis on some of the most heavily hunted beaches in the world, my answer is simple. 
I combine my basic metal detecting techniques with my beach and water reading skills to out hustle the competition for metal detecting finds. 
Hard work, determination and using your metal detector correctly will greatly increase your finds, but make no mistake, beach and water reading skills are very important. 
No amount of pounding the beach and water will work if you do not know how to put yourself in position to find treasure. 
Reading the beach and shallow water is a treasure hunting art form by itself.  
I remember back in the old days seeing veteran beach hunters walking onto beaches, looking around on the lower beach and walking straight off. 
It took me many years to figure out why those old timers took a pass while I wasted my time searching sanded in conditions. 
Now I am the wily beach hunter that surveys the lower beach, knowing what to look for before getting my search coil wet. 
Today I am proud to announce the upcoming release of my latest beach and shallow water metal detecting book, aptly called "How To Read The Beach And Water."

90 pages of beach and shallow water reading advice, including my personal detecting techniques and tips for searching prime beach and shallow water hunting situations. 
I will be putting more information on my website and Facebook page in a couple of days. 
Whether you are a beach or shallow water hunter, you need to be able to recognize and know how to take advantage of prime treasure hunting situations and hot spots. 
A combination of a prime beach hunting situation on an old hot spot of mine, rewarded me with 50 pieces of gold jewelry in a 22 day span towards the end of last year.

These gold jewelry finds were just a few of the 6.5 ounces of scrap gold found last November.
Never under estimate the importance of beach and shallow water reading skills, the more you know the less you have to rely on luck. 

Old news

Always try to do your own research when it comes to reading your local beaches. 
Relying on old news of cuts or eroded sections of beaches from local detecting bloggers and metal detecting forum posters is just that, old news!
Nine times out of ten, the people reporting a cut or beach erosion have already hammered the site to death. 
The icing on the cake is a posted find that was made when the person first discovered the cut, usually the day or so before they posted a prime beach hunting situation.
Photographs of  beach erosion posted by a bloggers or detecting forum member get passed around and quickly searched by people lurking for such an opening. 
In my opinion,  always rely on your own local beach reconnaissance, its always the best way.
If you want to get serious about finding treasure on a consistent basis,  you have to get to know your own local beaches.
Most importantly, you have to take the time to learn what winds and surf effects your local beaches.
Try checking out beach webcams, and try checking in on your local beaches more regularly, even if you do not have time to metal detect. 
At least you know will get a better feel for the area and who knows maybe you will see something you can act upon a little later.  
If you don't do your own recon and gain beach and water reading skills, you are at the mercy of forum posters and local beach bloggers. 
The people who are out on the beaches hammering places before posting teasing photos of beach cuts, and of course mysteriously not blogging or posting until a day or so after a storm. 
I know I have probably written this before, but the best time to go treasure hunting is anytime.
Other beach and shallow water hunters beach ratings are just that, other peoples beach ratings. 
Discover your own prime beach and shallow water hunting situations, by getting beach savvy and knowing what to expect from high winds, high surf or a combination of both on your local beaches. 
Treasure awaits the person with the keys to unlocking Davy Jones locker,  never wait for someone to show you the door and hand you the keys. 

The scoop on scoops

Part time beach and shallow water hunters like myself, need to make the most of their treasure hunting time.
It makes treasure hunting sense that the more targets you are able to recover, the more chance you will have of finding something good.
The less fatigued you are while metal detecting, the longer you will be able to stay out on the beach searching for treasure.
There is no way around the fact that a beach and shallow water hunter needs a long handled beach scoop.
Preferably two long handled scoops, a stainless steel one for water hunting and an aluminum one for beach hunting.
You can tell a lot about the competition on the beach by the scoop they are using, a shiny new detector and a coffee can size sand scoop are not a good combination. 
Choose a scoop that can handle the local beaches you search,  if you need a stainless steel lip welding on an aluminum scoop, you need a stainless steel scoop! 
I own three long handled scoops, an aluminum for dry sanding, a stainless steel for water hunting and a lighter stainless steel for wet sanding. 
My favorite scoop is this stainless steel T Rex open style basket scoop, perfect for beach and shallow water hunting.  

I scooped up this $150.00 pair of Rayban sunglasses using my T Rex in the shallow water recently,  open basket style scoops help to cut down on damage to good finds recovered on the beach and in the water.  

One large bite out of the sand with a large open style scoop basket is better than having to take two or three stabs at recovering a target using an enclosed style scoop basket. 
You invest a lot of money on waterproof metal detectors, why not make things easier by investing in the right kind of target recovery tools. 

TMI

The initials TMI stand for "too much information" and it can come back to bite you if you are not careful.  
As you probably know by now if you have been reading my blog or my treasure hunting books, I do things a little differently to the majority of beach and shallow water hunters. 
I lean more towards the treasure hunting strategy of finding gold and making sure I give myself another shot at recovering more gold the next time I return to the same site. 
It is fun to share your best treasure find stories and photographs with other beach and shallow water hunters, but if you want to protect your productive sites, you have to be careful not to let your guard down. 
Unless you like company and sharing your hot spots with many other people, always make an effort not to include easy to identify beach markers in your beach photos.  
I never tell anyone the exact location of anything I find unless it has an historical connection to a time or place, like my Spanish 1715 fleet emerald treasure ring. 
My second favorite beach find, my 1836 gold five dollar piece came from acting on careless beach hunting information posted on an internet metal detecting site. 

After dinner one evening with my laws, I was checking out a beach hunting forum on my iphone, an internet site that has a few Florida members who post finds. 
I remember thinking Bingo! as I read one post and told the wife I just had to go beach hunting that night after returning home.  
I recognized the unusual find and I recognized the area in question from a few careless details given by the poster on the metal detecting forum. 
I recovered some amazing treasure finds following the clues left by the other beach hunter, it took me 22 straight evenings searching 3 hours at a time to completely search the area to make sure I left nothing behind. 
As you can see by the photo above of just a small few of the artifacts recovered,  it was worth the hard work making the most of this eroded section of beach. 
The icing on the cake was the very same person posting that it was impossible to discover an old gold coin on a beach down this way. 
Be aware that there will always be someone lurking ready to take advantage of too much information when posting finds on the internet. 

Diversify

As you can see by these photos, I try to make the most of the area I live in by going exploring and trying out of the way beaches.  

Just because you are a beach or shallow water hunter, does not mean you have to go to the same beaches all the time. 
During slow sanded in conditions is the best time to try remote out of the way beaches.
It is amazing some of the stuff you can find on remote beaches, you wonder how the those objects ended up in the middle of nowhere. 
If you do not have any mangroves or off shore islands to explore, try inland freshwater sites in search of old swimming holes.
Taking a chance and trying other forms of beach or shallow water hunting charges your treasure hunting batteries.
The risks are minimal if you venture out during sanded in conditions or if you are in the midst of a finds slump. 
The rewards are great if you are lucky enough to find a beach or swimming hole that has probably never seen a metal detector. 

Doing a little research on the area you live in should provide you with a few good treasure hunting leads to follow. 
I know of many people that got into beach and water hunting and found some really nice finds in areas that the average jewelry and coin hunter would never have thought to search. 
Sometimes beach and water hunters can be there own worst enemies by going to the same sites over and over again.
Try to explore and add new sites, no matter how many productive sites you already have. 
Beach and shallow water hunting is a bit like investing in the stock market, the more diverse portfolio you have, the more chance you have of making a profit. 
Remember why it is called treasure hunting, you have to hunt for the treasure! 

Moving ferrous objects to find gold

I used a little shallow water hunting trick last week to find a 1/2 ounce chunk of 18K gold in a rocky stretch of shallow water.
When searching an area with large ferrous objects on a productive beach, try to move the ferrous objects out of the way if you can. 
I do this all the time, its just easier to move clumps of iron behind you, just in case the ferrous clump is masking gold. 
The 18K "Jimenez" ring in this photo was found after moving a large corroding iron bar behind me to an area that had already been searched. 

The gold ring was being masked by the large piece of rotting iron on a heavily hunted South Florida tourist beach. 
Obviously the full time water hunting guys who search that beach every day did not get the memo to move iron. 
Sometimes the corroding object in the water does not have to be big to make a difference.
I wonder how many shallow water hunters step to one side when they see a beer or soda can in the water.
A savvy beach or shallow water hunter pushes the can to one side and searches the area, better still why not take the can off the beach. 
I found my first Spanish silver eight reale because I took the time to move a couple of beer cans off the top of another Treasure coast beach hunters spoil piles.  
After sweeping my search coil between the two dug holes, I recovered a silver piece of eight that had obviously been masked out by the two discarded beer cans. 
If you do not want to end up on the wrong end of another persons favorite find story , fill your holes and take your trash home with you. 

Hitting rock bottom

The term "hitting rock bottom" can be a good thing for a shallow water hunter, I have searched this little rocky patch of shallow water two times and found 3 gold rings on my last two water hunts. 
Knowledge of your local beaches is the key to making the most of a good treasure hunting situation, when you know how certain weather patterns effect your local beaches you can be Johnny on the spot if there are rocks in the water. 
Lost objects sink into the sand and keep sinking until they hit a hard layer where they can sink no further. 
This 1/2 ounce 10K class ring made its way into a pocket in the rocks and waited for me to come along with my CTX 3030. 

I used my dive boot to fan the sand away and saw the gold ring before bending down to pick it up out of its final resting place.
I was using a small 6 inch search coil and collapsed my metal detector shaft to maneuver around the rocks and help with pin pointing.
A shallow water hunter may miss even a large gold target like this if they cannot get their search coil around the rocks. 
Anytime you see an area in the shallow water with rocks , you have an excellent treasure hunting opportunity if you use the correct equipment to search it. 
Many rocky areas in the shallow water are overlooked by other beach and shallow water hunters because of the time and effort to takes to recover targets. 
Instead of spending hours metal detecting along beaches in sanded in conditions, put down your long handled beach scoop and try a little "rock hopping" in the shallows. 
A flat head screw driver, a small hand scoop and a gloved hand for fanning are excellent target recovery tools in rocky stretches of water. 
A versatile shallow water hunter using a versatile metal detector will always find a way to go home with gold.

Extra large search coils

I see more and more beach hunters using extra large 14 inch plus search coils on the beach and in the water.
In my opinion, using such large search coils for all of your beach and shallow water hunting needs is not a good thing.  
Large search coils are like pulse induction metal detectors, they are just too situational to be used all the time on anything other than trash free beach sites.
Dont get me wrong I do use extra large search coils, just not all the time. 
I use my CTX 3030 and can change search coils within minutes, the 17 X 13 is a monster size search coil.  
My monster accessory has a time and a place to shine, but only when I know using it gives me a big advantage.
Many people get too carried away because of the increased competition for finds or prolonged periods of sanded in conditions.  
Mistakenly believing that they must use the extra large search coil all the time in order to find anything at all.
If it is not a massive search coil, it is a pair of magic headphones or a bag of magic beans ! 
No accessory is going to take care of the competition for finds or sanded in conditions,  learning to use your stock search coil and tuning your metal detector to maximize sensitivity and depth will. 
My view is that if a beach or water hunter cannot be successful with a stock size search coil, they have little chance of success using a very large search coil.
The ground coverage of the extra large search coil is good but a poor trade off when you put iron masking and the risk of missing small gold on the beach into the equation.
Some of the most sought after jewelry finds for a beach or water hunter are gold ladies rings with stones and gold chains. 
These kind of finds take skill to discover with a regular size search coil, they are much more difficult to find when you increase the size of your search coil by several inches.
It is not only small gold jewelry that you have to worry about missing when using the extra large search coil on beaches all the time.
After erosion has taken place, a beach is often littered with small ferrous trash that causes iron masking.
These Spanish shipwreck artifacts were found last year, the old hinge and two ship spikes were found using my large search coil. 

I did the opposite to what most hunters would do, I  switched to the stock size coil to make sure no good targets were being masked by the many ferrous nails in the area.  
The Spanish 1715 fleet silver one reale was found not long after changing search coils, because I understood the need for depth and the need for target separation. 

Tidy sweeping

If you want a simple way of increasing your jewelry finds on the beach and in the water,  try shortening your sweeps. 
Not over extending your sweep will also help you to have more control over your search coil, leading to increased metal detector sensitivity and depth. 
Maintaining a narrow "lane" helps to prevent your search coil from raising up at the end of the sweeping motion. 
Notice how I refer to the actual metal detecting technique as sweeping, not swinging the metal detector. 
You also get the best results when your search coil is slightly scuffing the surface of the sand on every sweep.
Installing super long straight shafts and extra large search coils on metal detectors is the trendy thing to do at the moment. 
Beach hunting code for "Im not finding anything so it must be over there and deeper."
A better option is to improve your search techniques by narrowing your sweep and concentrating on keeping your coil close to the sand, to get maximum depth and to thoroughly cover the search area. 
I repeat, nothing will find you more jewelry than a slow methodical sweep that does not allow your search coil to tilt up at the end of each sweep.
Use a moderately extended straight shaft to balance the weight of a heavy machine, not to create a way to cover more ground.
I never sweep more than 2 feet past my shoulders, when I scoop a target I rarely have to step out of my search lane. 
Using an extra long shaft and having to walk over to the side to scoop a target will  lead to missing valuable targets, not to mention the effects of iron masking created by using an extra large search coil. 
Learn to sweep your metal detector with the standard size search coil correctly, before trying to increase your finds by trying to cover the whole beach for deeper targets. 
Smart beach and shallow water hunters concentrate on things they can control, the gold that is already waiting to be found within reach. 
Gold jewelry like this 18K bracelet with sapphires, an early Monday morning find after a busy weekend on a popular tourist beach. 

Wet sanding basics

The wet sand can be a very productive area of the beach, if you use the correct search pattern.
A search pattern that helps your metal detector to deal with the wet sand and relay target information back to effectively. 
There are two basic ways to search the wet sand and they both have their pros and cons, depending how wide the area of wet sand is. 
The best way to cover the lower beach close to the water is either using an East/West or North/South search pattern.
Your choice of metal detector and search coil will dictate which is the better search pattern to use. 
Some metal detectors will not work very well searching in the wet sand paralel to the shoreline.
You may receive a false signal at the end of each sweep.
Not necessarily close to the water, it is usually on the sweep away from the water that creates a false signal.
As well as being annoying, the false signals may lead to missed targets.
Switching to a smaller search coil in the wet sand usually takes care of the false signal issues. 
If your search coil is hardwired onto your metal detector, changing search patterns in the wet sand is the way to go.
An East/West search pattern should cut down on the false signals.
Slowing down your sweep speed and walking pace will also greatly improve your metal detector performance in the wet sand.
Never use the same method of searching the wet sand and live with a noisy erratic metal detector.
Assuming that you are using a multi frequency or pulse induction metal detector, help your machine to help you find treasure.
Do not be afraid to turn your sensitivity down, less power in the wet sand can lead to more finds.
The dipped headlights being better in the fog analogy also applies to operating your metal detector in the constantly changing wet sand. 
Heres an old encrusted bronze arrowhead ship spike from a Spanish galleon,  found in the wet sand this afternoon. 

Protecting your favorite sites.

Ever heard the expression "Good treasure hunters make great finds and great treasure hunters find nothing"  With the increase in "buddy hunters" and groups of three or four people treasure hunting together, it is even more important to protect your favorite treasure hunting spots.
I have always been a lone wolf treasure hunter, preferring to keep my productive sites and the finds they potentially hold all to myself. 
You only have a 50% chance of finding treasure when you hunt as a pair, your finds percentages go down to 33% when you go out treasure hunting with three people, not to mention your hunting buddies know where you are finding treasure. 
Some of my best metal detecting sites are still producing to this day, because I still manage to keep their location a secret. 
Although this gold jewelry is not as impressive as some of my jewelry finds, it speaks volumes for my lone wolf beach hunting strategy. 

Every few years this remote site opens up and the gold jewelry flows out, over 100 pieces of gold jewelry after three different storms helped to erode the beach.
I doubt anyone else knows about this special hot spot, as I have never seen another beach hunter there and I intend to keep it that way. 
It is not only other beach and water hunters you have to avoid loose talk of recent finds and treasure spots to. 
Chatting to that person walking along the beach who asks you if you have found anything could come back to bite you, if you are not careful.
This is important when there are other people metal detecting on the same beach.
Many times while beach hunting I have had complete strangers telling me all about other beach hunters finds. 
I have been in the water and seen other water hunters happily showing complete strangers jewelry finds. 
My scripted response to other beach and water hunters is always a firm "No, I have not found a thing"
It is the same response I give to any other stranger who inquires if I have had any luck.
Once you give away any site you have success at, the site is gone forever because information is king in the hobby of treasure hunting. 
Finding a nice piece of gold jewelry or an old coin is a fantastic feeling that I hope every treasure hunter can enjoy.
A warm fuzzy feeling that you can enjoy over and over again at the same sites, if you do not create your own competition. 

The Drayton two step

Have you ever noticed when several beach or water hunters are in the same area, they spend more time checking each other out than concentrating on their own treasure hunting. 
When you know that you have thrown another hunter off just by being there, you can use it to your advantage on heavily hunted beaches or stretches of water.
The most productive areas for gold jewelry are often the most heavily searched areas on popular tourist beaches, for good reason! 
When I want to search where another beach or water hunter is already searching, I always try to trick them into moving. 
The more the other hunter is watching you, the easier it is to trick them into moving. 
Try scooping several imaginary targets on the beach or in the water, pretend that you are looking at something good before putting the fake find away.
Do this several more times until you really know that you have the other person hooked.
I sometimes help to sell the trick by letting out a loud YES! 
Walk away from the area and past the other hunter but do not dig anything, even if you get a signal. 
Nine times out of ten the other person will move towards the pretend hot spot,  that is your cue to go directly to the good area that has now been given up by the person you just hooked. 
A savvy beach or shallow water hunter should never be thrown off their game, always be confident of your own treasure hunting abilities.
Make a point of not rushing around and letting other beach or water hunters get into your head.
Concentrate on what you can find, not what you think you are missing out on because other treasure hunters are in the area.
This heavy 14K gold bracelet was a "dancing trophy" found a couple of years ago after using the Drayton two step on a couple of local water hunters, lets dance!!! 

Old gold and changing tactics

Make sure you never "cherry pick" targets if you are lucky enough to search beaches where you have a chance of finding old finds.
I rarely come across two beaches that I use the same treasure hunting tactics and settings on. 
Sometimes I reverse hunt and switch to using an all metal mode on the same beach, especially when there is an older section away from the main beach.
On my CTX 3030 I have eight different custom presets with control settings and options made to suit eight of my favorite beaches. 
I make my final adjustments to my presets after arriving at the beach and do my final metal detector tuning after I have begun searching the area. 
This all helps to prevent missing old targets by using too much discrimination or running the sensitivity too safe.
It is quite surprising some of the old finds you can discover on beaches associated more with tourists and sunbathers. 
I search one beach that has both a Spanish and a French shipwreck from the 1700s, only a few hundred yards down from a beachside parking lot popular with local fishermen. 
This ornate piece of unmarked 22K gold was found a few weeks ago in the same area that I have found many other artifacts from the two shipwrecks. 

As you would expect, I use very little discrimination or iron mask on this Treasure Coast hot spot.
Control settings and options geared towards depth instead of target separation are far more important.
On beaches with a little history, it is better to a little extra digging than run the risk of missing old gold and silver.
On the Sunday I found this chunk of old gold, the local bloggers were in agreement that the conditions were poor for finding treasure.
Not being the type to rely on other peoples beach ratings, I used a different approach from my normal discrimination mode to combat the slightly sanded in conditions. 
An all metal treasure hunting tactic that other beach hunters may not have used only a short distance away in search of more modern finds. 

Disappearing signals

I love to search for Spanish treasure coins on the Treasure Coast of Florida Spanish 1715 fleet wreck sites.  I find my slow methodical treasure hunting style and choice of metal detector are well suited to finding small thin silver targets such as these Spanish reales. 

Before I got into Spanish treasure and modern jewelry hunting, I searched for the same kind of metal detecting finds in England.
I learned many valuable lessons while searching in the fields of England for hammered silver coins, but none more important than dealing with disappearing signals. 
Many years ago I was metal detecting on a field that had been plowed and worked ready for planting by a farmer. 
A shrill high tone in my Sovereign headphones had me all excited about the prospects of recovering a hammered silver coin.  
After digging up the area with my fork the signal vanished, more digging and nothing but frustration. 
I just could not find the target anywhere and decided to fill the hole in and move on.  
Passing the disturbed area of ground on the next pass,  "Gary the Rottweiler" took over and I decided I just had to investigate some more.
It was a good job I did because as I approached the hole from the different angle I saw these two pieces of hammered silver from the late 1500s stuck to the side of a clod on top of the hole. 

After I swept my search coil over the clod of earth with the hammered silver clearly visible, I still could not get a target response. 
When I moved the clod with my boot the hammered silver rang out loud and clear.
Fast forward many years and the same kind of thing happened again on the Treasure coast of Florida, only this time I was prepared and there was not a cat in hells chance I was walking away. 
I was searching a four foot cut on a Spanish 1715 fleet wreck site beach and heard the unmistakable sound of a small silver reale. 
The signal disappeared after scooping and dumping the sand, I simply pushed the sand pile around with my foot and the signal reappeared. 
The nice silver one reale was safely recovered instead of being left on the beach because I did not understand the difficulty of a metal detector to find small thin targets on edge.
That is the reason why today I always investigate other beach hunters dug holes and sand piles on the beach, just in case they walked away from a target on edge. 
Do not be alarmed if this disappearing signal act happens to you, especially when you are using a metal detector that is sensitive to small thin targets. 
As I mentioned in a previous blog,  never walk away if you heard a two way repeatable signal. 

Go with the flow

Here is photograph of three designer rings, all found because I was forced to search an area on the beach that I would have probably passed over if I had a choice. 

The 18K yellow gold Rolex ring was one of six gold rings I found within an hour of water hunting several years ago.  
When I arrived at the beach to water hunt, two other guys showed up at the same time and started to search ahead of me.  One guy was in the deeper water and the other guy took the wet sand at a very promising bowled out area on a popular South Florida tourist beach. 
I hunted just inside the water in the first drop off and hugged the shoreline, recovering several pieces of silver jewelry along with the six gold rings. 
The 18K white gold Bvlgari ring was one of three gold rings I found on another tourist beach that was swarmed with treasure hunters on a pre dawn Saturday morning.  
The dozen or so hunters were either hunting in the water with headlamps or up in the dry sand concentrating on the towel line.
I again went with the flow and took the main area not being heavily searched, the wet sand.  
The 18K emerald & diamond Cartier ring was found at night in the bottom angle of a cut beach last year.  A beach that was being heavily hunted by local beach hunters that like to search in groups and spread the word to friends when they make finds. 
It was night time and a group of four guys showed up two hours before low tide to search the lower beach.  
I was squeezed out of the lower beach by the inconsiderate buddy hunters but as you can see by the designer ladies ring I got to take home, sometimes it pays to go with the flow. 
All three of these gold rings were found because I took advantage of the one area of the beach available or not being searched, the first drop off in the water, the wet sand and the upper wet sand. 
Try not to make the mistake of thinking the good finds must be in one area of the beach or water, or that you are missing out on valuable finds if an area of the beach is already being searched. 
Go with the flow and hammer the area where you can make a difference. 

Run with the fox

Never chase with the hounds when it comes to beach and shallow water treasure hunting. 
One thing you will never see on this blog is the best time to go treasure hunting, no beach ratings scale or get your metal detector battery charged storm warnings.
In my opinion, ANYTIME is the best time to go treasure hunting.
With the popularity of metal detecting forums and local beach metal detecting conditions bloggers, there  are more people staying at home waiting for someone to tell them when to go treasure hunting.
You can now stay several steps ahead of the competition for metal detecting finds by just simply going to the beach, instead of getting caught up in other peoples negative beach hunting attitudes.
Our hobby is not called treasure waiting, become another beach hunters worst nightmare by being positive and putting the hunt back in treasure hunting.
Try to develop an all around beach or water hunting strategy that will get you through slow times. 
Being a versatile beach hunter that goes to the beach regardless is the perfect way to develop a positive treasure hunting attitude. 
A treasure hunter that is able to search in the wet sand, dry sand and shallow water can adapt to searching in "sanded in" conditions, versatile treasure hunters find a way to get the job done.
The next time you see people posting or blogging about the chances of finding anything on the beach being poor, think of this Spanish treasure ring.
I wonder how many Treasure Coast beach hunters stayed at home the day I found this magnificent 298 year old piece of 22.5 K Inca gold with nine near flawless Colombian emeralds. 

You never know unless you go!