In my opinion, if you are serious about water hunting you need a good long handled stainless steel scoop, with a decent size basket.
Lightweight aluminum scoops make recovering target difficult, even in calm water.
There is nothing worse than struggling to keep your scoop basket over a target in choppy surf.
When I detect a target water hunting, the first thing I do is turn to the side so waves are not hitting me head on.
I then pinpoint the location of the target, then place my scooping foot directly behind the back of my search coil with the toe of my dive boot touching the back of my search coil.
Moving my search coil away, I press the front lip of my scoop basket into the sand at a sharp angle just in front of my toes.
The initial deep bite of sand is important, because if you fail to secure the target in your scoop basket on the first attempt, you have created a pocket or hole for the object to fall into.
Always shuck or sift sand directly over the area, do not move away even when you have the target in your scoop.
Just like beach hunting, you need to recheck the hole for other targets before moving away from the hole.
If you fail to recover the target on the first attempt, try pinpointing the target and scoop a little deeper before expanding the width of the hole.
On average, you should be able to recover targets under the water in three attempts.
This is another reason why I always preach about learning pinpointing and recovering targets on the beach, before venturing into the water.
Every year I find jewelry in and around holes left behind by water hunters with poor target pinpointing and recovery skills.
This gold chain was found last year next to a deep hole in the water, another reason why I always check out obvious signs of digging in the water and on the beach.
Which reminds me of a perfect closing line for this blog entry, never walk away from a good sounding target!
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