Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
My topics and posts change from time to time. I get on a topic for a while, and one thing leads to another. Sometimes it is the result of emails that I get. Sometimes it has to do with beach conditions and different experiences I have that I want to talk about. And sometimes it is the result of the result of my own research or what I have been thinking about. In any case, I'll be on one type of topic for a while and other times the topic will change daily, depending upon what is going on.
I haven't talked about search patters lately, but there is one search pattern that I wanted to talk about today. I've never seen it described anywhere else, but I've used it a lot and like it. I did describe it to some extent a long time ago.
I'll call it the linked spirals search pattern. It is very different from gridding, and it is excellent for hunting in the water, especially on days when the water is at least a little rough and there is poor visibility.
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| Nine Targets In Shallow Water Illustration |
The above illustration shows nine targets distributed somewhat randomly in shallow water. The search begins at the word "START" at the right of the illustration and proceeds right to left towards the first target. There is nothing new or unusual about that. Remember, the water is rough enough that you don't have precise control over your sweeps and the pattern.
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| Spiral Pattern Around First Detected Target. |
The above illustration shows a search began at the right and proceeding towards the left. When the first target is detected and dug, that hole becomes the center of a spiral pattern.
Since visibility is poor, keep track of the hole by using your long handle scoop to keep track of it.
First detect thoroughly around the hole using the hole as the center, and make sure there is not more than one target in the hole or right next to it.
After going around the hole once, spiral outward, overlapping a lot and keeping your sweeps close together.
The goal is to find out if there are any other targets with or close to the first, as might be the case with a spill. If you find a target close to the hole make sure to detect that area very thoroughly to prevent missing others.
If you don't find any more targets close to the hole, continue to expand your search spiral out from the hole.
The main idea is to determine if there is any grouping or pattern in the target distribution, and if so, which way the pattern of targets might lead.
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| Linked Spirals Search Pattern. |
As you see in the above illustration, the search pattern spiraled around the first target, but no others were found close to the first target, so there was no reason to head off in any another direction. After spiraling out from the first hole, no targets were found and the pattern was resumed, continuing right to left.
There s no set number of spirals. It depends to some extent for your estimate of the situation and how thorough you want to be.
In the same illustration, you can see that it wasn't long before a second target was detected. Then a spiral search was made around the second target.
Unlike with the first target where no additional targets were found during the spiraling around the hole, after spiraling out from the second target, another target was detected fairly quickly. Those two targets were fairly close together, so you should now become more aware of the possibility of a spill or concentration of targets. That means you might want to be search more thoroughly than otherwise, using tight sweeps and overlapping spirals.
You would then spiral around the third target. The next spiral would again lead you to the next four targets shown above the third target.
The linked spirals will help you find and follow any concentrations of targets. Not all areas will be thoroughly covered. This pattern is for rough conditions when you probably could not precisely grid an area no matter how hard you tried.
When you have rough conditions in the water, it is also likely that there will be some distribution pattern to follow if you can find it. Rough water will tend to move and sort objects to some extent. That is what you hope to take advantage of with this pattern.
I hope you could follow my crude illustrations and brief description. There are additional details I might add in the future.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
