Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Yesterday I upgraded the rating on my 5-point Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions Scale from a 1 to a 2 and said there will be some cobs found. I was early making the prediction, and I was correct. There were some cobs found. Here is one example of a light-weight Philip half reale.
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| Half Reale Cob Found on the Treasure Coast Yesterday. |
The surf along the Treasure Coast got higher today than it was yesterday. There was some additional erosion today, but not a great deal. For one thing, the waves are hitting pretty much from the east instead of the north.
Nonetheless, there was additional erosion today and some improvement in beach detecting conditions.
The beaches that produce cobs do not necessarily produce much other additional signals or targets. I've seen both kinds of beaches the past two days. One with not much but a cob or two, and another beach not far away with modern coins. The beach with a lot of modern coins had coins from the foot of the cut down to the water.
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| Surf After High Tide Today. |
As you can see from this photo, the surf was rough - certainly rough enough to stir some things up even though the sand bar is absorbing a lot of the force.
Like yesterday, the water wasn't getting too far back and the cuts were generally towards the front of the beach.
Today (Tues.) we had a 5 - 8 foot surf. That will decrease a touch, but not much tomorrow if the predictions are correct.
Different beaches are definitely looking different and differ in how good they are right now.
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| Long Three to Four Foot Cut on South Hutchinson Island Today. |
It looked like South Hutchinson Island eroded a little more than the Indian River County beaches, but both areas had their cuts.
Today through Saturday the surf is supposed to remain pretty high. That will give you a chance to pick and choose your times and spots. In the past couple of years when we did get a higher surf it was often for just a day or two. If we can get a continued north to south long shore current that should really help move us into winter beach conditions.
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| John Brooks Beach Erosion. |
One thing I highly recommend is to test your detector settings at the beach using a target similar to what you want to find. The closer the test target is to what you want to find, the better it will be.
If for example, you want to find a silver reale, take one (preferably a small one) to the beach and put it on the sand where you want to hunt, and test your settings. Sweep repeatedly over the test target and change the settings until you have the best signal.
This isn't a bad idea any time to you detect on the beach. Start by adjusting your settings and sweep speed with a test target before detecting. Small reales like the one shown above can be easily missed if your settings and sweep speed are not good.
If you don't have a reale and that is what you want to find, what I've recommended before is to get a silver dime and cut it in fourths, and then adjust your detector settings using the quarter dime as the test target. It will be close. Be sure to vary your sweep speed and observe how that affects the signal.
We still have several days of good rough surf predicted, so that will give you a chance to give it a go.
I think it is Saturday that the surf is supposed to be up to 7 feet again.
I'll upgrade my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions Rating to a 3 for now. In case you are new to the blog, the scale is a five-point scale, with 1 indicating poor conditions and 5 excellent.
The beach will change day by day. Some spots will get better and others worse.
That is about it for today, but here is an article you might enjoy. An old settlement site was discovered during a construction project in Iowa.
Here is the link.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131101/NEWS/131101029/UI-School-Music-excavation-unearths-historic-treasures?nclick_check=1
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
