Monday, December 8, 2014

Taking advantage of a full moon low tide

Yesterday afternoon I was actually disappointed that I only returned home with four pieces of gold jewelry, I was expecting to find more.
My beach and water hunting time has been very limited lately, only having 3 hours to water hunt I relied on my knowledge of local beaches and the extra low tides of the full moon.
I waded waaaaaay offshore at low tide, to an area in the water that has a coral ledge.
I have found a lot of gold jewelry in the past at this site when no sand was covering the ledge, I ran across this offshore coral ledge back in 2007 and it has been productive for gold jewelry during sanded in beach conditions. 
Yesterday the coral ledge was covered over by several inches of sand, but it was possible to use a scoop to recover targets.
Standing chest deep on the coral ledge, I recovered targets by "Bobbing and fanning" literally bobbing down in the water and fanning sand off the target area.
All of these coins in the photo were recovered bobbing and fanning, 32 quarters, 32 nickels and 29 dimes, I threw all the corroding pennies in a trash can before leaving the beach.


93 coins for the parking meter and 4 pieces of gold, 1 silver ring and three lead fishing weighs.
This just goes to show just how many targets you can detect if you try different methods of beach hunting, even on quite heavily hunted beaches.
I saw three other people metal detecting closer to shore, doing the usual stuff, walking in straight lines close to shore hoping to get lucky and find a piece of fresh dropped jewelry.
If I was a betting man, I would wager I found more coins and jewelry than all the other three water hunters combined.
By the amount of targets I recovered, I was probably the last person to detect that area a few full moons ago in the summer.
When you learn about the make up of beaches in your area, you will know the best times to hit them to take advantage of certain areas. 
This is just one example of how knowledge of your local beaches can be just as important as knowing how to read the beach and water. 
Local beach knowledge is the reason why a local beach or water hunter, always has an advantage over raiders from out of town.
Full moons, high surf, calm water, all help you to put gold in your pouch when you know where to search and when to search. 








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