Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.
Yesterday I mentioned that there are two types of beaches on the Treasure Coast right now. There are those with a wide flat front beach and a wide low tide zone, and then there are those like the one shown in the photo above, which has a relatively steep mushy front.
The beach shown above had a four foot and greater cut a few weeks ago. If you look at the photo closely, you might be able to see part of the cut that remains at the top of the slope. The mushy front beach is recently accumulated sand. Notice how the slope goes right down and into the water even at low tide, which is when the photo was taken.
I believe you'll find the beaches with a wide flat front to be more productive.
Riffles in the Sand.
This is something I don't remember seeing before - at least not to this extent. Notice the riffles, which were more extensive than what is apparent in the photo. There were at least a dozen riffles running parallel to the beach for a good distance.
The riffles accumulated small light items. It reminded me of a riffle box. Unfortunately the things that were being caught weren't much good. I was curious about how the riffles formed.
The riffles, like most of the front beach here, were composed of densely packed fine sand that was covering layers of shells and filled the areas between the shells. The result was a very firm beach that was hard to dig.
I mentioned yesterday that some metallic objects were found in areas of packed sand and shells like this.
It is always a good idea to check your detector before leaving the house. Last night I charged my detector but when I got to the beach and turned it on I found it wasn't charged. I noticed that when I took it off of the charger the connection seemed to be loose. It didn't get charged. I did have enough juice to quickly check out some spots. I should have checked it before I left home, especially after noticing the loose connection.
In the water there were some rocks and in front of the rocks some dips. Places like that can catch heavy items and are good places to look even if they are very difficult to detect and dig. It might be easier if you snorkel and hand fan places like that. The rocks can make it very difficult to use a scoop.
Many detectorists when hunting modern jewelry in the water go to the place that has had the most people. That is fine and often a good strategy. However my experience suggests that there is often a spot to the south (on East Coast beaches) of where the most people go that accumulates coins and rings and will produce time after time, year after year.
Instead of just detecting where you see the crowds, check to the south up to fifty yards or so. You might find one of those catch areas where things accumulate over time. When you find one of those, don't just clean it out, but return every once in a while to check it out.
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
There is a new area of disturbed weather just to the west of Africa that looks like it will develop and move in our direction. It is too far away now to tell much about, but keep an eye on it. There isn't anything else of interest in the Atlantic right now.
The wind is from the west and the seas are calm. The surf web sites are predicting one foot seas for several days. That means no change to beach conditions and easy water hunting.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
