Silence can be golden, many times over.

Before I took up metal detecting I was a bottle digger, searching the banks of tidal rivers in Lincolnshire England for old bottles and clay pipes. 
Winter time was always the best time for bottle digging, when the rivers were lowered for dredging, I amassed quite a collection of old bottles and clay pipes spanning hundreds of years of English history.
The one secret to being a successful bottle and clay pipe digger, was discovering the most productive parts of the river bank, and of course keeping quiet about them! 
It should come as no surprise that when I made the change from bottle digging to metal detecting, I decided to keep my productive sites a tightly guarded secret. 
The reason that I never tell anyone the exact location of anything I find is because productive sites can be productive for years. 
The 18K gold and diamond bracelet links in this photograph is a perfect example of why it is wise to keep your hot jewelry spots to yourself.
All the gold jewelry finds were found in November 2012, along with many more pieces of gold at one of my favorite beach and water hunting sites. 

The last time I found several segments of the same diamond bracelet at this location was in 2009, and I found my first piece of the bracelet back in 2005. 
Every time I have ever found segments of the same diamond bracelet, the wind and waves had improved the conditions for metal detecting on this beach. 
I always recover many other pieces of gold and silver jewelry, every time I find the same bracelet links on this beach.  
It is not a very popular beach now, but it was a popular site back in the 1970s,1980s, and to this day I have never seen another person metal detecting there.  
I found this productive beach site because I travel and search many different beaches in the hope of finding long forgotten jewelry hot spots. 
Going back to the title of this blog, because I have never told anyone about the jewelry hot spot, I still have the place all to myself.
I keep a watchful eye on this area, and many other just as productive areas, in preparation for the next time one of my jewelry hot spot opens up again. 
In my opinion, it is always good to know you can return to the same sites, sometimes several years later and still find gold without having to worry about self made competition. 
When the wind and waves pick up as a storm approaches your local coastline, you have the ultimate advantage over the competition when you know where to expect to find and recover gold. 
Here are my top three ways of improving your chances of finding old or modern metal detecting finds on the beach and in the shallow water. 

1.  Keep your productive metal detecting sites a secret.
2.  Keep your productive metal detecting sites a secret.
3.  Keep your productive metal detecting sites a secret.