Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Beach By The Fort Pierce Inlet Saturday Morning.Not much of the renourishment sand that was dumped there just a few months ago is left. It wasn't but a few weeks after the project was finished that a lot of it washed away and a six foot high dangerous cliff greeted anyone wanting to get their feet wet. And any turtle nests that might have been there would definitely be ruined. They might as well just dump gold coins into the ocean. That might actually bring tourism.
I often hear people complain about how many people detect some of the beaches. Some beaches are heavily hunted, but you don't have to follow the crowd.
The fact is that most detectorists visit the same old beaches. And they detect the same spots - over and over - just like everybody else.
Those heavily detected beaches are detected heavily for a reason. There is some convenience involved. And some people tend to follow the crowds instead of doing some research and scouting out their own spots.
I check out some of the popular spots, but a lot of the time I never see another detectorists. In fact, I seldom see another detectorist at some of my favorite detecting spots. I've never seen another detectorist at a few of my favorite spots. And I'm not just talking Treasure Coast. The same applies to crowded heavily detected metropolitan areas like Miami and South Florida.
Most of the heavily detected areas have convenient parking. Most are easy to get to and don't require much walking. And the parking will typically be relatively inexpensive.
So if you want to find a bunch of detectorist, think of the popular well-publicized beaches with lots of convenient parking. If, on the other hand, you want to find your own spot, you won't want to follow the crowds to the most convenient and most publicized beaches.
Even if you are hunting modern jewelry in a metro area, there are hidden beaches in plain sight. What I mean by that is that they seem to be overlooked by everybody for one reason or another, yet they are not really hidden.
A beach might not be used much today, but that doesn't mean it wasn't the hottest spot around at one time.
There are also little tucked-away beaches that most people don't notice. Maybe they are next to a causeway, or mostly hidden by a bridge, or on a lake or river instead of the ocean.
Most detectorists won't walk far to get to a detecting spot. It is a fact that if a beach is more than a hundred yards from parking, it isn't detected as much as those that are a few feet from a parking lot.
And most people tend to turn the same direction on a beach. I know beaches where 90% of the people walk in the same direction when they get on the beach. I guess people tend to follow people and do what other people do. You can often separate yourself from the pack, by simply going the other direction from everybody else.
Crowds might be a good thing, but when the detectorist to beach-goer ratio goes up, finds will generally go down. If you want a better chance of more finds, don't follow the crowd. Do something different.
Anything that makes detecting a little more inconvenient will tend to thin out the crowds. Learn to see the opportunities behind the obstacles.
You should be out prospecting every once in a while. You should scout around for promising areas that aren't detected ten times a day everyday. I know one long stretch of beach on the Treasure Coast where virtually no one detects. I think that is the most promising area for big future finds. That stretch of beach was an area of a lot of activity a couple of centuries ago.
If you've been following everybody else around and becoming frustrated, you need to change your thinking. Instead of going to the first place that comes to mind, or to the most obvious place, or the easiest place, try the opposite.
Think about where there might be some obstacles and how you might take advantage of those obstacles.
Obstacles protect treasure. The easiest treasures usually disappear first.
You'll have to figure out how to overcome those obstacles, but it will be worth it. To maximize your chances, you'll have to do something different from what everyone else is doing. You'll have to go a step further, do more research, use your detector a bit better, have a bit more patience, be willing to dig through more junk, or do something to separate yourself from the crowd.
Here is one little hidden beach in Florida. See if you know where it is at.
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions
Here is the big news today.
The wind increased later Saturday and the seas were building.
8 foot seas are predicted for the Fort Pierce area Sunday, and 12 foot seas for the Sebastian area. That should be enough to increase detecting conditions somewhere for sure. Hopefully we'll get some good angles from the wind and waves.
I'm expecting level three conditions by tomorrow evening.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
